Browsing through a bestsellers shelf at your local bookstore, you may experience a sense of déjà vu—have I read that book before, or is the cover just eerily familiar? This isn’t just your imagination. In addition to cover designs mirroring one another, it’s also true that 85% of the books on bestseller lists are by former bestselling authors. Seeing so many similar titles, It's no wonder readers experience decision fatigue as they navigate the aisles, struggling to find something that truly stands out.
Over 2.2 billion books are sold each year, with global sales revenue in 2023 estimated to be about $78 billion dollars. But publishers often heavily rely on formulas that previously resulted in bestsellers.
The reason behind this stagnation is complex, but for publishers, the economic model simply works. It may be surprising in the attention economy that books are not just a viable market, their sales are on fire. According to Yahoo Finance, over 2.2 billion books are sold each year, with global sales revenue in 2023 estimated to be about $78 billion dollars. But publishers often rely on formulas that previously resulted in bestsellers, which then dictate future decisions on covers, stories, and even the authors they choose to invest in.
One person who has tired of this practice is book industry insider Meghan Harvey. “Breaking out new writers in today's media landscape is increasingly difficult for any publisher. It's hard to capture readers' attention and target them effectively, so everyone's move is to buy others' backlists and go for sure bets,” she laments. “With so much risk aversion, the books that get acquired often resemble successful books that have already been published. As a book person, as an editor, as a reader--that's a bummer."
Bindery co-founders Matt Kaye and Meghan Harvey
Beyond being a bummer, the industry's reluctance to innovate could have serious repercussions for the future of publishing. It’s becoming increasingly difficult for new writers to break through, as the pressure to maintain a platform is greater than ever. Publishers are far more likely to offer deals to celebrities and established authors with large audiences, limiting opportunities for fresh voices to emerge with groundbreaking bestsellers. So the question arises: What kinds of authors and readers are not being represented and satisfied by the range of books published today?
These are the kinds of questions cofounders Harvey and Matt Kaye, both 20-year industry veterans–began pondering that ultimately led to their current venture, Bindery. “Like most people in publishing, we've devoted our careers to books because of the impact they've had on our lives. But for all the change technology has brought to how people discover, buy, and build community around books, publishers haven't changed their approach in decades - making it harder than ever for authors to earn a living or reach readers. We believe there's a better way," says Kaye, Bindery’s CEO. They are working hard to build a strong, sustainable business, but also further a mission to build new pathways and opportunities that work better than existing models for authors and readers overlooked by traditional publishers.
So what exactly is Bindery doing differently? To get to the crux of where the company is taking the next era of publishing, we must look at a seemingly disparate world: social media and the creator economy.
The BookTok effect
While publishers have adapted book campaigns in incremental ways, one more rapidly rising phenomenon has rewarded the industry with astounding returns. The event that has shifted the industry is the rise of BookTok, a fervent community of book lovers consisting of passionate book influencers and a hungry audience of readers. “Even though book influencers have been part of the marketing mix for a while…the BookTok impact was just undeniable. It's been a boon for publishing houses,” said Harvey.
“Influencers are impacting book sales, but the onus is still on authors to spend an increasing amount of time marketing their books. It seemed like there was an opportunity to create a new kind of partnership between writers and people who help connect them with readers.”
Incredibly, some books that have gone viral on TikTok have seen as high as a ninefold increase in sales. And while publishers are certainly engaging with the influencers who drive these trends, they have no way of knowing which of the hundreds of free advance copies they send will light the word-of-mouth fire.
The Bindery founders saw an opportunity for a more fundamental shift in the way publishers partner with influencers. “We all know how much influencers are impacting book sales, but the onus is still on authors to spend an increasing amount of time marketing their books. It seemed like there was an opportunity to create a different kind of partnership between writers between writers and people who help connect them with readers,” Harvey says. She called her former colleague Kaye to get a conversation started about what they could do in this space.
After over a decade in publishing as a publicist at FSG, Avalon, Wiley, and Amazon Books working on search and discovery, Kaye was most recently Head of Product at Patreon, where he was quickly gaining key insights about the creator economy. At the time of his first lunch with Harvey in 2019, Kaye was near the end of his tenure at Patreon. “When creators would do really well on Patreon, they would kind of become their own media companies,” he shares. “You would see a podcaster become a Podcast Network.” He recounts seeing a podcast he’d never heard of pulling in over a million dollars a month. He soon learned that, “Really engaged audiences can power a different kind of media company–one that is liberated from a lot of the financial constraints that have plagued media companies since the rise of tech.”
After months of conversations, the co-founders found their lightbulb moment. “As soon as we took some focus, it was like, holy shit. What if influencers, the people who had these massive engaged audiences of readers powering this historic growth in book sales were able to act as publishers? What if they could use their taste to identify resonant material and their platform to break out new authors? It became a full obsession, and we had to go build it,” Kaye recalls.
Trend research supports their hunch of shifting the power of publishing to influencers. YouTube’s 2022 Pop Culture Trend Report spends much time emphasizing Gen Z’s focus on creators over content, with influencers helping them to make sense of culture, and what’s worth paying attention to. According to the research, Gen Z also finds influencers four times more trustworthy than brand messaging or celebrity endorsements. More than anyone, influencers have the most potent power for organic reach, and there’s ample data (and influencer-savvy company success stories) to prove it.
“Our model leverages the fact that Bindery’s tastemakers have built big, highly engaged communities who love their tastes. They’re empowered to decide what to publish, falling in love with a story. Full stop.”
Bindery is a publishing company built on these findings—rather than relying on data of past bestsellers or the tastes of a small, NYC-based editorial elite, Bindery opens the doors to a whole new audience of book lovers beyond the traditional bubble. Their decentralized acquisitions process empowers anyone who can build a large enough community around their taste in books to become a publisher, bringing a wider variety of stories to life sure to appease more diverse reader demographics. “Our model leverages the fact that Bindery’s tastemakers have built big, highly engaged communities who love their tastes. They’re empowered to decide what to publish, falling in love with a story. Full stop. That is it,” Kaye shares enthusiastically. “There’s data involved because we consider audience size and engagement when partnering with an influencer to create an imprint. But if they love a book, even if it’s unlike anything that’s been published before, we trust that their audience will love it too and ignite the word of mouth necessary for it to take off. That’s what leading looks like—not chasing what worked a year or two ago, but trusting in the power of new voices.”
Early iterations and variations that led to the Bindery logo
How Bindery works
One creator within the Bindery network is Kathryn Budig. In the yoga world, Budig is very much a star with over half a million followers tuning into her videos regularly. She’s an avid book lover, and even started her own engaged book club called the Inky Phoenix.
“I did her yoga videos for years,” Harvey says, and encouraged Kaye to reach out because she knew Kathryn was also a book influencer with great taste. “She answered my email and was like, ‘You know what? It's funny that you emailed me because I was already thinking of trying to start my own publisher, but I don't even know how to do that,’” Kaye shares. To start one’s own publishing company is a daunting task, involving having to think about a complex system of needs including production, distribution, and marketing.
Budig jumped at the chance. By working with Bindery, she doesn’t have to problem-solve the complicated logistics and relationships only a publishing veteran could navigate. Here’s how Budig’s partnership with Bindery works—Kaye and Harvey have built relationships with over 200 literary agencies, who work with Bindery to send Bindery influencers like Budig manuscripts tailored to their and their audience’s interests. Bindery also hosts a Pitchfest multiple times a year, which allows individual unagented authors to pitch their books to these tastemakers directly without needing a literary agent.
When Budig decides on a book to publish, Bindery partners with a production company on editorial and cover-to-cover design, then distributes to stores via the world’s largest book distributor. Freed from these logistics, this leaves Budig instead with the task of doing what she does best: using her massive platform to create authentic, enthusiastic content about it.
“On the economic side, what Kathryn is doing on our platform, sort of like Patreon for book tastemakers, she has a membership and is able to earn money from day one. Just from her readers who want behind the scenes content about the publishing process, about books she loves, get early copies of the books,” Kaye says. “She makes content about the submissions process—like meet the author, the cover concept, the cover reveal—she's basically using her entire platform and then doing sort of bespoke extended content on Bindery to get people really, really excited and invested.”
Budig with a first run copy of Strange Beasts, her first publishing release with Bindery
When the book publishes, Budig will earn 25% of net royalties, with Bindery also taking home 25%, and finally, the author pocketing a whopping 50% of the proceeds, which equates to about twice the per-unit dollar amount an author can expect under a traditional deal. Budig’s only just begun her publishing journey with Bindery (her first book Strange Beasts by Susan J Morris is set to release in Fall 2024), but she’s already making money prior to the book’s release (for example, the team is working on the sale of audiobook, foreign and film/TV rights related to the book), and in the Fall will be sharing in the proceeds of book sales. “Imagine that happening over multiple books, and it becomes a true career,” says Kaye.
This structure is a win-win for all involved: under this model, authors can focus on writing as their livelihood rather than the messy combination of becoming influencers themselves, influencers find steady income, and perhaps most importantly, it opens up significant space for underrepresented authors and readers.
What the future holds
Just last month, Bindery announced signing with Atlas Literary and Independent Artist Group to pursue film adaptations of books backed by their influencers. When they started exploring these potential partnerships, many Hollywood execs were intrigued. Kaye shared after a week of conversation with many in Hollywood that the idea of ‘community activation’ is fresh in exec’s minds.
“Hollywood is taking safe bets with established IP, but that model is getting fatigued. And what they’re all trying to figure out is, how do you activate these communities that we know are there on the internet and really vocal to get behind new IP?,” Kaye says. “One exec told me, ‘that is what your model is doing. You have the community, it's built in from day one with a story. And so that will translate into other properties. I think our approach is a pretty novel one, and I'm learning that everybody in all mediums of entertainment is circling the same problem we are.”
Even amid discussions about potential TikTok bans, Bindery remains confident in their platform-agnostic business model. "While many of our tastemakers found initial success on TikTok, all are savvy enough to have diversified across other social media platforms like Instagram and YouTube,” Kaye shares. “Many now boast more engagement, bigger followings, and higher earnings from those other platforms. Regardless of platform, people have always discovered what to read through word of mouth, and that happens now mostly through social media. We don't see that changing, however these platforms evolve.” Kaye and Harvey emphasize that Bindery was simply built for a bookish audience—wherever that audience may come from. “We simply built a platform that serves these book lovers’ unique taste,” Kaye says.
As evidenced by the rapid success of Bindery’s efforts, right now is a high time for change. It serves as an excellent example of what happens when founders dare to think of something that upends a status quo, and the opportunity space you can create for yourself when carving out your own path rather than following the trail. And the Bindery co-founders have faith in this model because it creates an unparalleled opportunity for the people doing one of the hardest things in publishing: reaching readers.