Publishing executives are rarely far from the podium at the Frankfurt Book Fair, but this year, things looked a bit different. Simon & Schuster’s CEO, president, and publisher shared his stage with the publishing veteran turned chairman of media, entertainment, and education at S&S’s new parent, private equity firm KKR. The CEO of the joint Hachette Book Group and Hachette UK gave an executive talk, and the former CEO of Penguin Random House US presented a keynote extolling the virtues of upending the traditional publishing model.

Authors Equity

In her remarks capping off this year’s Frankfurt Rights Meeting on October 15, former PRH US head Madeline McIntosh provided an overview of the year’s most discussed publishing startup, Authors Equity, which she cofounded in March alongside former Macmillan CEO Don Weisberg and Nina von Moltke, formerly president and director of strategic development at PRH U.S. The company’s goal is to operate outside of traditional publishing business models—including by offering no advances in exchange for a higher percentage of a book’s profits, a model that has been instrumental in shaping the hybrid publishing sector over the past decade.

“If you were going to set up publishing—if you were going to set off and do the whole thing fresh—what would you keep the same, and what would you do differently?” McIntosh said she has asked many of her industry colleagues over the past year. Here is another question she found herself often asking: “We know that there are critically important parts of our tradition that we want to hold on to, but maybe there are things that we want to reexamine—and what do you think about that?”

McIntosh’s colleagues in corporate publishing agreed with her on quite a bit, including, she explained, “that there’s been a big shift in the market since many of us started working in it. As online has become the major channel, as consumers have become more distracted, there has been this shift in power in terms of what drives book sales. We’ve gone from a world with the very glamorous Blanche Knopf—the idea of the 20th century publisher, who was a cultural gatekeeper— to this world where the people who have the most power are the brands. And most often, those are authors, not publishers.”

She added: “This is really an opportunity to think about, what are the fundamental questions that we can all be thinking about when we engage in reshaping some of our relationships with authors. And in my mind, these apply whether you are the eight-person, startup or much bigger than that.”

Hachette Book Group and Hachette U.K.

In his executive talk, Hachette Book Group and Hachette UK CEO David Shelley concurred. “It’s a big authors’ business at the moment,” he said, pointing to Hachette authors Ellen Hilderbrand and Abby Jimenez in the U.S., and David Nicholls in the U.K., as examples.

However hard it might be to believe in the wake of the amount of publicity the latest Sally Rooney release generated, Shelley suggested that the business is increasingly organized around authors’ oeuvres and careers in full, rather than one book of the moment. “Readers increasingly want to read everything that that author has written,” he said. “As publishers, I think it's [about] working harder not just to sell one thing, but to tell readers about all the books in the author's backlist they may not have read.”

Shelley’s role, straddling businesses on two sides of the Atlantic, is unique in the current publishing landscape. And a little less than a year since he was named to the position, the CEO—who, like his predecessor, Michael Pietsch, came to the top job through the editorial route—said that among its difficulties is learning when to “lean out.”

“I've got really strong views on what the right cover is for a book or a market. I've got very, very strong views on marketing. And probably the hardest thing in a role like this is just always learning to step back and not interfere,” he said, adding: “You can't really be a perfectionist, or you can't want everything done perfectly right now, because that is not humanly achievable.”

Shelley also addressed two major, and interrelated, topics in publishing: book banning and diversity, equity, and inclusion. “Thinking back to Thatcher’s Britain in the '80s...growing up as a young queer teenager at that time, you did feel very isolated,” he said. “We always think the world’s moving forwards, and I have to say—there’s lots of wonderful things, coming to America. One chilling thing is that it's about 50% of the books that are being banned are by LGBT+ authors and authors of color. It’s really, really disturbing.”

Shelley also drew a correlation between one trend in the industry’s workforce and another in its customers. “Broadly, as an industry, we need fewer senior men and more very junior men,” he said. “If we're speaking for all people, I think [that means] making sure that books and reading are attractive for everyone. Men are, looking at research, going more towards gaming, and we're leaving a section of potential audience behind.”

Simon & Schuster and Kohlberg & Kravis & Roberts

During the Global 50 CEO Talk, a regularly featured panel at the fair, S&S’s Jonathan Karp and KKR’s Richard Sarnoff discussed the former’s direction following its acquisition by the latter last year. Karp, for his part, emphasized that S&S's core mission remains unchanged: “Let's talk about the books,” he said, reiterating the mantra he has maintained since becoming CEO five years ago.

Still, Karp noted that KKR's involvement has allowed for increased reinvestment. “For the first time in a very long time, we are investing back into the company,” Karp explained. “It used to be, when we were owned by CBS or Viacom/CBS or Paramount, we returned our profits at the end of the year to the parent company. What's been really great about KKR is that KKR is allowing us to invest back in the company.”

This reinvestment has enabled S&S to take a more international approach to growth, Karp said, pointing to several initiatives including the relaunch of the international imprint Summit Book, under the direction of Judy Clain in the U.S., Jane Palfreyman in Australia, and Ravi Mirchandani in the U.K. “They're buying books from all over the world," Karp said.

Karp also highlighted recent acquisitions, such as the Dutch publisher Veen Bosch & Keuning, as part of S&S's international strategy. “VBK was the market leader in the Netherlands, and we felt we had a lot in common,” he said. “There was a similar approach to publishing at both companies.”

Sarnoff explained KKR's interest in Simon & Schuster, citing the publishing industry's resilience. “The publishing industry itself, the book publishing industry, is incredibly resilient,” he said. “The book publishing industry has survived the ravages of radio and television, and movies, and video games, and the internet and social media, and has come out of each of those mega trends of media...strong.”

Regarding future acquisitions, both executives expressed openness to opportunities, particularly in markets in which S&S has a smaller presence, such as the U.K. “We'd be interested in the right deal with the right publisher,” Karp said. “If one were to come along, we think the U.K. market is a terrific market.”

On the topic of innovation, Sarnoff addressed the differences between S&S and KKR’s previous publishing investment, RBmedia. He explained that S&S’s approach to rights ownership provides “more flexibility for a longer view of what publishing could be.”

Circling back to points made by McIntosh and Shelley, Karp acknowledged the industry’s reputation for being conservative when it comes to innovation, but emphasized the importance of clear communication with authors. When it comes to good publishing practices, “it’s just about servicing the authors in a really clear, fair-minded way,” he said, “and communicating with them well enough so that they trust us when the opportunity arises.”