Each year almost since its birth, the London Book Fair has grown—and this year is no exception, with a considerably bigger U.S. presence, a much increased attendance from central and Eastern Europe, and an International Rights Centre whose membership has nearly doubled in the past five years.
Alistair Burtenshaw, fair director, is eager, for PW's benefit, to stress the higher level of American interest in London's spring fair, balancing as it does the Frankfurt extravaganza in the fall, which hardly anyone admits to liking much, but to which they loyally return anyway. The Rights Centre membership is easiest to pinpoint, and here U.S. participation is up 38% over last year; the Centre contains a full-to-bursting 467 tables, representing rights dealers from 328 companies from 28 countries—and also boasts two restaurants and five coffee points.
Altogether there are 1,800 companies represented at the fair with stands, tables or as part of collectives, a growth of 28% from last year. Does this apparently unending expansion mean that the show will burst the seams at Olympia, whose aisles already seem pretty clogged compared to wider ones at BEA and Frankfurt?
Certainly not in the near future, according to Burtenshaw. There is, he said, room for expansion at Olympia, into a third hall, and the venue is booked for the next three years. The West London location is a popular and accessible one, and although there are plans for a larger and much newer convention center in the booming Docklands area in East London, he's very cautious about any idea of moving the show there. "In the long term, we have to judge the mood of the industry, and talk to everyone very carefully before we decide on any major change," he said.
There's been a rush to the fair of new EEC members this year, with Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Slovakia all taking stands, and Romania coming in with a big collective; Italy is also offering a whole pavilion for the first time. There are many seminars and educational events to assist trade with these territories—so many that a special theater has been added to contain them.
Although the public is not admitted to what is, after all, a trade show, there are various fair-related events to attract them, and press coverage. A contest for best unpublished manuscript will end in the winner being offered representation by Curtis Brown; there are master classes by well-known names in movie and TV writing and crime writing; and the British Council is helping sponsor an award for International Young Publisher of the Year, with the winner to get a couple of weeks' internship with a London publisher. Throughout the fair, candidates for the award will get a chance to market their books to trade buyers. In fact, encouraging business for small independent publishers is high among LBF aims.
It is also, of course, a booksellers' event—about 24% of the attendees are book retailers, compared to 37% publishers, and European booksellers, encouraged by their Federation, are attending in larger numbers each year. The E-Pub London conference that has preceded the show in recent years is being dropped as a stand-alone event this year—its audience was decidedly not growing—but there is a full and lively complement of seminars and panels on every aspect of the business, including three, jointly sponsored by the PA and PW, on marketing to the U.S.
"What the fair is really all about is offering everyone who comes an opportunity for a dialogue: how to get into a new market, make contacts, sell and buy rights. A fair should be fun, but it's business as well," is how Burtenshaw putit.
