London Book Fair 2012

Every year the book industry gathers under one roof for The London Book Fair. For three days Earls Court gets flooded with trade magazines, publisher catalogues and a lot of people all trying to convince themselves that they still love books and summon up the energy to find this decade's J K Rowling. (Of course if you're Little, Brown, you have that pretty sorted...). This year's Fair started on Monday and finishes today and will, as ever, have been an important opportunity for all those in the industry.

The Fair is, essentially, an international publishing marketplace where publishers, editors, agents, booksellers and rights teams (to name a few) from across the world all come together to negotiate deals for the next year. Everyone involved will have been gearing up for the event for several months and there are a lot of important questions to be asked. What are editors looking for? What's the new thing? What books have international appeal and what don't? Ebooks? Libraries? Debut authors?

I went to the Fair on Monday - the second time I've been - and it was just as intimidating... Rows and rows of stands with frantic people trying to pitch as well as possible. As a newbie, I was mostly attending other people's meetings, which is still always very interesting. The industry, as everyone knows, is having a bit of a crisis and this was a chance for me to hear what people beyond our own office walls have to say about it and what their plans are and how we can work with them. This year I really want to get on track with finding my own clients and what better opportunity than to hear what the editors I will, eventually, pitch to are looking for!

Managed to sneak in a cookery demonstration and some free tasters during the day as well, though, to - you know - keep me going... :P