The London Book Fair

Posted on May 10, 2009 in Uncategorized

When you haven’t been before, attending the London Book Fair seems like an attractive country that you always hear people talking about and, from afar, can only imagine is full of the most exciting and grand delights.

What I found when I arrived was a surly looking man holding a scanner, ushering people through the entrance as quickly as possible. Yet, I didn’t let this put me off. I wandered in and grabbed a snazzy LBF bag (handy to throw the guide, all the leaflets, and other random freebies into) and promptly stopped and stared with my mouth open at the sheer enormity of the exhibition hall.

Where to start? At first, I simply walked up and down, dodging people in suits who were having meetings whilst walking to more meetings. There were clusters of tables at which to sit down with a paper or a book. Numerous people were queuing for coffees. On the stands, people were busy showing off their catalogues; some stands were full of new technology, some more traditional with static posters and bookshelves.

I felt comforted every time I saw a publisher’s name I recognised. It’s almost like when you are travelling and you bump into someone you only vaguely know from another trip you’ve been on and all at once, you feel as though the world is slightly smaller once again.

When I finally managed to find the entrance to Exhibition Hall 2, having read about the Digital Zone where the new Sony E-Reader was the main attraction, I suddenly felt a bit dizzy. I got myself a hot chocolate and sat down with my guide, having resolved that I needed a plan.

The keynote seminar of the day was ‘Corporate Social Responsibility: Luxury or Necessity in an Economic Downturn?’ This looked interesting, especially as this is an area my company has been focussing for an upcoming publication. So off I went to the Cromwell Room. Although finding the Cromwell Room was a bit like a scene from Crystal Maze (at one of the far walls, up a small staircase which wasn’t marked very clearly), I finally got myself scanned in and settled into the lecture, with my pen and notebook at the ready.

The key speakers were Helen Fraser (Penguin), Alastair Sawday (Alistair Sawday Publishers), Michael Green (co-author of Philanthrocapitalism), and Veruschka Selbach (Earthscan). Looking around, I saw the majority of the audience were female. The room was a bit chilly from the air conditioning but the debate soon became lively. The main question that this seminar concentrated on was: can we afford to be green? And on the flipside, in today’s society, can we afford not to?

Although I am aware of CSR, I think the definitions the speakers gave were particularly helpful. They described it as having three layers: firstly, corporate giving; secondly, risk management (implications of their operations); and thirdly, green issues (cutting costs and the impact on the environment).

It is also clear that CSR is more of a major concern for businesses. The speakers highlighted key cases which put CSR into the limelight, including incidents such as the Bhopal disaster in 1984, in which workers were exposed to toxic gas, resulting in 8000 deaths within two weeks and a further 8000 deaths subsequently. As a result of horrific cases such as this, it is clear that measures had to be taken to avoid anything like this happening again. And over time, this responsibility has expanded to incorporate smaller green gestures, particularly in the light of concerns about climate change.

The main thrust of the debate over CSR was how it should be defined and dealt with. Alastair Sawday argued that corporations need to act like human beings. He even went so far as to quote the film The Corporation, saying corporations display many of the characteristics of psychopaths. Strangely, in the context of his talk, this didn’t seem entirely unjustified. From another viewpoint, Michael Green argued that those who run corporations can help CSR by investing their money in good causes, shown by large corporations such as Starbucks and Cisco. Although their profits were dented originally, they are now expanding further and recovering profit through their CSR operations. Another famous example was Wal-Mart after hurricane Katrina – once considered ‘psychopathic’, they have now kick-started an ethical campaign.

Veruschka Selbach discussed ‘grass roots’ CSR, claiming that a company can only be truly responsible if all the employees, from top down, consider CSR to be of utmost importance. In conclusion, the costs of CSR can seem daunting, especially in such tough times. Yet examples have shown that profits do not have to suffer in the long term, and in particular, sustainability attracts both customers and staff, strengthening your business overall. The only consideration now is whether the Government should be enforcing CSR with monetary or legal deterrents.

This first seminar really whet my appetite. I quickly made my way across the top floor to the Westminster Room (all the rooms were named after landmark areas in London).  My next seminar was ‘Online publicity: Making the most of the digital media’.  The speakers were Matt Brown (digital publicist, Stay Loose) and Nick Harkaway (author of The Gone Away World), and the chair was Michelle Goodall (Publishers Publicity Circle).

Sadly, the room was not large enough for the interest. There were at least twenty people standing at the back, people sitting in the aisle and even a few rows of people crammed in at the front. I think next year they will rethink the room that accommodates any talk on the subject of digital marketing, as it is clearly a concern of the many.

The main thrust of this seminar was that online publicity is no longer an add-on, rather an integral part of any marketing strategy. Michelle Goodall provided some alarming statistics to demonstrate her point, indicating that 70% of homes have broadband and the level of broadband and TV consumption are now almost level from 7pm onwards. Shocking stuff, when the internet has only been in the hands of the public for 15–20 years.

There was also a focus on networking sites. Apparently 200,000 videos are uploaded to YouTube every day and Twitter, the rather new phenomenon, is growing at a rate of 3000% per month! Gosh, who would’ve thought so many people would be able to express themselves in 140 characters. Most alarmingly, according to a study by Neilsen (in March 2009), social networking sites have overtaken the use of email.

If I hadn’t known that the internet was simply key to our communication and promotion strategies already, this seminar certainly brought it home. One of the most apt phrases from this seminar was from Nick Harkaway, who called the internet a ‘discussion’. Through promotion of his own work, he has discovered a network of people eager to access his blog, deleted chapters and new short stories. Through this, Nick Harkaway has managed to generate new interest, engage in dialogue with his readers, and use his network of interested parties to create a buzz about his new works.

In today’s publishing world, having authors who are willing to communicate through digital means is almost a necessity. Readers are looking for something different, seeing more of the content that didn’t make the cut, or hearing from the author behind the work. This also brought up the need for marketing through blogs. Matt Brown discussed how bloggers are the ‘new breed of journalists’, who could potentially ‘make or break’ a new piece of work.

The key points about the use of the internet was that it shouldn’t be used on it’s own. Although marketing departments at publishers may be panicking, thinking they will no longer be needed, traditional marketing is still very much on the cards. However, this all needs to work hand in hand with online marketing. Internet marketing not only provides a whole new audience, the content also stays online forever (meaning anyone who searches your author or their book can access it for years to come). Additionally, there are ways to monitor feedback online and most of all, create a real buzz which has no limits in terms of geography, scope or enthusiasm.

All of the new thoughts I had in my head left me tired, so I returned home, looking forward to the next day.

By day two I knew the drill, so I rushed through the entrance and made my way around with greater ease. Today I decided a good wander was in order. I had a look at the Espresso Book Machine, through a crowd, waiting for the book to pop out. It looked interesting but a bit bulky – it appears like a giant photocopier. Moving on, I passed by a children’s and teenage publishers I used to work for and said hello to the MD. After catching up, I progressed to some of the larger publishers. I found a Sony E-Reader on the HarperCollins stand and had a good play with it. Although I see its benefits and it’s an impressive bit of technology, I did find it a bit irritating when fiddling about with it. I’m not sure I will be a fan myself, but I see how others will love it. I still think the good old book with stay strong though.

My main stop of the day was the International Society of Young Publishers Conference. After being escorted up in a lift, feeling like I was in a five star hotel, I joined the committee in one of the meeting rooms in Conference Centre 2. There was a good turn out, with all the tables full. Speakers included Chris Grupette (Director, Merlin Library), Gesa Jung (Junge Verlags Menschen), Henrik Aegidius (freelance editor and translator), Jon Slack (International Co-ordinator, SYP) and Louise Rhind-Tutt (Pubicity Manager, Random House). I won’t discuss this event in too much detail as it is being covered elsewhere, but all I will say is that there is a lot of interest in the format of the SYP and I’m sure a few more countries will have their own version flourishing or in place very soon!

After meeting a few acquaintances for a catch up, I made my way to my last talk of the fair. It was ‘The Writers of Tomorrow’, again in the Cromwell Room. Speakers included Chris Gribble (The New Writing Partnership, soon to be renamed), Paul Baggaley (Picador), Catherine Large (Creative & Cultural Skills), Fay Weldon (Author), Tas Aw (Author). The Chair was Antonia Byatt (Arts Council). They made for a good mix of speakers, all of them focussing on how the writers of the future will be found, what new mediums there are and whether publishers are using them.

With the rise of popularity and provision of creative writing courses, there has been a boom in new writers. Most of these are non-fiction writers (due to the large volume of life writing classes). Additionally, a number of new countries are now demonstrating writing talent, such as countries in Asia, due to the improvements in education and the ability to communicate on a worldwide level. The only issue is the need for more translation to occur, as only 3% of published novels are translated, leaving a huge number of writers limited by such a simple barrier.

Another main focus here was self-publishing, opportunities for new talent such as the Macmillan New Writing Scheme, and most of all, sites like authonomy.com (run by HarperCollins), which allows writers to upload their work and receive feedback from others, rewarding the highest rated with a reading by editors at HarperCollins.

What really came out of this seminar was the power of the reader. It is the readers who will dictate who is worth publishing, through online promotion and their decisions on which types of books they want to invest their time in. Paul Baggaley insisted that what publishers need to do is follow the trends and keep an eye out for new avenues in which to find fresh talent.

Some of the audience got rather riled up in the Q & A portion of this seminar. It was both interesting and a little uncomfortable. Although some of them had fair points, for example that they felt the market was too hard to break into and their culture can dictate what they are expected to write about, all in all I think the panel of speakers were quite honest and portrayed an openness that I found refreshing.

Overall, I really enjoyed my first experience of the London Book Fair. I think the most important thing to remember is you can’t see everything – Concentrate on meeting up with a few contacts to keep you grounded and seeing a few well chosen seminars to structure the day.

Looking forward to next year!