The virtuous circle

"Fixing the plumbing isn’t sexy: no one wants to hear about the supply chain,” Book Industry Study Group (BISG) executive director Brian O’Leary said in his closing remarks at BISG’s annual general meeting in New York held last Friday (12th April), recognising the yawns that often greet such discussions. Yet the speech—his first at an a.g.m. since joining BISG eight years ago—and the meeting it concluded made the strong case that everyone across the book business’s many constituencies needs to pay attention to that “plumbing” in order to deal with change. However, to be an effective “UN of publishing that can bring all sectors together” to see the same big picture, as current board chair Joshua Tallent, director of sales and education at Firebrand Technologies, put it, BISG, too, must change.

It’s been 14 years since it stopped publishing annual Trends yearbooks, and a decade since last partnering with the Association of American Publishers on BookStats, endeavours that went a long way to providing its public face. O’Leary took over at a chaotic time and straightened out finances, rebuilt committees, led through the pandemic. Now, approaching its 50th anniversary in 2026, the organisation needs to be more funded, more visible, more heard, as well as more staffed—O’Leary and his operations manager comprise a total staff of two, albeit backed by an active board, volunteer committees and working groups.

O’Leary raised the possibility that BISG might change its membership pricing structure to facilitate partnering with groups such as the Association of American Literary Agents, and make it easier for individuals to join

BISG will simultaneously need to refine, as well as widen, its role, and as James Miller, Barnes & Noble’s senior director of merchandising systems and BISG board vice-chair declared, will have to “look at how to include authors and agents”, groups who weren’t courted in the past; “extend our commitment to DEI”; “re-engage” former partners; and “invest in growth”. O’Leary raised the possibility that BISG might change its membership pricing structure to facilitate partnering with groups such as the Association of American Literary Agents, and make it easier for individuals to join. Tallent added that BISG is also considering trying to obtain charitable status, which would enable it to apply for grants and fundraise.

A strategy based on inclusion; undertaking research of “enduring value”; fostering standards and best practices; and education, is the “virtuous circle” that will propel BISG and the industry forward. Four expert panels provided examples, ranging from making the case for international royalty statement standards; studying metadata in the form of Circana BookScan statistics to understand trends; and how standards for metadata reflect shifts in culture.

Awards were given out, to Phil Ollila, chief content officer of Ingram Content Group, who received this year’s citation for “lifetime service”; to Scribd, as “industry innovator”; and in an unusual move, reflecting its intentions for the future, to an author—a well-known one, Walter Mosley— the 2024 “industry champion”.

Ollila, an alumnus of Borders, spoke of how “the principle of creative destruction” was shown in that retail group’s demise, and spoke of “more disruption in distribution channels likely to come” and “difficult challenges publishers will face on issues of scale”. In 1998, Mosley came up with the idea of creating a Publishing Certificate Program at the City College of New York to help train and diversify the ranks of young people entering the profession. It just celebrated its quarter century. “I’d love it if you’d get in touch, come teach with us… I hope to see you up in Harlem,” he urged.

Which brings us back to O’Leary’s concluding speech, and the subject of change. BISG’s executive director sees revenue growth in the North American book business, at a time of an essentially flat market, coming from more effective management, and growth in sales, of rights. A failure to invest in rights management could also potentially increase unauthorised uses. The supply chain must become “much more ruthlessly efficient, and more consumer-focused”. We live in a physical-plus-digital world, but our supply chain was built in an era of physical products: “that makes a difference”. And an “over-reliance on legacy systems makes interoperability hard”.

In the US, there’s nothing like Canada’s BookNet, yet “we need repositories of record”. Batch is standard practice in the UK, but in the US, “hasn’t really got traction yet”. However, although “publishing in North America is big for publishing, in comparison to other kinds of businesses, it’s small. We can’t afford to be sloppy”, O’Leary cautions, then adds: “it’s the right time for an organisation like BISG to solve problems just like these”.