Beyond the System: Insights from the BiblioU 2025 Annual Meeting

Every year, the BiblioU Annual Meeting is more than just a conference; it’s where the publishing community comes together to solve its toughest challenges. This year, the message from publishers of all sizes—from university presses to major trade houses—was clear: the right technology doesn't just manage your work; it transforms it.

For those outside the BiblioSuite community, it can be hard to grasp the collaborative energy of these sessions. It’s one thing to hear about new features; it’s another to see how your peers are using them to drive real results. Here are the key themes that emerged from an inspiring few days.

From Silos to Synergy: Taming Complex Workflows

In publishing, a great idea can be slowed to a crawl by disconnected processes—endless email chains, competing spreadsheets, and vital information locked away in departmental silos. At BiblioU 2025, a recurring story was the journey from that chaos to clarity. We saw firsthand how a single source of truth isn't a buzzword; it's the connective tissue for a modern publisher.

At HarperCollins, a deep dive into their acquisitions process revealed how they’ve connected every stakeholder in a single, automated workflow that enables the business rather than holding it up.

“BiblioSuite acts as the connective tissue between all the events in our acquisitions workflow. Processes that were handled in separate silos before are now completely visible to everyone in one place.” – Sean Linson, Director of Business Analysis, HarperCollins Publishers

The team at The United Methodist Publishing House (UMPH) described a similar transformation, turning their entire production and asset management workflow from a series of manual hand-offs into a seamless process that has significantly saved time for staff.

“BiblioSuite’s DAM has transformed our biggest collaboration headache into our smoothest process. We can now securely send files directly to our vendors in about 30 seconds, eliminating the time-consuming and frustrating process of managing multiple FTP sites.” – Lisa Huntley, Director, Production Services, UMPH

This move towards integration was echoed across the board. The MIT Press showcased how they streamlined their jacket approval process, while Ohio University Press and Bloomsbury UK demonstrated remarkable ingenuity by building custom workflows in BiblioSuite to manage their complex Open Access initiatives.

“A key advantage of BiblioSuite is that our acquisitions editors can now select the approved covers and instantly download them for the author. They no longer have to go back to our designers to create a new PDF, which is a huge efficiency gain.” – Janet Rossi, Director of EDP, The MIT Press “When faced with managing a complex new Open Access initiative, we were able to build a complete, custom solution in BiblioSuite... we created a powerful and efficient workflow to manage the entire process.” – Laura André, Publicity & Metadata Manager, Ohio University Press “By working with Virtusales, we developed a new work-level Open Access management screen that harmonizes key data, improves data integrity... and enhances our ONIX integration and reporting capabilities.” – Andrew Down, Business Systems Analyst, Bloomsbury

From Gut Feel to Strategic Insight: Putting Data to Work

While editorial instinct is irreplaceable, today’s market demands that it be supported by solid data. Speaker after speaker at BiblioU 2025 highlighted how having reliable, centralized data is empowering them to be more strategic.

At Boydell & Brewer, the focus was on leveraging sales data to inform publishing strategy. By giving their editorial teams a clear and accessible view of sales history, they can now make smarter commissioning decisions.

“Having rich sales data in BiblioSuite is vital for our publishing decisions. Our acquisitions editors constantly use backlist sales data to evaluate new proposals from existing authors or to decide when to release a new edition or paperback.” – Antje King, Sales & Marketing Director, Boydell & Brewer

And at McGill-Queen's University Press, implementing BiblioSuite Royalties has transformed their ability to manage complex financial data, leading to greater accuracy and improved author relations.

“With BiblioRoyalties, our contracts and royalties are updated in real time... We now have a monthly validation process and full visibility of the contract, the royalties, and the payees all in one place.” – Lara de Beaupré, Associate Director, Finance & Operations, McGill-Queen’s University Press

Innovating for Today and Tomorrow

From navigating new legislation like the European Accessibility Act (EAA) to harnessing the potential of AI, the ground is constantly shifting under our feet. This year’s meeting showcased how the BiblioSuite community is meeting these challenges head-on, turning potential disruptions into opportunities.

Macmillan Publishers shared their proactive approach to navigating the complex requirements of the EAA, using BiblioSuite as the central hub for their compliance data.

“We needed one place to track all of our accessibility metadata, and BiblioSuite is the central point for a larger workflow that encompasses our editorial, production, and managing editor teams. It’s helping us ensure we’re ready when new legislation comes into effect.” – Justin Nisbet, Sr Director of Systems Integration & Metadata, Macmillan Publishers

Meanwhile, Beacon Press and Boydell & Brewer offered a fascinating look at the new frontier of AI. They demonstrated how BiblioSuite’s integrated AI tools are augmenting their marketing efforts—not by replacing marketers, but by acting as a powerful creative partner.

“The idea behind BiblioSuite’s AI tools is not to replace anyone, but to give them superpowers. The AI serves as a creative partner that helps kickstart the process, saving time and energy that can be better spent on other strategic marketing tasks.” – Sanj Kharbanda, Associate Publisher and Director of Sales & Marketing, Beacon Press “BiblioSuite’s AI Keywords tool is an amazing time-saver. For a publisher our size, it gives us hours of our time back... For a larger publisher, it would be indispensable.” – Vita Aitken, Sales and Marketing Support Specialist, Boydell & Brewer

The Power of Community

What truly sets the BiblioU Annual Meeting apart is the spirit of collaboration. The real magic often happens between sessions, in conversations where publishers share not just their successes, but their processes and vision for the future. These discussions spark new ideas and drive the entire community forward.

This is the real power of BiblioSuite—it’s more than a system; it’s a partnership.

The insights from BiblioU 2025 show a clear path forward, one built on integration, data, and collaboration. If you’re ready to leave behind isolated systems and join a community actively shaping the future of publishing, we should talk.

Contact us today.