Recommended reading: Faber Chair Stephen Page to talk at UWL about the future of books
Intro
When Stephen Page, who is delivering a lecture ‘The revolution will be published: rising to future challenges in the book trade after four decades of change’ at the University of West London (UWL) on Thursday 9 November, arrived in London after university, he had ambitions of being a rock star, not a publisher.
Article body
Our band had the second-best outcome - a dramatically quick failure,”
Stephen says with a laugh.
I got a job in a bookshop and discovered literature. I found it fascinating and wanted to be near where the flame was, where the worlds of literature and bookselling meet – publishing.”
After stints at publishers Transworld, Harper Collins and Fourth Estate, Page joined Faber as chief executive in 2001, bringing considerable sales and marketing acumen, alongside a love of books. He describes his talk as an account of leading a creative business through the white heat of technological and societal change to make it the most successful version of itself so far.
The UK’s creative industries, including publishing, are some of the fastest growing and strongest in the world. I will talk about what has led to this thriving publishing community,”
he adds.
In the face of the digital revolution, books held their own as an extraordinary piece of technology for carrying around stories and ideas, Stephen says.
They have proved far more dynamic than other analogue items like the LP, the CD or the newspaper.”
Even during the pandemic, book sales rose by seven percent in the UK alone.
The extraordinary inventiveness of booksellers, online bookselling and Amazon especially, meant readers could get their hands on books. We were so nourished by knowing that what we had chosen to do in our working lives had suddenly connected so powerfully to a society in crisis,”
Stephen recalls.
So, why the word revolution in his title?
We are in the business of making public ideas that are sometimes seen as transgressive or challenging - it's why books were burned.
For publishing to be at the heart of change, it has to present shocking or challenging views and that requires investment in an industry that can support real breadth and diversity,”
Stephen explains.
While the book industry has never been bigger, he says:
Publishing is on far too narrow ground. We need to build it in a more optimistic, open and transparent place with access for all and the resources to really bring more people towards reading because our output is more relevant to them.
Engaging with the new generation is important to me - so I will talk, but then people can ask me anything and through that process, I will learn as much as they do."
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