Is anyone going to the London Book Fair next week? (April 2023)

I've paid for my ticket, received my badge through e-mail (identifying me as an Author-Visitor with "Stephen Disraeli" as my company name). I've booked a hotel room and will be getting my train ticket tomorrow.

The main object is to track down publishers and literary agents, with a view to getting out the rest of my collection of manuscripts. I've already prepared some "information packs" to show or give to people, being better at writing than I am at talking. I didn't pay the extra to go to the special events arranged for authors, but I've noticed a collection of free seminars which could be interesting. Even a couple of "Networking drinks receptions". I just need to learn how to network.

Do you know any good publsihers who might be there?

a reply to: DISRAELI

Good luck.
I hope you can make some good contacts that will result in your work being published.

I can't offer any constructive advice having never attended such a gathering.
I just know I would make an absolute tit of myself at a function like that bearing in mind my pre-conceived conviction that intellectual snobbery would abound at those sort of events.

a reply to: Freeborn
This is very much a "trade fair", for people involved in any way in the making of books, so I think it's going to be "how well can you sell yourself to me?" business snobbery.

a reply to: DISRAELI

Perhaps. Have publisher assoc in Kent, I'll get back in a few.

PS I am a published author as well.
PPS....Give No One your $$$$!

No, but I will be in London next week. Is it worth attending if you are not a publisher or author?

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus
I've never been before, bui it's very definitely a trade fair, for the meeting of people in the industry one way or another, rather than the kind of fair where books are sold to the public. I don't think people can pay for entry at the door; entrance badges have to be bought in advance.

originally posted by: DISRAELI
I've never been before, bui it's very definitely a trade fair, for the meeting of people in the industry one way or another, rather than the kind of fair where books are sold to the public. I don't think people can pay for entry at the door; entrance badges have to be bought in advance.

Oh, well. I'll go drown my sorrows at the Lamb and Flag instead.

a reply to: mysterioustranger
So the next question is; do you know any good literary agents, of the kind who might be willing to deal with religious books? What is your own genre?

a reply to: DISRAELI

Give me a day or so to lay this out to you on a p.m. to you. I think youll find its not so much as who you know, as much as its what you know( about the biz). God Bless.... Gimme a few...Stand By!!!

MY Genre:
Bio of Famous Rock Star (I was in that band)
70+ Blog articles on all topics.
1 book on the Paranormal Events in my Life

PS D....ask yourself WHY you think you NEED an agent? Please. Thanks! If just for dist, you can do better alone. And Religious books? Now you got my attention!

a reply to: DISRAELI

Hey again D...didnt want to dump all in the other edits...

There are about 20 questions for you to answer. Do it and youll be surprised at what you do want and dont. Youll come away either feeling very "I can DO this!'....or else youl run off screaming in the darkness....

Im betting with the religious direction...youve already got Jesus and whatever God you believe in working for you!

a reply to: mysterioustranger
I need an agent because the big publishers tend to say that they won't even look at MSS which come direct from authors. I suppose they receive so many unsolicited that they want to filter them. Also i need someone with ideas and resources to help promote the existing books, because my last royalty statement shows that Promoted Tweets and classified ads are not enough.

a reply to: DISRAELI

Boy oh boy. I've got secured musical copyrights thru Sony and Universal Music Groups.

At times depending...I get 1/2 of 1 cent x how many Worldwide plays......

a reply to: DISRAELI

Moreso you need a distributor after you get your work professionally edited ($1-2-3.00s per page).

Then? An agent isn't necessary. Not at all.

a reply to: mysterioustranger
I'm confident that what works for you in your situation will not work for me in my situation.

a reply to: DISRAELI

Quite the opposite. Many of us have been there. Take knowledge from all sides. And business is business.

I see between your lines already possibly demonstrated 5 avenues within your thread here...only not realizing it. Its evident...and promising at least to me, for you.

Therein is your problem...you need only those things you cannot achieve yourself with your writings and publishing. And its not easy...but you can achieve a lot.

Ive also written a fairy tale childrens book, and one on God. Id say...ALL im doing is exactly what one would hope for! And take it where you find it! Gods really pretty good in providing.

Best, dont quit......

Having been there and come back, I'd better give a summary of my impressions, which might help anyone else contemplating a first visit.

On the first day, I got to the door even earlier than intended. Not having a working watch, I set off using the time displayed on my laptop and allowed for summer time, forgetting that the laptop was already on summer time. Other early arrivals were gradually drifting towards the doors, and one anxious lady was trying to communicate with the security people standing ready on the other side, asking for a definite time when they would unlock.

I had a very pleasant encounter with an enthusiastic girl who must have been almost literally fifty years my junior. She asked me when the doors would open, and I had to admit that I was a first-time visitor myself, which was why I was holding back and letting someone else take the lead. Then she noticed the "Author" label on my Visitor's badge and was in danger of being a little over-awed, so I had to explain about my semi-amateur status. This was my first experience, incidentally, of receiving a badge by e-mail and having to print it out myself, collecting a lanyard inside the doors.

She said she was aspiring to be an author, hoping to write historical fiction. I've been a student of history since I was nine years old, so that awakened my interest (though I'd rather work out the real story from source documents than read a fictionalised version). On being questioned, she admitted that she did not have a specific era in mind and had not even read any history. She was interested in writing about epidemic diseases, so I offered a few thoughts to feed her imagination. I told her about the Victorian cleric who famously lost a clutch of daughters in a cholera epidemic, and about the scholar who researched the mind-set of fifteenth- century western Europe and concluded that they were obsessed with thoughts about death (thanks to the Black Death of the previous century). All this was interrupted when they started to summon us inside.

Almost the only people inside the halls at that early stage who those involved in setting up their own Exhibitor's stalls. I could find my way around in the absence of the crowds and work out where everything was. The "national" areas. The huge areas controlled by major publishers. The gallery where the smaller publishers were located. The large quadrant of desks assigned to the literary agents, arranged in rows. Some exhibitor areas had empty tables with seating, but I wasn't sure if they were really meant for the convenience of visitors looking for somewhere to drink their coffee, and did not take the risk.

The first leg of my task was supposed to be approaching the Christian publishers. I discovered, when I tried, that they were being represented by their book-selling departments rather than their publishing departments. One firm had two representatives squeezed into a small space, looking bored because nobody was approaching them, but still uninterested in engaging with me. They were willing to pass on my information, though, which works for me because I explain myself better in writing than across a table. It was a similar story round the corner at S.P.C.K. (one person covering a longer frontage), but at least I managed to offload a couple of my prepared "introduction packs".

I also exchanged contact details with another "self-publishing" firm, but this won't go anywhere because I don't have the cash to go down that route again. When I told Advantage that I was going to the Book Fair to look for publishers and literary agents, they offered to publish my next book free of charge, so I'm much more likely to take up that offer first.

I took some refreshment, and then the second leg was to be among the agents. I was on the look-out for the names of four firms which had listed "religion" among their areas of interest. In theory, agents would be more interested in authors as potential paying customers. But it was evident as I entered the area that the spaces were filled with people who had made advance appointments. I made one enquiry to confirm the point, and that was that, really. The catch-22 of not being able to contact someone unless you've contacted them first. But that still works for me, for the reason already given. The experience has gifted me with a more original opening paragraph for my letters of self-introduction; "I was hoping to meet you at the Book Fair, but not knowing the system...". That would make a change from a more banal "Let me introduce myself...", and by the time they get to the end of it they've already started reading.

After that, there wasn't much to be gained by spending any more time there. The advertised "networking" lunches and drinks sessions sounded inviting, but I could guess that they were really for the benefit of people who knew each other already. Nobody was going to approach a wallflower with an Author badge. There were also seminars designed to benefit authors, on topics like social media and "How to get a badass deal", but the intervals between them were long enough to leave me at a loose end. So I came home. I'm keeping the badge and lanyard, because there will be other occasions when it might be useful to identify myself.