~Written by Ariel Stevenson
Volunteering at the London Book Fair is an experience I won’t soon forget (for all the right reasons). We arrived in London early Monday morning but didn’t start at the fair until Tuesday. As is typical for London, it was raining. We huddled outside the entrance next to all the other fair-goers with our umbrellas and bags.
If you’ve ever been to a Comic Convention or a similar event, then you’ll understand the sight we were greeted with upon entering (minus the Spiderman cosplay).
LBF booths at the Olympia Exhibitions Center
Booths upon booths of publishers, audiobook companies, and book merchandise businesses crowded the green carpet. Many of them were still setting up for the day as we passed, but each had shelves upon shelves of books and book-related products on display.
We met up with the event coordinator who gave us our LBF volunteer shirts and assignments. Lucky for us, we got to work the Main Stage. Despite its name, the Main Stage was actually a fairly small room. Holding only 150 people, most fair-goers had to pick and choose which panels they wanted to attend and then decide if it was worth queueing for an hour before.
As a volunteer, I started by helping with the time cue cards. I listened in on Jonathan Karp’s chat about Simon & Schuster and what to expect from them in the coming years. I heard about some of the copyright issues publishers are facing with the rise of AI. And I learned about the issues publishers from Italy, Spain, multiple countries in Africa, and other places are facing that are unique to their regions. Then the real fun started.
For the rest of that day and the next two, I worked the queue for the Main Stage. This involved, yes, helping people find the line for an upcoming panel on the Main Stage, but it was also answering a lot of questions. While the panels and chats inside were in
Panel on ‘A Writing Chance: Do the Creative Industries Have Diversity Fatigue?’ with speakers Michael Sheen, Farah Storr, Tracey Markham, Sunjeev Sahota, and. Katy Shaw
teresting, I enjoyed the outside portion more because it was interactive. I talked with people from all over the world about their jobs, the books they were reading, the ones they hated and loved, and anything else that was on their minds that day. I even had a photographer use me as a stand-in for Michael Sheen so he could get his lighting right before the panel started (the photographer said I could put that on my resume, so watch out world).
It also made for an interesting day when the panels for popular authors or celebrities (insert second reference to Michael Sheen) were next on the schedule.
The queue would
wrap around two sides of the upper level as people excitedly waited to grab a seat for the chat. As I noted before, the Main Stage could only hold about 150 people total, however, since fair-goers were not cleared from the room after the end of each panel, the number shrunk significantly. The
Author of the Day on Day 1—Taylor Jenkins Reid
lines for Taylor Jenkins Reed and Richard Osman drew—what seemed to be—half the fair. One poor woman sobbed for twenty minutes after she made it to the front of the line, then couldn’t get in when the room hit capacity. The pas
sion for these authors and panels was palpable, and I wouldn’t be surprised if some of this passion didn’t bleed through to LBF’s customer feedback surveys.
On top of this, I met fellow publishing students from grad schools across England. After getting through the initial surprise that, yes, we’re from New York and yes, it is far away, they were great! Most of their programs seemed to be one year long, but it was also full-time with day-time classes required. Many of them didn’t currently have jobs in publishing unlike many of our Pace students. It was a relief to learn that breaking into publishing in England is just as difficult as in the States. It was also interesting to note how different international publishing seemed to be. The things they were learning in their courses prepared them for publishers in England, but not necessarily for the States. While much translates, there’s a good deal more that doesn’t.
At the end of the fair on Thursday, I was beyond tired, but also happy. I met many cool people in the industry (some of whom I followed on various social media channels) and took home fun swag (ask me about the Spotify tote). If you ever get the chance to attend the London Book Fair (or see Michael Sheen from a distance), I recommend it!