18 December 2023
Modern-day trade publishing in large houses is a game of numbers, employed in the service of reducing risk. In the world of the Big Five, acquisition meetings can be characterised as boardroom affairs, where data, market analysis and profit projections hold sway. They are gladiatorial events in which editors pitch book proposals to sceptical investors in the sales, marketing, PR and rights teams, overseen by publishers as referees. A consensus is reached that homogenises decisions to publish books that provide incremental insights to concepts that have already sold well in the marketplace.