This year’s London Book Fair started off on Monday with Nielsen‘s well-orchestrated Quantum Conference, which focused on consumers: what they want and how to meet their expectations. Sessions covered the typical day of a consumer using the internet and included sessions hosted by Google and Facebook, as well as talks by several publishers about their innovations. Experiments are starting with virtual reality (read our take on virtual reality and publishing), and video is increasingly important: HarperCollins’ Lisa Sharkey talked about how authors are using HarperCollinsLive on Facebook, and F+W‘s James Woollam spoke of vertical communities of enthusiasts, which are both online and offline (think events, retreats, membership). Not surprisingly, research was a big part of the day – Penguin Random House‘s Louise Vinter talked of marketers as “clue hunters,” amassing consumer information from a range of sources, from social media to “shopalongs.” Nielsen gave stats that tracked most U.S. sales, except that men are buying 6% more print books over last year.
LBF itself ran Tuesday–Thursday, and was packed for the first two days, as per usual. Children’s seemed a little lighter, despite a better schedule than last years, when Bologna preceded it by a few days. This year, Bologna follows in early April. (Next year LBF returns to April 10-12.)
A hot topic at the fair this year was the persistence of print. Several publishers seem buoyed by the fact that print is outselling ebooks handily and hope the trend will continue. But respect was still paid to digital, particularly the impressive growth of audiobooks, which are gaining traction across Europe as downloading becomes easier (thanks, in part, to Audible‘s entry into several new markets like Italy).
As many pre-fair write ups had mentioned, notably absent from this year’s fair was a buzz book for agents and publishers to compete for. But what was selling were psychological thrillers, despite stated lack of enthusiasm for those titles from agents and publishers alike. The fiction trend that does seem to emerging is escapist literature allowing people to disconnect from today’s fraught political landscape, on both sides of the Atlantic. As ever, The London Book Fair itself offered a welcome escape from New York, and a reminder of the global community of publishing.
