Simon & Schuster (S&S) has recently been acquired by private equity firm KKR, ending a long process for S&S’s current owner Paramount who put the publishing company on the market back in 2020, with an acquisition bid by Penguin Random House blocked by U.S. courts late last year. Despite the long uncertainty surrounding their ownership, S&S has reported some extremely buoyant results over the past few years, with double-digit growth in the first quarter of 2023. In the U.K., S&S was named Publisher of the Year at the 2023 British Book Awards for the second year running and Children’s Publisher of the Year. Prior to the book fair we asked Ian Chapman, Chief Executive and Publisher, Simon & Schuster U.K. and International, how things are going. [related]

Have you been to Sharjah before?

I have never been to Sharjah, but I am enormously looking forward to my visit. The Sharjah Book Authority has done an amazing job making books and reading central to the country’s mission. I have had the great pleasure of meeting Ahmed Al Ameri, Sharjah Book Authority CEO, on a number of occasions. His commitment to and enthusiasm for books are evident for all to see. During a recent visit to Dubai, I met [Magrudy bookstore and Emirates Literature Festival founder] Isobel Abulhoul for the first time. I was struck by her energy and passion for books; her approach to introducing books to children, for example, is wonderful. Clearly the U.A.E. is potentially a very big market, and I am excited at the prospect of participating in the book fair and seeing how we as a publisher can contribute to the growth of trade in the region.

What trends are you seeing in your business in this region?

We sell a lot of books in English into the U.A.E., and our rights sales in English books to Arabic publishers continue to grow nicely. This area is now more open to fiction than it used to be. Traditionally, in term of English language books, there is strong demand for self-help and business books.

What do you feel about the future of book fairs in a post-Covid world?

I feel that book fairs are essential. Yes, during the pandemic we worked in a different way with appointments on Zoom, but there’s nothing like face to face, meeting people in person. Last year we sent more staff to the major book fairs than we had done in the past, and they were very productive in terms of renewing and building relationships and talking about books and ideas, so integral to our business. However, one of the benefits of online meetings is that we can meet with our American colleagues on a regular basis to discuss authors and the publishing plans for their books, which has brought us even closer together.

What do you plan to achieve under your new ownership?

To win independent publisher of the year?! More seriously, I want us to continue to achieve growth. In 2019, we made a plan in the U.K. to double our local publishing profits in five years – and we quadrupled them in two. We have created serious momentum and intend to continue to build upon it. Our ambition is clear. We took the same approach with our company in Australia, a market where we continue to thrive. For four years out of the past five, S&S Australia have been the fastest growing publisher in that territory.

S&S India is also performing extremely well. Relatively speaking, our local publishing programme is in its infancy there, launched in the last few years, but we have significant and exciting plans to grow our local publishing presence in that market.

What needs to be done to continue such outstanding growth?

It is always down to the people and having the right staff in all departments. I’m confident that I now have absolutely the best team around me. S&S U.K., some may remember, was originally set up as a bolt-on to the American company simply to distribute their books in the U.K. When we started the local publishing list initially it was a struggle to be taken seriously. Alongside our flourishing adult fiction list we are showing huge growth in our adult non-fiction publishing, while our children’s list has gone stratospheric. We are currently launching a SF and fantasy list and are looking keenly at other areas of growth across all lists.

Ian Chapman will be in conversation with Jo Henry of BookBrunch on October 29.