What does 2024 have in store for the publishing world?

With a new year comes new books, and potentially new challenges for the publishing industry. What should readers watch out for, and what can they look forward to?

Writers Jen Sookfong Lee, Makda Mulatu and Tajja Isen join host Elamin Abdelmahmoud to talk about the titles they're looking forward to reading this year, the technologies and trends shaping what gets published, and why so many books never make it to the readers who might love them.

We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow the Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud podcast, on your favourite podcast player.

LISTEN | Today's episode on YouTube:

Elamin: There was a lot of fretting about AI in 2023, and [there's] speculation that this coming year will be the year that it really has an impact. Jen, what are you hearing? What are you anticipating? What are you thinking about?

Jen: So I see it in a couple of different areas. Not necessarily in the actual creation of the content of a book, but in, first of all, cover design, and also in terms of audiobook narration. Those two issues, I think, are going to be continually addressed over the next year because I don't think that there has been much discussion about it yet in publishing.

I'm an editor for an independent publishing company. It's been a really big topic of conversation with cover design because when you're collaborating on a cover design, authors will have a Pinterest board or whatever, and they'll send you ideas and they'll say, "I really like this image." And some authors may not know that a lot of those images that they're choosing are AI-generated and floating around on the Internet. With my company, we do produce a lot of audiobooks, and the push to save a lot of money is really high. We have a policy to not use any AI anything, which gets a bit gray because there are AI tools in Adobe Photoshop and stuff, right? We don't mean that. But in those two areas, I think we're going to see it still become a really hot topic, in publishing anyway.

Elamin: Tajja, where are you seeing AI show up?

Tajja: A couple different places. I know it crops up in contracts that authors sign with publishers. Some authors want a clause in there, very reasonably, saying that their work will not be used to train any AI or the like. And we've seen in 2023 some really big legal challenges brought against OpenAI and similar by the Authors Guild, and I think we're going to continue to see that unfold — this sort of protracted legal battle — in the year ahead. 

Elamin: I think it's time to start talking about some hopeful stuff. Jen, what are the bright points? What are the things that give you hope, that keep you writing, 11 books into your career?

Jen: I had a really long think about this, but really what has motivated me from the very beginning, and continues to get me out of bed in the morning, is the possibility that I'm going to publish a story we haven't heard before from an author from an underrepresented community — that burns a hole in my soul, like I have to. This is what's eternally motivating for me. And what is so exciting for me is that every spring and fall book season, I see these new books by authors I don't know, these stories that I could never have predicted or imagined, and it is the most exciting, wonderful, lovely thing. And if that's a part of what my career is, if I also get to write a story that people haven't heard before, that's going to be the very best thing. I think we're going to continue to see that as publishing changes, as people have more opportunities to tell their stories. And I think that's the great thing.

Elamin: Tajja, you're an author. What motivates you to keep going in this industry?

Tajja: I think the thing that keeps me going is truly literary community, and I mean that in two senses. Both the writers that I have been able to meet and be in community with, and commiserate with about all the bad stuff we've been talking about, but also just share work and to hype each other up. I think as we see the splintering of social media platforms and the decline of books coverage, there's become, among my writer friends, a sort of greater understanding that we're all we've got in some sense. We are there to support one another's work, to help elevate it and bring it to readers.

That brings me to the second group of literary community members that are super important to me, which is readers. It has been such a privilege to be able to meet and connect with them as a result of publishing this book. As I gear up for the release of my paperback next month, it's the idea of bringing the book to more readers and connecting with people that way, that really keeps me going.

Elamin: Makda, what book are you most excited to read this year?

Makda: I'm going to go rogue. I am a poet, so I'm going to recommend a poetry collection that I'm so hyped for, and that is a Bluff by Danez Smith, which is going to come out on Aug. 20 of this year. I would describe myself as a Danez Smith stan. If Danez Smith has 10,000 fans, I'm one of them.

Elamin: I get you.

Makda: This book is their comeback after a two-year creative hiatus, and it's an examination of a lot of things — Smith's relationship to their hometown of Minneapolis, which of course was the epicentre of protest in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd. And it's also an examination of the value of art, and the function of the poet in a time where we are dealing with so many intersecting crises. I think it can be really hard to build up that kind of artistic resilience. I can't wait, dude. 2020's Homie, which was their last collection, if that was an album, it would have gone double platinum in my house. I am a devourer of their work. I think they're a master of their craft, so I'm really looking forward to it.

Elamin: What I liked is as you said your recommendation, Tajja started clapping because it was like, "Oh, solidarity with the recommendation."

Makda: Yes. See, there's that community that she was talking about earlier.

Elamin: Exactly, a hundred per cent. 

You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.

Panel produced by Jess Low.