James Daunt in interview with Publishing Perspectives in the 2025 Scuola per Librai Umberto e Elisabetta Mauri at Venice. Image: Publishing Perspectives, Porter Anderson
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
‘This Is Not a Declining Industry’
The Scuola per Librai Umberto e Elisabetta Mauri (UEM) has become a cold-weather predictor of where commentary on both bookselling and publishing may go in given year. And once again, as London Book Fair opens today (March 11), some of the programming developed for the Main Stage has been previewed in the ancient surrounds of Venice’s tapestry-lined Sala degli Arazzi.
James Daunt, CEO of Barnes & Noble (United States), and the managing director of Waterstones, Daunt Books, and Daunt Books Publishing (United Kingdom), today joins David Shelley, the CEO of both Hachette Book Group in New York and Hachette UK in London—who was a keynote CEO Talk subject in October’s Publishing Perspectives Forum at Frankfurter Buchmesse.
One aspect of the interest here is that each of these two men is the first in his leadership category to become transcontinental CEOs, Daunt handling two separate companies this way and Shelley jetting back and forth between London and New York to lead both the United States’ and United Kingdom’s divisions of Hachette.
In fact, just days ago, Daunt was concluding a westward swing in the United States, heading from the Eastern Seaboard to California for meetings and site visits at some of the 600+ bookstores of Barnes & Noble. And as we caught up with him on the move to ask if the commentary he’d provided to the Scuola UEM would hold in the remarks he makes at LBF.
Seated in a wintry Venice, this invitational double conference features James Daunt, CEO of Barnes & Noble (United States), and the managing director of Waterstones, Daunt Books, and Daunt Books Publishing (United Kingdom). He annually joins Publishing Perspectives in a live interview to provide a basic state-of-the-stores assessment of where the promise and perils lie in the year ahead.
Related article: ‘Between Eternity and Change’: The Mauri School at Venice. Image – Getty: Ekaterina Longinova
Those fortunate enough to have an invitation to Venice for the school and its week-ending round table from Stefano Mauri, president of Messaggerie Italiane and of Gruppo editoriale Mauri Spagnol (GeMS)—Italy’s second largest publishing group; Alberto Ottieri—vice-president and CEO of Messaggerie Italiane, president of Emmelibri, and president of the Fondazione Umberto e Elisabetta Mauri; and the foundation’s exacting secretary-general Nana Lohrengel —will indeed have had a preview, Daunt confirms to us, of what’s to be heard today on the Olympia London’s Main Stage.
Many, after all, are watching Daunt with newfound respect and envy. In the US market alone, he opened roughly 50 new Barnes & Noble locations last year and at Venice said he expects to bring 57 more new stores online in 2025.
An anecdote that brings a look of wonder to his face as he tells it is that midnight launch parties of romantasy at his American stores can sell some 51,000 copies of a single release.
This is a man you trust when he turns to his audience and says, “This is not a declining industry.”
Indeed Daunt in Venice joined Feltrinelli CEO Alessandra Carra in a strong rejection of the “victim role” for publishing, telling the Venetian gathering that in 2o25, the book publishing industry is the “master of its own destiny. And yet, even as he came down solidly on that point, he wondered aloud at our prompting just who actually makes a bestseller sell best. Is it a publisher? an author? booksellers? the consumers?
Parallel to his preference for new stores that are closely and adamantly linked to their local communities, Daunt’s conviction is that social media cannot work in bookselling as something done at a national level. “All of us are working at narrow and quite dangerous levels of profitability,” he points out. “We are vocational, we care about what we do.”
And Daunt has spotted something many miss about bookstores and the growing attraction he sees them having for younger people: “They’re fun.” The combination of the soft and also the hard skills needed to make that this “fun” relies so heavily on the team, though.
“With a good team,” he says, “sales go up and with a bad team, they do not.” And this lies beyond the ephemeral skill set of curation, some things being clearly teachable and some parts of it being instinctive. Everyone on a bookstore staff, he adds, is likely to think that she or he is a curatorial master.
Daunt may, if asked, speak a bit about one of the most compelling trends he sees affecting store sales: the distractions of a complicated era. Obviously in the States, book buyers are distracted by an increasingly baffling and upended political ladscape, and among NATO nations, in particular, booksellers are likely to see this playing out among their own shelves and show tables.
David Shelley on ‘Raising Readers’
Hachette Book Group and Hachette UK CEO David Shelley in a CEO Talk interview on the opening day of Frankfurter Buchmesse 2024 in the Publishing Perspectives Forum. Image: Publishing Perspectives, Johannes Minkus
Today in London, Daunt and the London Book Fair professional attendees are likely to hear from Shelley about what he calls “the overwhelming concern” he’s encountering as a US-and-UK CEO, leading him to establish an initiative he announced following his Frankfurter Buchmesse appearance in October.
Related article: Hachette’s David Shelley: ‘Raising Readers’ Internationally. Image: Hachette Book Group
Described as “a global call to action,” Shelley’s Hachette announcement took the form of his 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 focused on a “global action” he describes as responsive to “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 indicates 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).
In his letter to the staff, Shelley wrote, “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. 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. …
“So we’re launching a new venture 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.”
James Daunt and David Shelley will be welcomed to the Main Stage at London Book Fair today, March 11, by Alex Peake-Tomkinson at 10:15 a.m.
A Programming Note
During London Book Fair, Publishing Perspectives has several Main Stage events to suggest for your consideration. We’re especially pleased with the caliber of speakers who will be with us, and we hope you’ll join us. Descriptive copy here is from the London Book Fair team’s listings.
Tuesday, March 11
1:45 to 2:30 p.m., Main Stage
The Future of Book Licensing and Distribution
Mark Searle, left, and José Manuel Anta
Licensing strategies can play a crucial role in the financial success of publishing ventures, and in the digital age, licensing and distribution have transformed, allowing for more seamless and widespread access to content. But challenges persist, as do opportunities, amid evolving consumer preferences and tech advances. By effectively navigating these changes, publishers can maximize their financial outcomes and remain competitive.
Speakers:
Tuesday, March 11
3 to 3:45 p.m., Main Stage
AI and Copyright: Policy Developments in the United Kingdom and United States
Maria A. Pallante and Dan Conway
AI is here to stay and so are the policy debates that will shape its development and deployment for years to come. In particular, many publishers around the world are watching developments in the UK and US, where regulators, legislators, and courts are weighing legal disputes that could have global ramifications for copyright laws: A British, American, and decidedly human discussion on the most important issue of the day.
Conway’s call from the creative industries of the UK that “The Great Copyright Heist Cannot Go Unchallenged” and Pallante’s background as a copyright attorney make them two of the most aptly positioned publishers’ association leaders for this moment.
Speakers:
Thursday, March 13
11:15 a.m. to 12 p.m., Main Stage
Turning the Page: Publishing’s Role in Keeping the Focus on Sustainability
Gvantsa Jobava and Mary Glenn
While the industry has embraced a wide range of initiatives such as expanding the list of titles that explore sustainability, engaging new voices and audiences, promoting diversity, advancing accessible publishing, supporting literacy, and adopting greener production methods, it can be difficult to gauge the true impact of these efforts.
This session explores the challenges of staying committed to sustainability in all aspects from acquisitions and marketing to distribution, measuring progress effectively, and making tangible strides on complex global issues—while showcasing what publishers have already accomplished and what more can be done.
Speakers:
See also:
London Book Fair’s Adam Ridgway: ‘There’s a Lot to Learn’
London Book Fair Week: ‘International Adults’ Hail UK Publishing
Ahead of London Book Fair: Klopotek CEO Peter Karwowski Steps Down
At London Book Fair: Video Games Writer Dan Houser
Richard Charkin: Approaching London Book Fair
The Publishers Association’s Gloria Bailey Wins LBF’s Lifetime Achievement Award
London Book Fair’s International Rights Center
London Book Fair 2025: Seminar Series Highlights
London Book Fair: Daunt and Shelley Headline Keynotes
London Book Fair Announces a Three-Day Academic Conference
London Book Fair 2025 Announces Its Quartet of ‘Authors of the Day’
More from Publishing Perspectives on London Book Fair is here, more on rights and licensing in the book industry is here, more on book fairs and trade shows in the world publishing industry is here, and more on the United Kingdom’s publishing market is here.
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