Publishers Weekly CEO backs World Caribbean Books’ push for global distribution
World Caribbean Books is pursuing a business opportunity from its Corporate Headquarters in The Bahamas that stretches across the region. Caribbean histories, research and stories could reach readers around the world through a company owned and built by Caribbean people.
Its publishing and distribution network, which extends across 190 countries, has earned praise from Cevin Bryerman, CEO of Publishers Weekly.
“World Caribbean Books is transforming the region into a global marketplace for distribution of books.” Bryerman said.
On Friday 6 November 2026, he will join Albert Cox, CEO and Publisher of World Caribbean Books, for Opening the Caribbean to the Global Book Industry, a free webinar premiering on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcast to discuss what that opportunity means for the region’s authors, publishers and institutions.
WCB combines publishing, wholesale supply, retail and international distribution. Its online global bookstore organises Caribbean collections by country and territory, including Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Suriname, alongside the larger regional markets. Collections also cover Aruba, Curaçao, Guadeloupe and Martinique, reflecting the Caribbean’s different languages and literary traditions.
The company also partners with institutions and organisations to develop research, archival records and other material into publications. Its revenue-sharing model is intended to generate returns for both WCB and its publishing partners.
Cox said the company’s focus has been “to build the global infrastructure for the Caribbean region, which we have done!” Giving access to international book markets so “Caribbean voices can be amplified with dignity and respectability”.
A publisher with more than 20 years of publishing experience, Cox co-founded the business with Leslie Simone Cox. Its operations include entities incorporated in The Bahamas, the United States and upcoming UK under the World Caribbean Books banner. The company reports access to a catalogue of more than 30 million titles, including Caribbean literature, international bestsellers and textbooks.
The conversation comes as writers from across the Caribbean earn international recognition. Haitian-American Edwidge Danticat received the 2026 PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature, while Jamaica’s Lorna Goodison won the 2026 Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry, announced in October. Zephrine Royer of Dominica won the 2026 Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival Elizabeth Nunez Award for Writers in the Caribbean in September.
Saint Lucia-born Canisia Lubrin won the 2025 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction for Code Noir, and Trinidad and Tobago’s Kevin Jared Hosein won the 2024 Walter Scott Prize for Hungry Ghosts. Guyana-born Tessa McWatt took the overall 2026 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature for The Snag.
Independent authors are sharing in that recognition. Trinidad-born Scarlet Ibis James won the 2026 NYC Big Book Award for Multicultural Fiction for Scarlet Yearnings Beyond First Glance, while Guyanese Jasmaine Payne’s self-published debut Leech took second place at the 2026 BookFest Awards. For WCB, the opportunity is to help a wider range of Caribbean books reach international readers through publishing and distribution.
The potential audience extends across generations and borders. United Nations estimates cited by the Migration Policy Institute put the number of Caribbean migrants living outside their countries of birth at approximately 9.6 million in 2024. That figure excludes their overseas-born descendants, many of whom also have family and cultural connections to the region. For Caribbean publishers, reaching these communities means understanding the distribution arrangements and trading conditions in each market.
Within The Bahamas, WCB’s activities have included school literacy outreach, support for the public library service and a book fair connecting authors with readers. It has also hosted a publishing conference in Nassau featuring representatives from Publishers Weekly, Ingram Content Group and Westchester Publishing, with discussions covering distribution, print-on-demand technology and educational markets.
Bryerman brings more than 35 years of publishing experience to the November webinar. He is also President of PW Content Studio and serves on the advisory board of New York University’s Center for Publishing, Writing, and Media. Founded in 1872, Publishers Weekly provides reporting, reviews and industry information for publishers, booksellers, librarians, literary agents and authors.
Authors, publishers, educators, researchers and literary organisations across the Caribbean and its diaspora are invited to watch.
Opening the Caribbean to the Global Book Industry premieres free on Friday 6 November 2026 at 10 am (EST) on @WorldCaribbeanBooks’ YouTube channel.
