Westward Go!

In stepping up to the chief executive role at Hachette’s English language divisions, David Shelley confirms half the rumour that circulated at the London Book Fair earlier this year. In moving west, he follows his former colleague David Young, who ran Hachette Book Group (USA), and of course bookseller James Daunt who heads Barnes & Noble in the US and Waterstones in the UK.

Shelley has long been on the fast-track within Hachette Livre. He was publisher at Little, Brown, then chief executive of Orion and Little, Brown, before taking over from Tim Hely Hutchinson as group c.e.o. of Hachette UK in 2018. He runs a progressive business, sensitive to the issues that impact publishing today—and its people—while at the same time aware that it is the hits that will be the measure of success. It was a piece of good timing that the announcement came on the same day that Rebecca Yarros’ Iron Flame hit the top of the charts, published by Piatkus, an imprint of Little, Brown. Under him, Hachette has twice recorded its best ever market share. By contrast, the group has not had a Booker shortlistee since 2019, and not won the prize for two decades.

Unlike his publishing forebears, Shelley will manage the businesses on both sides of the pond

Shelley, then, is an editor, with strong commercial leanings. He is also one of the few chief executives who still pays attention to what people have to say about publishing on social media. On the “Better Under Pressure” podcast, recorded earlier this year, he told business coach Sara Milne Row that he was most sensitive to personal criticism over business pressure. At Hachette he has faced (and faced down) attacks over the company’s gender pay gap, the publishing of J K Rowling, and the publication of American Dirt, as well as the firm’s commitment to representation. He says that he now tries not to fix things immediately, but to sit with the discomfort and then respond.

All of this is useful background to the move across the Atlantic, and informing of Hachette Livre’s decision. American publishing operates on a different level, and things matter to US editors in way they do not to their counterparts elsewhere. From Young to Daunt to Markus Dohle, there is also always an anticipation that these expats will fail, even though, in the main, they have not.

Unlike his publishing forebears, Shelley will manage the businesses on both sides of the pond. In that respect he is closer to Daunt than Young. That it opens up greater opportunities for collaboration does not mean they will be taken. For all the talk of global deals, they remain few and far between; Yarros is a good example. Agents like it this way, of course. It is also interesting that Hachette’s parent is about to get a new owner, Vivendi, whose ambitions in the English-speaking markets are not small. Hachette is second in the UK—and globally—but fourth in the US, and I suspect the plan would be to change that.

Let’s not underestimate the challenge, or the opportunity. Corporate publishing is in a curious state, and the US in particular feels a little cool just now. Nevertheless, our man on the move looks ready to fire it up.

Shelley will discuss leadership at the FutureBook Conference with a live recording of the “Life Lessons” podcast with host and author Simon Mundie.