' Reps can help you improve your ability to speak, and you can be the person creating those reps.'

If you're seeking success as a speaker, what does that mean to you? Perfectly polished delivery, Big, flashy stages?

Alex Merry sees his job as helping founders unlock the true potential of their ideas, and as part of that he brings speakers at all stages of the journey into community in MicDrop. He has a more intentional, strategic approach to defining success as a speaker. In fact, turns out some of the most commercially powerful speaking opportunities happen in very ordinary rooms, with a relatively small number of exactly the right people.

We talk about the beautiful overlap between books and speaking, why the two work together so synergistically, and how being in community with the right people can supercharge success in both. We also talk about the importance of doing all of this in public, testing your ideas, learning to communicate the same message in a million different ways.

A practical and energising conversation about speaking, writing, business development, community, and why success might be different to - and so much achievable than - your assumptions.

'Now that we have AI to give us all the answers, who needs books, right?'

It's a question that everyone who writes, publishes or sells nonfiction books has to face up to in 2026. The decline of reading and the threat posed by AI are unarguable, yet there are also signs of resilience and reasons for hope, alongside some useful lessons for anyone writing or publishing business or self-development books.

Practical Inspiration's fabulous sales and marketing assistant Lauren Moseley became a roving reporter between meetings at this year's Frankfurt Book Fair, capturing five perspectives from across the industry.

Hear from:

• NielsenIQ Book Data's Belle Edelman on nonfiction trends, how readers discover books, and the value of writers' work in an AI world

• Durnell Marketing's Siobhan Humphries and Paula Moreno on how authors can support book sales, and why credibility and human connection matter

• Rights experts Clare Hodder and Kris Kliemann on international opportunities, shorter books, and offering something readers can't get from an AI query

• Liverpool University Press's Anna Champion on streamlining publishing work while preserving the relationships at its heart

• The Independent Publishers Guild's Tom Holman on copyright challenges, opportunities for smaller publishers, and taking a thoughtful approach to AI adoption.

If you couldn't make it to Frankfurt, here's a taste of the conversations shaping the future of books - and what they might mean for yours.

'Get started. Accept that you need to write and get something out of you. That's the feeling to notice and then respond to it however it shows up.'

Dr Claire Handby is a business leader, executive coach and author who's driven by the impulse to 'make the invisible visible'. Her first book, Uptick, draws on her own experience of career reinvention; her forthcoming book, Zip It, deals with the under-explored experience of professional silencing and how to find your voice again after a difficult career transition.

In this conversation we explore how books can transform lived experience into something that helps others make sense of their own lives, and how writing itself helps us process those experiences and find a way forward. We also talk about finding your voice, literally as well as metaphorically - it's a rare joy to hear a Northern woman narrate her own business book.

Claire also shares how she deliberately turned her unhelpful doomscrolling habit into a writing practice: simply noticing things, capturing thoughts, and gradually building up the body of work that would become her books.

It's a reminder, if you needed one, that writing a book starts with simply noticing that you have something to say.