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Travels with Tyler: Autumn in New York and News from Frankfurt

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by Tyler M. Carey, Chief Revenue Officer

headshot of Tyler CareyUsually, the Autumn weeks leading up to Halloween and Thanksgiving have been times when Westchester’s clients were heads down on projects, aiming to hit end of year deadlines, and we found ourselves in a more transactional mode on projects. This Fall has been different though, with a lot of discussions between our clients and our sales, editorial, and production teams about changes to workflows and ways we can help address additional challenges our clients are having in getting their work on titles completed and getting their books to market.

The lunch meetings I’ve been having with clients during the past few months suggest that in some ways, we’re all finally settling into a bit of a more active ‘new normal’, and this also seems true about how we’re bringing our books to market. The seasonal rhythms in our businesses still continue to adapt and evolve as we move from a time of reactive behavior, where our clients were trying to adapt to the news of paper shortages and crowded windows at the printers. A year on, everyone is more cognizant of those challenges and better prepared for the schedules books are requiring now.

In another indicator of this more active normal, instead of focusing on supply chain challenges like we have in previous sessions, our recent Publishing Now webinar, in partnership with Publishers Weekly, looked at how publishers can pivot to better embrace industry trends for accessibility and sustainability. You can view the webinar here on YouTube, to see Kristen McLean (NPD Books), Bill Kasdorf (Publishing Technology Partners), and Rachel Martin (Elsevier) discuss these topics and share their insights.

Something else I’ve noticed in my recent in-person meetings with clients is how casual and ‘normal’ having in-person meetings is again. No one is being cavalier about the lingering risks of the pandemic, but declining infection numbers and the increased level of comfort many people have about conducting in-person meetings has made them a viable alternative for vendors and our clients to use to advance as many key topic areas as possible, rather than engaging in a series of Zoom meetings, countless cycles of emails, or Slack messages.

These recent discussions I have been having with clients have me feeling very upbeat and emboldened about the path the publishing industry is taking, with exploring new ways of doing things, doubling down on growth, and further embracing change. Here at Westchester, our teams are busy supporting clients in areas of their workflows that hadn’t been part of our “traditional” role in the past. Specific areas include the growth of our program for Ingram ebook distribution clients, through which we provide ebook conversion services for an affordable rate, to managing client assets in CoreSource and other platforms, and taking on more specific production and manufacturing tasks to free more time up for our clients’ staff. To me, that underscores how the industry is working together to find innovative ways to improve the speed with which books are being produced, and with less cost.

To make sure I wasn’t applying a Boston-New York-DC corridor perspective to the wider industry goings on, I reached out to Tim Davies, the CEO of Westchester’s UK operation, to see if he found the in-person uptick in activity was holding true for him – especially with his recent attendance at the Frankfurt Book Fair representing Westchester’s UK book and education units.

“From my perspective,” Tim shared regarding Frankfurt, “it was smaller and quieter than pre-pandemic but a ‘quiet’ Frankfurt is still busy and buzzy by the standards of any other trade event. Definitely fewer attendees, with several people commenting to me that they’d noticed US visitor numbers were well down. That said, it was great to spend time with old friends and colleagues and compare notes on our current experience of our respective publishing sectors, and international markets. Everyone I spoke to said they were really pleased that they’d come and that they expected next year’s numbers and vibe to be much more akin to how it used to be. I’ve already booked my hotel!”

This article in Publishers Weekly and this article in The Bookseller profile the scale of attendees at the Frankfurt Book Fair this year vs. prior to the pandemic, supporting Tim’s points above. PW also shared highlights of other recent regional conferences for booksellers, while Frankfurt was underway, demonstrating the uptick in interest in in-person events, and the opportunities that brings about for publishers and booksellers. It certainly feels like we’re returning to a time where more business may be done at places like the Javits Center in New York and the Olympia in London, as well as numerous smaller conferences around the country and the globe, where specialists meet to cover their products and areas of expertise. It’s invigorating to see this trend underway again.

So, let Westchester know what’s changing for you: What’s been keeping you busier than ever? What’s working well? What partners are helping save the day? What can US employee-owned Westchester be doing to help you? As we all continue adapting together, I welcome a conversation about ways your team is changing how you do your work, and exploring the additional ways our teams can help you.

by Tyler M. Carey, Chief Revenue Officer

This past year has been a good opportunity for a lot of us to re-set and reevaluate things, as workplaces, industry events, and more begin to open back up to a ‘typical’ that is more like the pre-pandemic typical. From what it means to work in an office (and why that may not be as important as it once was), to which conferences are worth the flight and disruption to our personal and professional lives, to what we want to accomplish during in-person meetings, this reevaluation and re-set is affecting all aspects of how we work and live.

Meetings I had with clients late last year and early this year tended to focus on “What will it be like when things open back up?” My most recent spate of meetings with some of Westchester’s trade clients in New York City seemed to focus more on, “OK, well, we’re ‘open’ now. We’re back in the office X days a week (or not at all). And here’s what we want to change instead of resume with business as usual…”

This openness to change has been good for both us and our clients. Our discussions with clients over the past several years – but especially since early 2020 – have become less about our what can be seen as commoditized offerings (copyediting, typesetting, and digital conversion) and more about what our clients’ challenges are with trying to get their books to market quickly and within budget. Westchester’s client base now tops 500 clients, and our global staff footprint tops 400 employees and countless freelancers that play specialized roles with everything from developmental edits and permissions management, to managing assets in CoreSource, to writing alt text entries for accessible epubs, and more.

So, rather than pinning down and committing to what ‘the next normal’ looks like, many of our clients are pivoting, trying things, assessing successes and failures, and trying other things. It’s a great time to be in publishing with so much renewed emphasis on topics that may have been seen as “nice to haves” in the past, but are now things publishers have the motivation and bandwidth to address. From changing how publications are created and distributed, to a renewed emphasis on sustainability, to finally defining workflows for accessibility that are baked into the editorial and production processes – rather than tacked on at the end – we’re seeing our clients take on bold, new initiatives that might have seemed like back-burnered projects during the last decade.

You can learn more about what US employee-owned Westchester Publishing Services has been up to in this article featuring our Vice President of Business Development and Marketing, Deb Taylor. In this profile in Publishers Weekly, Deb shares information about the technology, workflow, and marketplace initiatives Westchester has been focused on over the past year.  It’s a good read if you want to get a handle on our view of the industry, and how we’re approaching accessibility, educational content, and more.

To get a sense of what the overall industry is up to, join us for our next Publishing Now webinar, cohosted with Publishers Weekly on September 29, at Noon Eastern. Panelists including Bill Kasdorf, Rachel Martin, and Kristen McLean will provide an update on what’s happening across various parts of the publishing landscape, and share ideas about how your business can prepare for the changes accessibility and sustainability requirements will bring.

P.S. – Will your plans bring you to the New York City area on Saturday, September 10? The New York Book Forum is organizing an in-person event for publishing industry staff that promises to be fun and provide books for children in need. This event calendar provides more details. We hope to see you there!

compiled by Nicole Tomassi, Marketing & Conference Manager

It always amazes me how quickly the days speed by and that I’m posting once again about some of the books my colleagues and I are planning to read during the summer. Perhaps you’ll find a familiar author or title in the list below or be inspired to pick up something different from what you usually read based on these selections. To learn more about the titles, or to order from a bookstore near you, simply click on the cover images shown.

We hope your summer days are filled with plenty of enjoyable activities, including reading!

Seven Games: A Human History

Author: Oliver Roeder

Publisher: W. W. Norton (a Westchester client)

Why I Want To Read This Book: I inherited an appreciation of games from my father. And although time constraints or other interests have always limited me to nothing more than a casual gamer, my wife knows that my guilty pleasure at any given time over the years is often over-devotion to one game or another, so she gifted this book to me. Games are nothing if not metaphors and I’m looking forward to what Roeder’s “human history” will have to say about the human condition. It’s disappointing that the TOC doesn’t show an eighth chapter that would relate the rich history to the more recent renaissance of Euro-influenced tabletop games, but I expect to enjoy this read nonetheless.

Selected by: Scott Keeney, Director, Production and Customer Service

The Negro Leagues are Major Leagues, Collected Essays

Author: Edited by Sean Forman and Cecilia M. Tan

Publisher: Society for American Baseball Research

Why I want to read this book: This book combines two interests: baseball (Go Sox!) and history, specifically the reexamining of history through a lens that recognizes all contributions. A friend and former colleague, Adam Darowski, is now the Director of Product at Sports Reference, LLC (Baseball-reference.com being one of my favorite sites for stats), one of the groups behind the publication of this book. Adam has an essay included in the collection, so I’m eager to read his work as well as those of the other contributors.

 

KevinSelected by: Kevin J. Gray, President and Chief Content Officer, Westchester Education Services

Wuthering Heights

Author: Emily Brontë

Publisher: Penguin Classics

Why I want to read this book: I’m in a book club and we select books to read every month. It’s a great motivator and we get to read some interesting titles. We choose a classic for this month and I’m very excited to read it since I’ve heard so much about the Brontë sisters and this book in particular.

The Kite Runner

Author: Khaled Hosseini

Publisher: Riverhead Books

Why I want to read this book: I was reading another book, The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams, and in it, The Kite Runner is mentioned. The Reading List is about a unique friendship between a widower and a librarian, and without giving away the ending, The Kite Runner was selected as part of series of books they read. I’m interested in learning more about the friendship between the boys in the book and I hear to have tissues handy!

Submissions selected by: Laura Cunningham, Content Director, STEM, Westchester Education Services

The Island

Author: Adrian McKinty

Publisher: Little, Brown

Why I want to read this book: I love thrillers! This is a new author I have recently become interested in, and I am excited about the upcoming release.

Girl A

Author: Abigail Dean

Publisher: Harper Collins

Why I want to read this book: This came out last year, but I haven’t gotten my hands on it just yet. Yes, it’s dark, but I find real-life tragedies fascinating. Also, the events took place in my state, not far from where I live, which adds to my intrigue.

To round out my summer reading will be all the Patricia Cornwell, Michael Connelly, and James Patterson hand-me-downs from my parents’ collection.

Submissions selected by: Noelle Cristea, Senior Editor, Literacy & SEL, Westchester Education Services

The Hairy Dieters Simple Healthy Food

Authors: Si King and Dave Myers

Publisher: Seven Dials

Why I want to read this book: The time I spent cooking at home during lockdown and the ensuing work from home time was an enjoyable highlight with my family during otherwise stressful and challenging times as we all adapted to what 2020 was going to bring next. Amongst the cookbooks I burned through were two by the then Hairy Bikers, UK TV chefs who during the pre-pandemic era hosted travelogue/cooking programs that we could watch here in the States on Netflix and Amazon Prime. Well, if the Hairy Bikers could become the Hairy Dieters and shed some pandemic weight for their health, I figure so can I. When I saw their upcoming “The Hairy Dieters Simple Healthy Food” I immediately preordered a copy, and am hoping it can help undo some of what my enjoyment of their books on baking pies and more did over the course of the past two years.

Selected by: Tyler M. Carey, Chief Revenue Officer, Westchester Publishing Services

The Price You Pay For College

Author: Ron Lieber

Publisher: Harper

Why I want to read this book: With a freshman in high school and a middle schooler in the house it is never to early to learn more about the next chapter in their lives, college. Between choosing where they should go, how much it should cost and everything in the middle, this is one of the biggest decisions they will make to this point in their lives. It helps to be informed, and this books looks like just the way to do it.

Selected by: Kevin Schroeder, Director, Client Solutions, Westchester Education Services

This Time Tomorrow

Author: Emma Straub

Publisher: Riverhead Books

Why I want to read this book: The novel is a nuanced take on the movie plot for “13 Going on 30”, where viewers watch hilarious events unfold as a 30 year old woman goes through adult life as her 13 year old self. The main character in “This Time Tomorrow” is a woman on the eve of her 40th birthday, and like many of us this age she has a parent who isn’t in the best of health. After a bit too much celebrating the night before, she wakes up to find she’s 16 years old again and her father is now younger and healthier than she remembers. Life informs art, with the author drawing (perhaps morbid?) inspiration from the medical issues her father, horror novelist Peter Straub, has faced in the last couple of years to craft this story. The question of whether you would change anything in the past if you had the ability to is an interesting one, and I’m curious to discover the author’s answer.

Nicole TomassiSubmitted by: Nicole Tomassi, Marketing & Conference Manager, Westchester Publishing Services

The Anti-Racist Writing Workshop: How to Decolonize the Creative Classroom

Author: Felicia Rose Chavez

Publisher: Haymarket Books

Why I want to read this book: I want to read this book because I truly believe it’s imperative for all students to have a voice. The traditional writer’s workshop model platforms white voices and white comfort. I look forward to learning about Chavez’ experience in and out of the classroom. I hope I can help bring inclusive, amplifying spaces for students of color into more educational materials.

The Atlas Six

Author: Olivie Blake

Publisher: Tor Books

Why I want to read this book: I love a solid fantasy and have heard great things about this series. Mostly it’s the tagline on the cover which caught my attention: Knowledge is Carnage. I can’t wait to find out where the author takes that idea! https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781250854513

Selections submitted by: Jennifer Cole, Content Director, Literacy, Humanities, and Languages, Westchester Education Services

 

by Deb Taylor, Director, Business Development & Marketing

Conversations

A newcomer’s view from the BISG Annual Meeting

OOOH, I was going to see people without a Zoom frame! Did I remember how to do this? It’s been a minute.

It was Friday, April 22. 7:10AM and I was headed to The Harvard Club for the BISG Annual Meeting of Members, focused on how to Build Books Better.  The world has changed quite a bit over the last 2 years, including the publishing industry, right? I was eager to hear what the BISG members had to say about all that and more.

“Is it ever going to end?”

I listened as attendees commiserated about how the publishing industry seemed to be in an endless state of transformation and change. As the BISG members know, and will likely be the first to tell you, the publishing industry is never static. It is always changing. Sometimes due to things outside of its control, or slower in areas than some would like, but as a whole, this industry is one that evolves to meet the changing demands of time.

One thing that does not change, though, is the focus of BISG members to develop better ways to do things, to help the industry move forward to face those new demands, whatever they may be.

Technology

I want to focus on the word “develop” for a minute. Develop is associated with change, improvement, and growth, such as developing green buildings, or in technology, developing new platforms, sustainable methodologies or automated processes. Innovation and developing often go together, but are typically not the first words that someone outside of publishing will use to describe the publishing industry. Well, the BISG committee chairs definitely had something to say about that misperception. Rachel Comerford (Macmillan Learning), BISG Workflow Committee Chair, shared that it’s time to start thinking about publishing as a technology industry. 

I couldn’t agree more.

While digital workflows may seem like they’ve solved many of the biggest technology needs, there are still areas where many siloed, manual practices are still in play. I have to admit, I was surprised to hear about the challenges that Kris Kliemann (Kliemann & Company), the BISG Rights Committee Chair, discussed around researching and managing rights and permissions. There seems to be room for a bit of innovation there, and she definitely wants to see that the processes (so many people! so many steps!) for securing (and paying for) rights and permissions become more of a self-serve, web-based, intuitive experience.

There was a general consensus that publishers should be adopting a born accessible approach to their titles, too. This approach not only expands readership, but also lowers costs and reduces waste. It is, as most nodding heads appeared to agree, the right thing to do.

DEI

Which brings me to DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion). This is something that I am very passionate about and engaged in both personally and professionally. I am grateful and proud of the corporate commitment Westchester has made to DEI, and the work we do helping publishers produce content that is culturally responsive. As a white, middle-age professional woman who resides in the NYC suburbs (and also serves as a Board of Education trustee),  I am starting to realize and address my biases, recognize my position of privilege and influence, and am learning how I can help elevate those who are marginalized.  Key words here are “starting”, “recognizing” and “learning” as this is not easy, or comfortable. I was, literally, on the edge of my seat for the entire conversation led by Peter Berkery (Executive Director, Asoociation of University Presses), Shelley Husband (SVP, Government Affairs and Special Projects, Association of American Publishers) and Allison Hill (CEO, American Booksellers Association), as I was eager to hear how this historically and predominantly white industry was going to learn about DEI and facilitate change within the space. 

The good news is that there is a lot of great work starting to take place, including bylaw changes requiring a diversified Board of Directors, publishers seeking out more BIPOC authors, DEI leadership positions being added, along with fellowship programs that enable BIPOC students to learn about the publishing profession and ideally land permanent positions in scholarly publishing houses. 

What added to the authenticity of this conversation, was the recognition of the multiple failures and stumbles that have taken place. Peter Berkery talked about the low retention with the first round of fellows, and how the work with this program cannot end with placement. Supports and mentoring need to be established in order for these new fellows, who are landing in a company where they do not see colleagues or managers who look like them, to feel safe, confident and empowered to contribute and advance their careers. This includes training and resources for existing employees to learn about and manage their own biases and microaggressions too. Allison Hill made the point that mistakes will continue to happen, and that it is imperative to not only learn from them, but to keep on the journey. It is imperative for all of us, to be transparent, accept failure, build bridges, and most importantly, insist and persist, for a better publishing industry.

A Lifetime or Two 

I expected that a publishing meeting would include a good story or two, and I wasn’t disappointed. By the looks of the attendees – they weren’t disappointed either. Tom Clarkson started off the award ceremony taking us with him as he shared his lifelong journey in the publishing space and how his career intersected with Joe Gonnella, who received the Sally Dedecker Award for Lifetime Service. Joe continued to hold our attention with his own experiences and lifetime of amazing accomplishments. Two additional awards were also presented, the Industry Champion Award to Pat Payton of ProQuest and the Industry Innovator Award to Wattpad. It was certainly a wonderful way to end a meaningful and valuable meeting of the BISG members.

Onward!

One last word about BISG. All the committee chairs shared their continuing commitment to provide invaluable resources through webinars, best practice guides, brown bag (virtual) lunch roundtables, and more over this next year, to help break down siloes of knowledge and expand the capabilities for all publishers to build books better. The invites to participate in their virtual sessions were warm, authentic and encouraging, giving full permission to just “lurk”. I’m going to take them up on that.

Learn more about BISG’s programs, committees and other ways to become involved.

 

by Tyler M. Carey, Chief Revenue Officer

I had the great fortune to participate virtually on a panel at PubWest 2022 with Rachel Noorda (Director of Book Publishing, Portland State University) and Suzanne Norman (Publishing Program, Simon Fraser University) entitled “Getting your Book into Readers’ Hands”. One of the Intensives at this year’s PubWest conference, we met with a small group of publishers to discuss the industry trends affecting book availability, supply chain, purchasing practices, equity in content, inclusive marketing, and the challenges publishers and readers have getting access to content.  Rachel Noorda deserves applause for the effort she invested in hosting and facilitating this panel in-person at the conference while Suzanne and I joined in via Zoom.

The overview Rachel and Suzanne provided on the above topics helped the attendees understand the impacts of global factors on launching new titles, keeping books in print, considerations for Print on Demand, and also how to consider accessibility in your books.  As we discussed with the attendees, over 20% of the world’s population has a print disability, and some numbers suggest at least 5-10% of the population has dyslexia.  Best practices with fonts, colors, and alt text were covered during our session, and we showed how to crack open an ebook you’ve released and check it using Ace by DAISY and Thorium.

Westchester will be covering supply chain concerns in our next webinar that we’re co-hosting with Publishers Weekly, Publishing Now ’22: Driving Business Forward, on Tuesday, March 22. I hope you can join us for that! My colleagues and I at Westchester would also welcome the chance to speak with you about your thoughts around accessibility and your content.  If you want to spend some time reviewing an ebook or two from your list to talk about best practices, the team at Westchester would be happy to have a brief Zoom.  Contact us to schedule some time to talk about your editorial, production, and digital needs.