I visited the London Book Fair yesterday. This was only my second visit. I went before in 2010. There is no doubt that  it is an impressive sight – the Earl’s Court Exhibition Center full of trade stands for publishers, distributors, author services and self publishing companies.  Its the Annual gathering of the book industry in the UK. Vital for Publishers and  distributors. But is it worth a visit as an author?

The short answer is it depends. It depends on what you are trying to get out of it. If your intention is to turn up with your unpublished manuscript, stride up to Harper Collins and slap it on the table and say how much for this then? Well, you would be disappointed. What LBF is not is an opportunity for authors to pitch to agents or publishers. The agents and publishers have full diaries meeting each other and distributors and agreeing deals, assigning rights etc.  The right way to approach the book fair is as an information gathering exercise and really at least as much from the publishing side of being a self published author as the author bit. In other words if you are looking for a company to assist you with publishing, proof reading etc then there were many such companies present. Likewise if you needed help with e-book conversion and sales, audio books and animated books for Ipads etc then there were plenty of people to talk to.

When I visited in 2010 I attended talks heralding the coming of Kindle to the UK and the use tablets like Ipads for books. In the 4 years since then a revolution in publishing has come – or rather 2 revolutions. E-books are taking a large and increasing share of the market but also the world has seen the creation of a good umber of Self Published Millionaires and many if not millionaires quite successful authors who made their fame or fortune via Kindle, Kobo etc. What was interesting yesterday was that I attended a couple of talks by these authors – something that would not have occurred in 2010 and this shows the growth of the Indie sector.

So what did I do at the fair? Well when I arrived I first had a meeting with Helen Hart of Silverwood publishing. I am self published and wanted Mercia Books to continue but was looking at hiring in a few services like typesetting to improved the look of the books. LBF is ideal for that type of talk. It was nice to catch up with Helen as I had last seen her at the Historical Novel Conference in 2012.  I then strolled around the stalls and found someone I knew from UK Games Expo – Racheal Wyatt of Coiledspring selling games related to books and words.

I had lined up a few Seminars to attend and the first one then began. There are a number of streams of seminars around LBF. Some are very technical, some focused on Publishers and larger companies and of no value to authors. They do however have an Author HQ where a series of talks of use for authors took place. Another nearby Tech Theatre was home to short 20 minute presentations by a series of companies on e-book services and distribution.

The two major seminars I took in were:

Independent Bestselling Authors Discuss Using Kindle Direct Publishing And CreateSpace To Fuel Readership Growth. UK Kindle Direct Publishing Manager, Darren Hardy hosted this and interviewed Indie authors Tim Ellis and Mel Sherrat both of whom write full time and have successful Indie careers.

Then later (after the two techie talks) I went to Eating The Cake, Too: The New Breed Of “Hybrid” Authors Have The Best Of Both Worlds. 
This time it was Diego Marano, Manager, UK, Kobo Writing Life interviewing Hugh Howey, Author – a extremely successful Indie Author.

What was clear from their conversations was that, to the disappointment I felt of some of the crowd, that there is no magic, quick route to success. Nor was there a single template or agreement  on  the best approach.

The bottom line seemed to be keep writing. Finish one book and get the next one started. Ensure the books are well edited and presented. Outside of that  there was  a wide approach to other aspects of writing. So one author was adamantly opposed to free books, whilst another swore by giving away free books as a route to getting a following. One might focus on marketing and another hardly do anything. The only thing they did agree on is getting a number of titles out there and ensuring they were well produced.

Afterwards, speaking to Kobo and Barnes and Noble I discovered I had missed the fact that they were both accepting direct submissions from Authors in the UK (not just via Smashwords). They were able to give me information about this.

SO is it worth a visit as an author? Yes if you go along with the aim of learning about self publishing and sourcing services or else plan to listen and learn from the other authors. Just don’t expect to get a five book deal by bumping into the CEO of  a Big Six company.

I went to the London Book Fair today (April 2010).
I thought I would feed back a bit on it.

So WHY did I go?
I am only a self published Author and in fact I am my own publisher ( http://www.merciabooks.co.ukand http://www.richarddenning.co.uk is the obligatory quick plug). Well firstly I had decided to put my books on the new Title Shelf and wanted to see what else was on it. Secondly they run a few seminars and Thirdly I wanted to talk to two of the distributors.

As I walked round I noticed a lot of empty booths and I later read in the newsletter that many dozens of overseas publishers could not get in (due to Icelandic Ash of course).

So was it worth going?
“Depends” is the answer. Depends on what you go for.

I already knew this in advance so I did not try to, but LBF is NOT the place to go and pitch your manuscript (although there are some opportunities in the Authors Lounge run by Author House to get some opinion on it). Publishers are basically there to sell books already on their lists to distributors and Agents to agree deals with Publishers.

I spoke to two distributors that I had already sent books to under their New Publisher arrangements (aiming to be listed as IN Stock and not just available on POD). There were not as scary and unfriendly as I thought they might be. I was able to get some contact info and useful advice. Bottom line is whatever and however you are published they will decide to Stock your books if YOU can demonstrate demand. Of course it is a bit chicken and egg as many shops will only agree to stock IF distributors carry the books but I think that you have to show a market exists for your book.

I then attended two seminars on e-books:

“The Digital Reading Market in 2010 and afterwards” was an overview and “i-everything: The Publishing World According to Apple” was basically all about the Ipad. I was not surprised to find it very well attended and standing room only. There is an image on my site (sorry poor quality taken on an ancient mobile)
Ipad Seminar image:

Ipad Talk

The take home measure will not surprise anyone here. Ebooks reader and book sales are growing as pretty much an exponential rate. Industry is getting behind the new tech in a large way. As an example we were told that General Motors and three other US mega corporations all recently paid £25,000 per day to run 4 adverts in the Ipad version of the New York TImes.
the prediction is that releases of thousands of apps for Ipad will make it vastly adopted across huge swathes of many industries. The recommendation was that publishers need to start thinking about multimedia content rich means of distribution of their books. IN otherwords its not just enough to to convert your MS to epub and have it on Smashwords. You need to start thinking about Flashmovies and interactive content in your books. This will make it hard for many to compete but open the door to others who maybe are self publishers but who can adapt to the new technology.

I then attended a seminar by Authoright on marketing and publicity. He reinforced what I already knew that we all must be active on Facebook and Twitter, we must write news releases and send them out (especially locally where YOU might be news). Try and do talks at bookshops or events on subjects related to the book but not necessarily about the book. Same principal on forums etc – talk about info folk want to listen. Then of course he went on to advise hiring him 😉 which is no surprise. But what he would do (or other marketing guys would do) or you could do your self I guess is look for a unique story/ aspect/ brand to you as a writter. What is interesting about you and your book. Then they use that. So are you a Polar Explorer writing about your travels etc? Find that ANGLE and exploit it.
He did say that there is no problem being self published IF you have a marketable book and an Angle to exploit.

I had my book on the New Title Shelf. BUT somehow they had lost 1 of the three (Tomorrow’s Guardian). Fortunately I had copies with me. Being on the Shelf means you get a shelf to yourself or maybe shared with others. The books are cover forward. The books are listed on line and in the show catalogue. I popped back a few times and dribs and drabs of folk were browsing. Hopefully over 3 days someone might pick the books up! Value for money? I am not convinced. I will let you know if I get any contact as a result.

Overall I enjoyed the visit. If I was honest it was nice to see the world of publishers and publishing and pretend I was part of it.
Back to the real world tomorrow 😉