As everyone in the UK industry hopes you know, London Book Fair is March 14–16 this year, a month earlier than usual. We’ll be there and will have reports for you afterward.
Here in the run-up, we just want to point out that, of the major Western trade shows each year, London does the best job of serving the author community with programming that doesn’t require writers to pay a steep conference fee or table-rental charge. A traditionally publishing or independent author can pay a regular visitor charge of £40 for the three days of the fair (US$48.79) and take part in as many as 16 events in the Author HQ program as well as the very strong Insights Seminar series of events that Orna O’Brien programs.
If you’ll be in London, we recommend considering these Author HQ events in particular:
- Funding Opportunities for Publishers and Writers from Kickstarter and Arts Council England
- Region Spotlight: America, at which you can meet Porter
- The Right Rights: What To Look Out for in a Good/Bad Contract
- Using Sources: Managing Copyright Issues and Avoiding Common Legal Pitfalls
We mention those four because they’re the most business-oriented—that, of course, is the thrust of our work here at The Hot Sheet—and because we think this direction is where London Book Fair makes its best moves.
Bottom line: We like that the London Book Fair turns its gathering of industry intelligence to the author’s advantage. While Frankfurt Book Fair is still in its planning stages for October, it normally mounts a day of author sessions, while the US BookExpo has continued to diminish this aspect of its programming in recent years.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
