London Book Fair 2005

Posted on October 25, 2005 in Uncategorized

It was half-past nine on the first morning of the 34th London Book Fair at Olympia: across the Grand Hall, bleary-eyed exhibitors were stifling yawns, slurping coffee and artfully arranging piles of business cards and boiled sweets on their stands. This year there were over eighteen hundred exhibitors, and as the doors opened visitors from all over the world piled into the exhibition’s two halls as if it were the Harrods sale.

Every part of publishing is represented at the fair, so it is a unique opportunity to meet wholesalers, distributors, literary agents, rights executives and every conceivable sort of professional that works within the trade. It makes the fair an excellent way to explore all possible avenues into the industry. I wasn’t looking for work experience or a job this year, but I have done so before, and it can be a useful way to discover the variety of roles available.

This was only my second time at the fair, but it didn’t take long before I heard the familiar refrain ‘London is nothing compared to Frankfurt – The Frankfurt [book fair] is h…u…g…e, seriously!’ Well, I’m neither a seasoned publishing professional nor a Frankfurt veteran yet, so I was still massively impressed by the buzz and variety of the LBF; if you haven’t been, I’d recommend it. I worked at the fair in 2004, but I wasn’t working this year, so I had the luxury of taking a good look around at my own pace.

I weaved my way across the Grand Hall from the trade and remainder stands to the academic/STM and art publishers at the far end. After lunch, I took a tour around the children’s, travel, religious and graphic novel sections in the adjoining hall. Although LBF is not comparable to the Frankfurt fair in size, it is still tiring, so take your time and enjoy some (overpriced) coffee and snacks along the way. If picking up free pens, mints and branded notepads gets too much, there are events and seminars that you can attend throughout each day, and most are free and open to all, though some events are by invitation only. Many of the seminars are accessible overviews with Q&A sessions at the end (‘Superheroes to Manga’ springs to mind!) and there is an annual quiz: ‘Have I got publishing news for you!’ which is genuinely funny.

As I walked around, I couldn’t help but remember last year’s fair, when I was working for a small, independent publisher but was also looking around for a new job during the breaks I had from working on our stand. First, I visited the Bookcareers.com careers clinic to talk through my CV with an advisor, and then I cruised along the aisles of the Grand Hall searching for prospective employers – terrified that I would bump into my boss! I roughly knew which publishers I wanted to approach and this made things easier. I decided that approaching the bigger publishers was futile (they all looked extremely busy and unapproachable) but I nervously skirted around the stalls of the smaller publishing houses’ stands until I saw my chance. Habitually, I sidled up to someone who looked both important and bored and introduced myself. In the few seconds after they showed interest, and in the few seconds before I started perspiring, I would casually mention that I just so happened to be looking for a job and that I had a copy of my CV with me that they were more than welcome to take, if they wanted it of course, and it was OK if they didn’t, because I could see they were busy etc, etc.

Amazingly enough, one kindly publisher took pity on me and invited me to interview for a job a week later. I was overjoyed, and strutted back to my stand rejuvenated and perspiring slightly. A friend, and colleague of mine at the time, had a similar plan and we felt thoroughly pleased with our first LBF covert job-hunt. Our then employer, however, was less pleased, as our rights team had failed to secure the necessary deals, which would have meant a busy year ahead for the company (and in turn, us). What the fair had given with one hand, it had taken with the other. Within a week we were both made redundant and our hard-won job interviews soon turned to polite rejection letters. I shuddered as remembered this sorry tale a year later, standing outside a smoke-filled Prêt à manger at the side of the Grand Hall.

I don’t mean to discourage people from looking for jobs at the fair; I have heard many success stories of friends who found work experience places and jobs there with publishers they had previously failed to make contact with by email and letter. It is a unique chance to make a strong impression on important people. Use your common sense, and remember that exhibitors don’t have time to answer endless questions and may not appreciate unsolicited CVs when they are busy.

My only real responsibility at this year’s fair was to look after the SYP stand on Sunday and see if I could entice any new members to join up. Manning the stand that afternoon, I had a chance to sit and watch the fair go by. Countless foreign delegates passed by, dragging wheeled suitcases full of book samples – they all seemed to be old hands at this game. I saw budding authors touting their self-published books at our neighbouring stands; one such author – an American, called David – sat down with me for a chat. It was his first LBF and he was ‘enjoying it greatly’. He gave me a book that he had written and printed himself. His evident pride at seeing the freshly printed copies was slightly soured when he realised that he had left the book spine blank, but this didn’t dampen his spirits and soon he trundled off, a suitcase of 500 copies in tow. I read after the fair that many such budding authors were quickly waved away to the Google Print stand by exhibitors who had neither the time nor patience for unsolicited book pitches at their stands.

To the left of the SYP stand was Profile Books, publisher of, among other ‘serious non-fiction titles’, Eats Shoots and Leaves. Beyond the Profile stand was a large reception desk and that led to a vast expanse of small, numbered tables that formed the International Rights Centre. Despite its massive size, entrance to the rights centre was strictly by appointment only. I mention the rights centre because it is always the heart of the LBF – during a relentless stream of mainly pre-arranged meetings book rights are bought and sold in vast quantity.

After a long hard day at the London Book Fair I was ready for some free drinks and canapés. There are different events from around 6 o’clock each evening and this year I attended the reception for the International Young Publisher of the Year award finalists in the Pillar Hall.  The ten finalists looked thoroughly shattered as they approached the finishing line after a week of meetings, trips and lunches. I wished finalist Maria Deskur good luck as the reception began – she won the award two days later! It was a strange party, with the likes of author Jacqueline Wilson rubbing shoulders with Neil Kinnock, but the evening events are as much a part of the fair as the expensive coffee, I suppose.

Olympia opened its doors for the last time to the LBF in 2005. The fair has grown so large that it will be relocating to the shinier and more capacious ExCeL venue in Docklands for 2006.  It should be bigger and better – so watch out Frankfurt!

On behalf of the Committee, I would like to thank all those at Reed Expo, Midas PR and the British Council for helping the SYP at the London Book Fair this year.