LBF

A break in the nascent blog for a rather tiring, dissolute time at the London Book Fair. I was running around scaring up (inventing?) stories, writing them up and then, sometime mid to late afternoon, the drinks start. First at publishers' stands, then in the pub, to a publisher's party and then who knows where (and believe me, I still don't know where).

I don't know if any real business gets done at LBF now, particularly on the rights side - agents have told me that no deals are agreed at the fair, even if there is a hot book, a lot of checking has to be done with head offices. So maybe it's solely about meeting folk face to face - and a piss up.

I met someone who runs trade shows (not for Reed, the LBF backers) who cheerfully admitted to me that they are a 'scam.' 'I sell air and space', he said. 'And the best thing, is that once you get people to come, they have to come next year because they get scared they'll miss out on some business.' And then he laughed demonically and disappeared in a sulphurous puff of smoke.