Posted by Maleeha Mir on 21 November 2025, in Event reports, Member news, News

Photos by Phoebe Ireland, Words by Chris Russell

You can listen to the complete audio recording of this event via this link.

At November’s Byte The Book event, editor-in-chief of The Bookseller Philip Jones chaired a discussion marking the launch of BookBindr, a new freelancer-led collaboration platform created by Byte The Book’s own Justine Solomons and Bookswarm’s Simon Appleby. Speaking candidly about the realities of freelance life and the gaps in current support structures, the pair explained why they built the platform and what they hope it will achieve for authors, freelancers and publishers alike.

Our panel from left to right: Justine Solomons, Philip Jones, and Simon Appleby.

The conversation opened with the story of BookBindr’s beginnings, at this year’s London Book Fair. Simon painted a picture familiar to anyone who has spent time at the UK’s biggest publishing event – sitting in a bar with Justine at their traditional mid-Fair catch-up, eating cake and swapping stories about who they’d run into so far. Somewhere amid the cut and thrust of this conversation, an idea emerged: what if publishing freelancers had access to a single, centralised database that allowed them to connect with potential employers? Fragmented versions of such a database did already exist – a Facebook page for freelancers which “wasn’t getting much traction” and a fledgling WhatsApp group –but these channels lacked an outward-facing presence, explained Simon, and while often valuable behind the scenes, could be “hit-and-miss” when it came to fostering wider networks.

Simon Appleby highlights the key challenges freelancers in the industry face today.

Justine added that for many authors, freelancers and early-career publishers, the industry can be bewildering to navigate. As someone with a proven track record in bringing people together, she sees BookBindr as a way of expanding on the work that Byte The Book has been engaged in since the early 2010s. “I’m known for being a good connector,” she confirmed, “but I’m only one little person! I want BookBindr to help introduce people to each other”. She sees the site as a place to find and be found; an opportunity to establish a clear, trustworthy directory where the industry’s vast web of talent can be seen in one place, and connections can be made with more confidence and less friction. 

Justine Solomons explains the ideas behind BookBindr and how the platform will operate.

The discussion then moved on to consideration of how BookBindr will strike the balance between inclusivity and quality control. Simon stressed that while the platform must remain accessible, it also needs to reassure users that the professionals listed have real experience. For now, the benchmark is simple: freelancers should be doing at least 70% of their work within the publishing industry. More complex requirements may be introduced further down the line, but as Simon cautioned, “putting up too many gates at an early stage” could be counter-productive, especially while the primary focus is generating user velocity. The aim for launch is “fairly laissez-faire”, as he put it, but with potential for future curation such as showcasing members or rotating front-page features.

Philip Jones asks co-founders Simon and Justine about their hopes and vision for BookBindr’s future following the platform’s launch.

No conversation about a new platform is complete without a detour into the thorny issue of funding, and when Philip asked Simon how he and Justine plan to finance BookBindr, he replied with comedic honesty: “At the moment, we are relying on the universe to reward us at some undefined future point”. The audience laughed, but the question, of course, was pertinent. Currently, BookBindr is self-funded by its founders – “because we think it’s a good thing to have”, stated Justine – but a referral-based system, where BookBindr is part-subsidised by commissions from the projects it facilitates, is currently being explored. Simon also floated the idea of sponsorship for live events, and even a “karma-based” pay-what-you-can model. Philip joked with him that “if you build it, they will come”, and Simon confessed that this was not the first time he had heard that quote since BookBindr’s inception.

Attendees enjoying the insights and expertise shared by our panel.

As the session wrapped up, what emerged most clearly was the sense of a publishing workforce hungry for better infrastructure – not just to showcase skills, but to share knowledge, protect authors and build genuine community. BookBindr may still be in its early days, but the ambition behind it speaks to something deeper: a desire to make the industry kinder, more transparent and better connected. Finally, an enthusiastic post-discussion networking session led by Byte Behaviour’s Daniel Solomons proved that, if this crowd was anything to go by, there is already genuine momentum behind Justine and Simon’s BookBindr vision. Good reason, perhaps, to believe that if you build it, they really will come.

Thank you to the attendees who came along to celebrate the launch of BookBindr and to the Century Club for hosting us!

You can find more photos from this London event from our online album 'Introducing BookBindr: An exciting new way of collaborating in publishing | Brought to you by Byte The Book and Bookswarm' here!

If you're not already a member of Byte The Book you can join us from £30 a month here.