The London Book Fair 2024
NOTES from the ALLEY #9
This week, a run-down on my experience at The London Book Fair 2024, 12-14 March. First off, the venue. The Olympia in London is a gigantic double-train station-sized venue, and about to get MUCH bigger—the whole thing was covered in enormous steel-girder scaffolding, with a huge multi-story complex rising from its west end.
OK, so I didn’t actually walk around it two whole times trying to find the entrance, but I did come at it from the far south west corner, which was equidistant from the two main entrances, and I did walk both ways twice wondering if I was even in the right place because it looked way more construction zone than cozy book fair. My bad. Other people looked just as baffled.
Once inside, the elaborateness of the booths for all the different publishers and vendors far exceeded anything I imagined. Some of them looked like full-on bookstores, shelves and all. Most of these also had large seating areas with tables around which many people sat facing many other people, and that’s where I got a little hung up.
Regular Channels = Good?
My dear friend, Carolyn, who I’ve known since college and has lived in London for 28 years, was equally mystified by the “business” that seemed to be transpiring at all these tables, between all these people. We spent most of our time lost and wondering.
“What could they be talking about?”
“Why would anyone come to a book fair with their usual business transactions?”
“Aren’t there channels? There must be channels for this sort of thing. Why here?”
“Don’t they have offices? Wouldn’t an email be easier than this madhouse?”
“Wouldn’t this all be lovelier from the comfort of your own desk rather than schlepping forms and laptops around this mob scene?”
It’s true the London Book Fair is mainly for people in publishing, and so one assumes they know what they’re doing. But many of the author-y sorts like me were just wandering around at loose ends.
And then the agents. There were a bunch of them, I didn’t talk to any, and here’s why: I queried 60 agents for my first novel, Watrspout, with no luck—no hard feelings, etc etc. But I just really wasn’t sure how to go about contacting agents ahead of time to meet with them at LBF, and honestly, I didn’t want to go through my list of agents who had already said “No thanks” and try to parse out a new list of additional agents. And then what? Contact each of them beforehand and ask if they would meet me with me at LBF? Barge in and demand to be considered? No, no, no. Again, it just seems to me the usual channels are the best way to go, and jumping through hoops at a book fair feels…awkward? Not me, anyway.
Author HQ
Amazon and Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) set up the Author HQ in a far corner past the children’s books section, and that was where I concentrated my efforts. They had a number of speaker sessions about diversity in publishing from a writer’s perspective, and about self-publishing, obviously, as that is the whole point of KDP.
While it’s true I had never heard of any of these self-published authors, they all seemed quite savvy and prosperous. Several have won the Kindle Storyteller Award in years past, and—similar to Substack—KDP and Amazon (please hold the hissing) have created something of an ecosystem for authors who have either fallen through the cracks of traditional publishing, or don’t care for all the gatekeeping and glacial pace.
I wouldn’t say I learned A LOT from all of these sessions, having already done a fair amount of research into self-publishing, and actually experiencing the early growing pains of being a new author. But here are a few bits I gleaned:
Kindle Direct Publishing offers not just ebook publishing, but also paperback and hardback on-demand printing, special promotions, ads, and other services—so you can do (must do, really) a lot more than just upload your book and wait for sales.
HOWEVER. Apparently, bookstores will NOT stock books through KDP, so if that’s your only distributor, you will never have the holy experience of walking into a bookstore and seeing your own title on the shelf. Sorry.
You will have to go with some other self-publishing/distribution option as well, which, considering how relatively easy they make it all these days with clicks and uploads in your pajamas, is well worth the effort.
IngramSpark is one of these distribution options.
I’ve also heard that you can publish books through different sites like Barnes and Noble, because some people simply won’t give money to Amazon—so that’s worth investigating: for a little extra effort, you capture more eyeballs and sales by going through more than one marketplace.Oh! I asked about author copies of your books—what if you want to take a bunch to speaking/signing events, your local bookseller, or give to friends/family/associates/random passersby? KDP sells them to you at cost, about $5ish for your average paperback novel.
If (like me) you don’t want to invest in a formatting software like Atticus or Scrivener, and just want to write your books in GoogleDocs or Word like a Luddite, KDP has Kindle Create, a free software to manage all that formatting. Check out the link for all the bells and whistles.
The Kindle Storyteller Award is apparently open to any book published through KDP from May 1st to August 31st. Although you must publish through Amazon.co.uk, the prize is £20,000…! I’m not sure why it’s not available through Amazon US, maybe they have a different but similar prize? Worth checking out…
One of the bonuses of KDP is your own Author Page (examples from speakers below) which you can trick out with information about yourself, all your books, etc. Apparently, you can also nudge the algorithm by recommending books by other similar authors so that buyers of their books will also see recommendations for yours. Worth a looksee at Author Central to claim your page at the same time as publishing your first book.
Someone urged us to consider launching three books, rather than one, which jibes with other wisdom I’ve heard that the most successful self-published authors have a pipeline. Apparently, if a reader buys one book, there’s a 75% chance they will buy another one from the same author, and 90% chance they will then buy a third. If you are only launching one book, and don’t have another one available for the reader to buy, they will move on and probably forget about you pretty quickly.
What this also means is that the self-publishing game is heavily weighted toward genre fiction—mystery, crime, thriller, romance and sci-fi/fantasy—where you are either publishing multiple titles with the same protagonist, for example, or maybe a completed trilogy rather than a standalone book. Several of the speakers mentioned writing as many as 4-8 books/year, which is crazy and suspicious, but hey, there’s a screw for every nut, so carry on.
(Sorry, literary fiction—you get the short end of the stick again.)On the flipside, if you are an LGBTQ+ author, on average you stand to make 30-40% more by self-publishing than you would through traditional venues, and this is true for successful authors in all genres, all demographics. (Don’t quote me—this is from memory—and it was KDP’s statistic.)
I take this to mean that if you are serious about publishing—treating it as a career rather than a hobby—you can ultimately have more control and make a better living by self-publishing rather than depending on the Byzantine system of traditional publishing and book sales.The next wave of the self-publishing paradigm is Direct Sales, where you promote your books and attract readers directly to your own e-commerce site, rather than selling through Amazon or other marketplaces. Does that mean handling orders and packaging books and schlepping down to the post office? Not at all. Vendors like LuluDirect and BookVAULT will publish and fulfill orders for you.
What about marketing, publicity, SEO, cover design, copyediting, proofreading and all that other crap that takes a long time to learn/do—time away from writing? There are all-in-one “hybrid” services like Troubador and BookBaby which take care of all of that for you. Some of them can get pricey, though, so do your homework.
And don’t overlook audiobook formats! Not every author was super-keen on them, but some said they get significant sales—readers who listen to books are often loyal—and there’s the very nice idea that you are helping out people with visual impairments. Someone mentioned ACX for audiobooks.
LBF Speaker Amazon Author Pages:
G J Ogden 2023 Kindle Storyteller Award Winner
Peter Gibbons 2022 Kindle Storyteller Award Winner
Rachel McLean 2021 Kindle Storyteller Award Winner
The question, then, is whether the London Book Fair is worth it for a newer, unpublished author with virtually no industry contacts?
Five minutes after walking in—shedding two layers because it was broiling hot and having to carry them around; not being able to find one of the lanyards everyone was wearing and then misplacing my badge; frantically dashing back to an overcrowded, SRO speaker session where I thought I might have dropped it; bumping into one of the janitorial staff and receiving a VERY disdainful glare; and then finding my badge in one of my shed layers’ pockets—I said to myself, “This might have been a mistake.” 😭
It was unbelievably crowded. If, like me, you prefer the company of dandelions to people; if your neurodivergence sends you screaming away from ambiguity, long lines, and the not-so-dull roar of thousands of conversations; if you would rather set your hair on fire than walk up to a total stranger and ask for the anti-venom to a snakebite, then the London Book Fair might not be for you.
Also, if you have mobility or fatigue issues, you could have a hard time maneuvering around the throng of people. Despite the thousands of chairs in the individual areas that were generally guarded by staff and occupied only by persons with legitimate business, there was virtually nowhere to sit down.
I might have adopted my very finest British hauteur for the online feedback survey I received the next day, in which I suggested that “It’s time for the London Book Fair to grow up and not force grown-ass adults to sit on the floor just to catch a breather in between sessions and appointments.” Pish posh.
Am I glad I went? Well, I’ve never been one to say I’m glad I did something just to say I’ve done it, but I have done, so there you go—no regrets. It was great to see my friend, and we had some lovely Lebanese and Persian food steps away from the venue, and a trip to The National Gallery, so all’s well that ends well.
I will not be going back, thank you very much.
I would, however, consider going to the Coast is Queer—“The UK's Biggest & Brightest LGBTQ+ Literature Festival”—near Brighton this coming 10-13 Oct.
Happy Book Trails, Friends!
💜🐈⬛🎩
THREAD: “What we talk about when we talk about ‘Song of Myself’”
SoM, v. 13 | “In me the caresser of life wherever moving, backward as well as forward sluing, To niches aside and junior bending, not a person or object missing, Absorbing all to myself and for this song.” | AUDIO
Blimey. That really sounds like a clustrfuck and, honestly, I'm glad you went so that I never have to (🙏). That's a wealth of information, though, and I thank you for sharing it. I love the idea of writing a book, one day--and I shudder at the thought of publishing a book, one day. It seems like such a minefield. Makes me even more in awe of the people who manage it. Relieved that you got to meet the Gruffalo, at least ! 💜🧡💛
Oh my. Sounds like a mix of overwhelming and underwhelming all at once! Blech. Buuuut, the information you’ve provided is much appreciated. So thank you for taking one for the team!