Terry Finley is the President and CEO of Books-a-Million, a chain of over 200 bookstores in 30 states. In this episode he describes the dramatic changes in book retailing since the late 1970s, when department stores and small mall stores were major booksellers, through the superstore era and to today’s marketplace with online retailers and social media influencers.

In a 50-year publishing career, Michael Jacobs has been at the center of a number of explosive worldwide publishing phenomena, including Harry Potter and Diary of a Wimpy Kid. He talks about the lessons of blockbuster publishing, the joys of poetry, finishing his college career at 67, his new venture, Galpón Press, and its first book, The Woodcutter's Christmas.

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Dominique Raccah founded Sourcebooks in Chicago in 1987 and has turned it into the fastest growing, and now the largest, independent book publisher in the United States. This episode covers how she built an innovative company and a culture that seems to uniquely balance supporting authors, understanding readers, and using data to make decisions.

A writer and an editor join us to discuss a new book set in the world of publishing. Hot Desk — the debut novel from Laura Dickerman (with input from her editor brother Colin) — is a genre-spanning story. It is part rom-com, part publishing satire and part upscale book club fiction. The book spans a shared post-covid desk and two distinct eras in the book business from the heyday of the 80’s to the current industry as two sparring colleagues chase the same coveted assignment. Both the book and our episode give a peek behind the curtain of publishing.

Molly Stern is a longtime editor and publisher, formerly at Penguin Random House, where she worked on countless award-winners and bestsellers including Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks, and Becoming by Michelle Obama. Molly is now the founder and CEO of Zando, an innovative startup that partners with well-known figures like Sarah Jessica Parker and John Legend to launch new imprints, publish books, and connect them to audiences of readers.

(For full transparency: Open Book host David Steinberger is a board member of Zando.)

As former Chairman and CEO of Hachette, Arnaud offers a candid look inside a major international publisher. Under his leadership, Hachette grew from a French-centric company to a global player, publishing authors like Barack Obama, Stephanie Meyer, Malcolm Gladwell, James Patterson, and Rick Riordan. His new venture, Les Nouveaux Éditeurs, is a nimble and editor-driven reimagining of book publishing.

Where do global bestsellers come from? We hear from Judith Curr on her fascinating worldwide publishing journey. From a one-room schoolhouse in Australia to a career full of international bestsellers like The Celestine Prophecy, The Secret, and breakout bestselling authors like Colleen Hoover and Lisa Jewell, Judith has always had an eye for the next big thing.

This episode marks the one-year anniversary of the Open Book Podcast, so we thought we would do something a little different. We often ask our guests to share their journey as readers, including the earliest books that they read that really made an impression. For this special one-year anniversary episode, we're going to listen to a number of our guests from the past year and their thoughts about the books that made a difference to them when they were young.