Hachette Book Group and Hachette UK CEO David Shelley in interview on the opening day of Frankfurter Buchmesse 2024 in the Publishing Perspectives Forum. Image: Publishing Perspectives, Johannes Minkus
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
Shelley: ‘The Overwhelming Concern’
Today (December 6), David Shelley, CEO of Hachette UK and Hachette Book Group in the United States has announced to the news media a new initiative called ‘Raising Readers.’
As our international readers know, at Rome’s ongoing 23rd annual book fair this week, Più libri più liberi (“More Books, More Freedom”) new industry statistics are emphasizing continued backsliding in reading rates in Italy, as measured by the Association of Italian Publishers (AIE). And in Guadalajara at the International Publishers Congress, Publishing Perspectives has moderated a panel that looked at reading as a “cornerstone of democracy,” exploring the Ljubljiana Manfesto on “higher-level” reading and the coming “DemReading” program.
Many of our international markets are seeing this, both in young readers and adults, and Shelley is one of world publishing’s leadership who’s seeing this, and making an actionable response.
Described as “a global call to action,” the Hachette announcement takes the form of Shelley’s first year-end letter since he took on the dual-role of being CEO to the Hachette divisions of both the States and the United Kingdom.
Writing to authors, illustrators, and translators, Shelley is focusing his effort as a “global action” on what he describes as “the harmful impacts of children reading for fun less often than previous generations.”
He cites recent statistics from the UK’s National Literacy Trust, for example, indicating in an October report, updated in November, that reading for pleasure among children and young people “was its lowest since we started asking about this in 2005.”
The charity writes that one in three (34.6 percent) surveyed children and young people aged 8 to 18 said they enjoyed reading in their free time in 2024. “Reading enjoyment levels have decreased by 8.8 percentage points over the past year alone,” the trust writes. Slightly more children and young people 8 to 18, the report says, responded that they enjoyed reading at school (40.5 percent) than in their free time (34.6 percent).
Shelley highlights results indicating that only 35 percent of children 8 to 10 in the UK currently report reading for pleasure, “which is extremely concerning,” as he writes.
“Figures in the United States from the National Endowment for the Arts show a really similar decline,” he writes in his memo, “from 53 percent in 2012 to only 39 percent in 2022, the most recent year of data” and reported by the NEA’s Sunil Iyengar in “Federal Data on Reading for Pleasure: All Signs Show a Slump.”
Of course, as our international readers know, Rome’s ongoing 23rd annual book fair this week, Più libri più liberi (“More Books, More Freedom”) new industry statistics are emphasizing continued backsliding in reading rates in Italy, as measured by the Association of Italian Publishers (Associazione Italiana Editori. AIE). Many of our international markets are seeing this, both in young readers and adults, and Shelley is one of world publishing’s leadership that’s seeing this, and responding.
Shelley’s Letter to Authors, Illustrators, Translators
In his argument for the “Raising Readers” initiative as a response, Shelley goes on:
“Many theories have been posited for this decline, and one regrettably plausible one relates to smartphone usage among children, which is rising in inverse correlation to the fall in reading. I know I’m preaching to the choir here, but we also know from a vast amount of research that reading for pleasure in children increases empathy, promotes social mobility, and ultimately increases opportunity. So, as well as being concerned for the future commercial health of the ecosystem of which we’re all a part, the overwhelming concern is that this trend is going to negatively impact the life chances of a great many kids.
“There are many big issues out there for our industry, but this decline in reading for pleasure among kids is one of the most serious, especially as it appears that reading for pleasure among them also correlates with socio-economic background.”David Shelley
“It is fair to say that book sales have been remarkably resilient in 2024 at Hachette and in the industry generally—and book publishing remains one of the most successful creative industries. However, given the trend we are seeing in relation to kids reading for pleasure, we can’t rely on this continuing to be the case if we don’t nurture the readers of the future. Kids need to read for their own enjoyment if they’re to read for enjoyment as adults.
“What we also know is that even among prolific adult readers, some of the benefits of encouraging and enabling kids to read aren’t always known—and there isn’t consistently a consciousness about how important it is to read aloud to children in terms of igniting the reading habit.
“So we’re launching a new venture next year which is relatively simple but hopefully will have some efficacy: ‘Raising Readers,’ which is to include a page at the back of many of our black-and-white adult books, talking about the value of fostering a lifelong habit of reading for pleasure and tips on how to do so. Ideally, this letter would be signed by whoever created the book, either based on a template we’ll provide or in your own words.
“Of course, you don’t have to be included in this venture, and everyone can opt into it. It’s purely voluntary, but my hope is that many of you will want to engage. …
“The reason I think it could be effective is because across Hachette in all English-language markets, we sell around 220 million of your books a year across print, ebooks and audio—the letter will be included in print and ebook formats alike, as well as audio editions. So the reach of this campaign could be very wide. The plan is for this letter to be printed [and] featured in as many of our black-and-white adult fiction and nonfiction titles as possible. For all other authors and artists, we will be sharing other important ways you can support this initiative and help get the message out there with us.”
“In 2025, in addition to trying to reach as many readers as we can for your books,” Shelley writes to a wider readership—implicitly including other publishers—our focus as a company will be about spreading this message as widely as possible. There are many big issues out there for our industry, but this decline in reading for pleasure among kids is one of the most serious, especially as it appears that reading for pleasure among them also correlates with socio-economic background.
“In addition to this initiative,” he concludes, “in 2025, we will be stepping up our partnership with literacy charities in all our geographies; continuing to legally oppose attempted book bans in the United States and elsewhere; and to support the creation of school libraries everywhere. I’d like to thank Megan Tingley, president and publisher of Little, Brown Books for Young Readers for coming up with this idea and helping to make it a reality.
Relative to Shelley’s point about the importance of reading aloud to children, one program that bolsters his concern is LitWorld’s World Read Aloud Day event, which on February 5 will have its 15th annual outing. Shelley is easily backed up in his concern about reading aloud and its importance by this program and by Scholastic’s studies: As far back 2019 the Kids and Family Reading Report research from Scholastic began surfacing the importance of reading aloud to young people as a means of instilling the “habit of reading” into new generations.
In short, there are many entry points to various aspects of the challenges that Shelley is spotlighting, and the trends he’s flagging are ones that touch virtually every aspect of the world industry’s challenges.
More from Publishing Perspectives on reading and international programming around it is here, more on children’s and young people’s books and reading is here, and more on Hachette divisions and their work is here.
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