Let's all meet up...

A quarter of a century ago, I attended an event aimed at bringing booksellers and publishers together to ruminate on the future of this business. “Network 2000” was held at Cambridge University and featured staff from the book chains, independents, as well as a bunch of publishers. It was a small affair, with the emphasis on breaking down barriers and constructing connections.

It was also ahead of its time. Back then there were plenty of opportunities for publishers and booksellers to mingle at industry events, with the biggest being the huge Booksellers Association annual conference, which toured around the beauty-spots of the UK and Ireland (and sometimes even further afield), and was a major gathering for senior people across the trade, as well as authors from the season ahead.

But the attraction of “Network 2000” was that it was a little bit broader in terms of the people invited, and made the social bit the main part of the day, obliging those of us in the room to listen to each other and contribute back. There were talks too, but of a speculative rather than prescriptive nature. The one I remember most well described how bookselling of the future would be about making connections, not just about selling books. Discuss.

Back then the idea of being social purely for the sake of sharing stuff, was a newish concept

This may all feel a touch dated now, but back then the idea of being social, purely for the sake of sharing stuff, was a newish concept. MySpace was three years away, Facebook another year after that. We were actually on the cusp of a huge behavioural change, but did not know it. Before this paradigm shift, when the social stuff did happen it was a by-product.

I don’t recall if there was a “Network 2001”, but had it sustained itself, there would now be an opportunity for it to find a niche. Last week the BA hosted its annual conference in Hinckley with more than 400 attendees, but the rump of them independent booksellers; the Independent Publishers Guild had its equivalent in London a few days earlier, with a similar leaning towards publishers. Both events serve the needs of their own tribe well, and although there is some cross-over (publishers pitch to booksellers at the BA, for example) neither are really about breaking out beyond their own audience.

Part of the reason is because the modern equivalent of Network 2000—the place where everyone can connect informally—is social media, with X the dominating platform for the book trade. A once energising space for chat, amplification, and occasional back and forth, with Elon Musk at the helm what was once good and positive has turned sour, with many now having second thoughts about it. Publisher Pan Macmillan told us this week that it was pausing its presence on the platform, and others are clearly considering a similar withdrawal. Even without these moves, the conversation has moved on, with many now wondering where it lands.

I am not imagining a “Network 2025”, but how we connect with each other is important. There is now an opportunity to build back different, to take the best from how it used to be (recently and historically) and fine-tune those events we already have to make sure we both curate and broaden the discussion. Less MySpace, perhaps more “our space”.