The U.K. and U.S. book markets are symbiotic, with many authors, industry professionals, and publishers active on both sides of the Atlantic. This interconnection is evident at the highest levels of the book business: James Daunt is CEO of both Waterstones, the U.K.’s largest bookstore chain, and Barnes & Noble, America’s largest; David Shelley is CEO of Hachette U.K. in London and Hachette Book Group in New York City; J.K. Rowling and now American author Sarah J. Maas have made U.K. publisher Bloomsbury into a bicontinental powerhouse.
The bestselling book of the year so far in both countries is American author Suzanne Collins’s Sunrise on the Reaping, which is just ahead of Rebecca Yarros’s Onyx Storm in the U.K., and U.S. streamers have propelled U.K. manosphere podcaster Steven Bartlett, the bestselling author of Diary of a CEO, into stardom alongside Joe Rogan and company.
This relationship translates into significant economic activity. “The appetite for U.K.-published content by U.S. readers will always be strong, and vice versa,” says Dan Conway, CEO of the U.K. Publishers Association. “Our latest figures actually show that the U.S. export market for U.K. publishers is growing faster than that of any other country.”
The U.S. represents the U.K.’s largest export market for book publishing, and publishing exports to the U.S. grew 41% from 2019 to 2023, according to the PA. In 2022, 27% of U.K. publishing exports went to the U.S., representing a total value of £423 million ($573 million), according to the World Trade Atlas and United Nations Comtrade data
The U.K. publishing industry depends heavily on exports. In 2023, the most recent year for which data is available, the industry produced £7.1 billion in revenue, a 3% increase over 2022. While the domestic market remained flat at £2.6 billion, total exports climbed 4%, hitting £4.4 billion—representing 62% of the U.K.’s overall book sales.
The PA expects demand for exports to grow an additional 20% by 2033. That prediction has prompted the association to lobby the U.K. government to establish a publishing export accelerator to “unlock greater export growth,” as outlined in the PA’s 2024 Vision for Publishing report. Given this export dependency, the relationship with the U.S. market is critically important.
Yet the transatlantic partnership faces new challenges. U.K. publishing’s dependency on the U.S. market is one of the reasons that the Trump administration’s persistent threats of tariffs are so unsettling to many in the industry. While books and printed materials are currently excluded from the threats, President Donald Trump’s trade policy has proved unpredictable. By all accounts, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has handled America’s mercurial leader as well as anyone, going so far as to announce a “big, beautiful trade deal” in May, which both leaders described as “historic” and “major.” Industry observers, however, view it as largely symbolic.
For now, “books continue to be tariff free and the free flow of cultural, educational, and scientific materials remains entirely intact,” Conway says. “We are lucky to have strong relationships with international bodies, including with the Association of American Publishers, which is more important than ever in the changing policy landscape, particularly on issues such as copyright and AI.”
Opting Out of Opt Out
Conway’s reference to AI is not incidental. The PA and the wider U.K. publishing industry are mounting a full-scale protest against the U.K. government’s plans to liberalize the laws that regulate AI companies’ use of copyrighted material. The dominant AI companies are, of course, nearly all American, and they have thus far freely used copyrighted material from both sides of the Atlantic to train their systems. In the U.S., the Association of American Publishers, the Authors Guild, and others in the industry have filed dozens of lawsuits seeking transparency and remedies for what they see as copyright violations.
In the U.K., where fears that the country may fall behind in the AI arms race are growing, the government is considering allowing
AI developers to freely use copyrighted material except when creators expressly forbid it, a model known as opt out, as opposed to requiring explicit permission from copyright holders to use their data. The issue was a major talking point at this year’s London Book Fair, where Maria Pallante, CEO of the AAP, and Conway warned of the dangers of the U.K. government pursuing such a model and stressed that growth opportunities must be balanced with ethical and legal safeguards.
The PA has joined forces with the U.K.’s Society of Authors in fighting back against AI copyright infringement. In April, members of the SoA staged a protest outside Meta’s King’s Cross headquarters in London, accusing the California company of stealing their work without permission or compensation.
Despite the absence of homegrown large language models (the type of AI used in ChatGPT and similar tools), the U.K. book business is actively developing industry-leading AI-driven services. These include Shimmr, which automates social media advertising; Clio, a platform for writing books based on spoken replies to AI prompts; and new tools for navigating and searching vast catalogs of data at such companies as Oxford University Press and Perlego. (For more about new AI publishing tools from the U.K., see “The AI Edge,” p. 38.)
Distribution challenges
Another major challenge facing U.K. publishers is distribution. Last year, United Independent Distributors—comprising Eurospan, Marston Book Services, and Orca Book Services—filed for bankruptcy following persistent restructuring attempts and financial difficulties. UID’s failure, coming just three years after its acquisition by the Independent Publishers Group, left numerous smaller publishers with cash flow problems and inventory disruptions.
Meanwhile, Penguin Random House’s 2023 decision to shutter Grantham Book Services by the end of 2025 has also intensified distribution challenges. PRH US later recognized the strategic value of the GBS facility, opting to continue using it as a U.K. and European distribution hub for PRH US titles. But the move forced approximately 40 third-party publishers to seek new homes for their titles.
These twin disruptions created a scramble among publishers to secure partnerships with the remaining major distribution players, including Macmillan’s MDL, Hachette’s operations (supported by the Pinnacle rep group with back-end fulfillment through HUKD), and HarperCollins U.K.’s forthcoming distribution facility. While such established distributors as Turnaround and newer entrants like Ingram Publisher Services U.K. have absorbed some displaced publishers, capacity constraints remain. Specialized distributors have emerged to serve niche markets—Wiley UK for academic presses, Kingsway for Christian publishers—while Gardners offers a more passive solution for U.S. houses seeking access to the U.K. market without active sales representation.
The ongoing capacity crunch suggests that the U.K. distribution scene will continue to evolve as publishers balance service quality, geographic reach, and availability in an increasingly constrained marketplace.
Looking ahead
As the U.K. publishing industry navigates an increasingly complex landscape, its deep integration with the U.S. market remains both one of its greatest strengths and a notable vulnerability. For U.S. publishing, understanding these dynamics isn’t just about recognizing a key export partner; it’s about grasping how the future of English-language publishing will be shaped by decisions made on both sides of the Atlantic. The question isn’t whether U.S. and U.K. publishing will remain intertwined, but how successfully both industries can adapt their partnership to meet 21st-century challenges while preserving the cultural exchange that has enriched readers worldwide.
More from our U.K. Publishing in 2025 Feature
World of Books Crosses the Pond
The U.K.’s largest online retailer of used books is moving in new directions stateside, opening a distribution center in a Chicago suburb and working with Ingram to source the new books for the U.S. market.
Three Indie Presses Find Success in Translation
Publishing houses And Other Stories, Pushkin, and Charco have leveraged trends and attention from book awards to attract readers in the U.S.
Selling Stateside: PW Talks with Meredith Greenhouse
The VP and general manager of Ingram Publisher Services explains how U.K. publishers are penetrating the U.S.
DK Flips the Script: PW Talks with Paul Kelly
The publisher discusses the company’s first fiction imprint, DK Flip, which has launched in the U.S.
How Folio Editions Expanded Its Audience
The direct-to-consumer publisher has refashioned itself as hip by focusing on contemporary, popular titles, in addition to august editions of classics.
The U.K.’s Graphic Novel Boom Comes Stateside
British graphic novel publishers are making their presence felt in the U.S., racking up critical acclaim and commercial success with titles for all ages.
Harnessing the Power of AI
Perlego, and Oxford University Press are among the companies that are betting new technologies will streamline book search and publishing for consumers.
Book Candy: PW Talks with Andrew Rhomberg
The founder of the London-based platform Jellybooks unpacks the company's post-pandemic evolution from a book discovery and analytics platform to a more sales-focused service targeting readers directly through extensive partnerships.
