A Magical London Book Fair 2009


Back from the London Book Fair after two very hectic and productive days. Can’t say it’s the best way to spend two gorgeous hot sunny days in England stuck in a giant air-conditioned hanger in the middle of London but needs must, and it was great to see so many friends in the publishing and bookselling world, and meet people who I’ve connected with on LinkedIn and on Facebook.

The London Book Fair seemed to be buzzing with activity with everyone in a positive and upbeat mood. Not so the taxi drivers who say that business in the capital is certainly down on this time last year. Though judging by the number of tourists on the embankment and river tours on Sunday I’d say the visitor figures must be well up. Those who live and work in London though (according to my source) are letting the tube take the strain. The buses seemed to be faring well and the number of cyclists whizzing along the busy fuel-choked roads seemed to spawn daily while we were there.

Anyway back to the London Book Fair. I met with my agent from Brazil who is very upbeat about my novels and has considerable interest from a number of publishers and producers in both Latin America and North America. My agents in Spain and Italy also had interest from publishers for translation rights, so fingers crossed. And it was nice to catch up with Hani, my agent from the Middle East and Samy from the Far East.


While on the stand I had a surprise visit from Paul Daniels – yes, the magic man. It was great to see him and in no time at all he had a small audience enthralled by his magic tricks. He promised to follow my antics on Twitter! He was at the London Book Fair to promote his creation Wizbit, written by Justine Maynard and published by HandE Publishers.

There was considerable interest in e books, the publishing industry finally seems to be waking up to the fact that e books are here to stay and will continue to evolve and grow, as will Internet book sales. Self-publishing is another growth area and is becoming increasingly popular as a means for new authors to get their books out there.

It was also good to meet with journalists, my e book and audio publisher, Summersdale Publishing, and my business book publisher, Crimson, who gave me a copy of the jacket cover of one of my new business titles due to be published in August 2009. They’re doing a big marketing push behind the launch of a major new series of business books including my titles: Successful Marketing, Successful Sales and Successful Customer Service. As soon as I have jpegs, I’ll post them here and put links where you can view details.

Today is the final day of the London Book Fair, and although I am not there, my marine mystery novels and thrillers are, so hopefully they will attract more interest from publishers, booksellers and readers around the world. Many people stopped by the stand to tell me how much they loved my rugged, edgy detective, Inspector Horton and to them I very grateful. I hope many more will enjoy reading my crime novels in the months and years ahead.

Comments

Author said…
Hi Pauline, it sounds like you had a fabulous time. The book fair sounds like a thrilling event to be involved in - maybe for the future. My agent and foreign rights team were there as well and hopefully pushing my books. Thanks for updating me on J&W, by the way. Great to hear it was featured.Maybe by this time next year I'll have a name behind me and will be asked along. See you at Crimefest, an event I'm really looking forward to. Matt
crimeficreader said…
Pauline, myself and two others - who I'm sure you'll bump into at Crimefest - popped by yesterday afternoon, but I was told you weren't there. I was going to say hello again.

Are you at Crimefest for the whole weekend? If so, I hope to bump into you there.
Pauline Rowson said…
So sorry I missed you(and two others) at the London Book Fair. I'm only at CrimeFest on Friday but I hope to see you then.

Popular posts from this blog

If you like Peter James, John Harvey, Ann Cleeves and Peter Robinson you'll like Pauline Rowson's crime novels

Marvik is about to face his biggest challenge in mystery thriller FATAL DEPTHS, no 4 in the series.