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The London Book Fair (LBF) is a large book-publishing
trade fair A trade show, also known as trade fair, trade exhibition, or trade exposition, is an exhibition organized so that companies in a specific Industry (economics), industry can showcase and demonstrate their latest Product (business), products and se ...
held annually, usually in April, in
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
, England. LBF is a global marketplace for rights negotiation and the sale and distribution of content across print, audio, TV, film and digital channels.


History

In 1971, Lionel Leventhal, with business partner Clive Bingley, organised The Specialist Publishers’ Exhibition for Librarians, with 22 exhibitors displaying titles on tabletops. Subsequently, the scope and influence of the event grew and began to encompass bigger and more general publishers. In 1975, the initials LBF made their first appearance when the fair was renamed SPEX'75: The London Book Fair. By 1977 SPEX had been dropped and the title London Book Fair was born. Until 2006 the London Book Fair had been held at the Olympia exhibition centre, but it moved to the ExCeL Exhibition Centre in
Custom House A custom house or customs house was traditionally a building housing the offices for a jurisdictional government whose officials oversaw the functions associated with importing and exporting goods into and out of a country, such as collecting ...
that year. Due to generally unfavourable feedback from attendees over the new location, such as the inconvenience of transport links or the infrastructure of the location, as well as the intervention resulting from other exhibitions and their wandering visitors, the book fair returned to west London in 2007 and took place at
Earls Court Exhibition Centre Earls Court Exhibition Centre was a major international exhibition and events venue in London, England. At its peak it is said to have generated a £2 billion turnover for the economy. It replaced exhibition and entertainment grounds, original ...
from 16 to 18 April. After 2007, the London Book Fair was held at the Earls Court Exhibition Centre. In 2015 the LBF came back and took place in Olympia London on 14–16 April 2015 as part of London Book and Screen Week. After the success of the 43rd edition, in 2016, the London Book Fair stayed in Olympia. The London Book Fair has grown in size and importance over the years and is now considered as second only to the
Frankfurt Book Fair The Frankfurt Book Fair (German: , FBM) is the world's largest trade fair for books, based on the number of publishing companies represented. The five-day annual event in mid-October is held at the Frankfurt Trade Fair grounds in Frankfurt am ...
as "a mecca for European publishers, booksellers, rights agents and media trend-spotters". Within a history of 42 years leading in the book market and exhibition, more than 25,000 publishers, booksellers, literary agents, librarians, media and industry suppliers from over 100 countries now attend the fair, according to the figures given by Jacks Thomas, Director of the London Book Fair. Book publishers come to London to publicize their upcoming titles and to sell and purchase subsidiary and translation rights for books from other publishers. More than 1700 international exhibitors participate in The London Book Fair. The 50th event was due to take place in 2020 but was cancelled due to the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
, as a precaution.


Events

The fair itself covers a wide range of interests and markets within the publishing industry, including rights negotiation and the sales and distribution of content across print, audio, TV, film and digital channels, as well as more traditional forms of print publishing. There are many activities during the whole week of the London Book Fair, ranging from business meetings between publishing companies, introductions of titles to readers and visitors, many workshops and seminars to discuss current issues and trends in the industry, and the announcement of prizes and awards.


Awards

Prizes and honours given at the LBF include the Trailblazer Awards, celebrating young talent in publishing, and the LBF International Excellence Awards, held in partnership with the Publishers' Association. The London Book Fair Lifetime Achievement Award has been presented annually since 2004, recipients being: *2004 – John Lyons, Little, Brown, UK & USA *2005 – Lynette Owen,
Pearson Education Pearson Education, known since 2011 as simply Pearson, is the educational publishing and services subsidiary of the international corporation Pearson plc. The subsidiary was formed in 1998, when Pearson plc acquired Simon & Schuster's educatio ...
, UK *2006 – Christopher MacLehose, MacLehose Press, UK *2007 – Lord Weidenfeld, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, UK *2008 – Peter Mayer, Overlook Press and Duckworth, UK & USA *2009 – Drenka Willen, Harcourt, USA *2010 – Antoine Gallimard, Éditions Gallimard, France *2011 – Sonny Mehta, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., US *2012 – Jorge Herralde, Editions Anagrama, Spain *2013 – Michael Krüger, Hanser Verlag, Germany *2014 – Deborah Rogers, Rogers, Coleridge & White, UK *2015 – Peter Usborne, Usborne Publishing, UK *2016 – Gail Rebuck,
Penguin Random House Penguin Random House Limited is a British-American multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate publishing company formed on July 1, 2013, with the merger of Penguin Books and Random House. Penguin Books was or ...
, UK *2017 – Luiz Schwarcz, Companhia das Letras, Brazil *2018 – Sara Miller McCune,
SAGE Publishing Sage Publishing, formerly SAGE Publications, is an American Independent business, independent Academic publishing, academic publishing company, founded in 1965 in New York City by Sara Miller McCune and now based in the Newbury Park, California, ...
, US *2019 – Dorotea Bromberg, Brombergs Bokförlag, Sweden *2020 – Nigel Newton,
Bloomsbury Publishing Bloomsbury Publishing plc is a British worldwide publishing house of fiction and non-fiction. Bloomsbury's head office is located on Bedford Square in Bloomsbury, an area of the London Borough of Camden. It has a US publishing office located in ...
, UK *2021 – Margaret Busby, UK *2022 – Hiroshi Hayakawa *2023 – Klaus Flugge, Andersen Press, UK *2024 – YoungSuk (YS) Chi, US *2025 – Gloria Bailey, UK


Conferences

In 2015, the event also included a dedicated conference, The Publishing Digital Minds Conference, held on the Monday before the main fair, as well as an educational programme of more than 300 seminars and events as part of the Insights Programme.


Video game industry

A new focus of LBF 2015 was the attention to the
video game industry The video game industry is the tertiary industry, tertiary and quaternary industry, quaternary sectors of the entertainment industry that specialize in the video game development, development, marketing, distribution (marketing), distribution, ...
. With the development of digital technologies and an increasing level of engagement from people, especially children and young teenagers, many authors and publishers are looking for a new way to tell stories that can help readers have more interaction with the fantasy and gain new knowledge during the games. Several famous professionals from the gaming industry have been to the fair and given speeches about their ideas, concepts that help both publishing and gaming industries to push the boundaries and create a new form of media convergence.


Market Focus programme

The London Book Fair Market Focus programme showcases one particular country or region of note each year, with the objective of putting the spotlight on publishing trade links with this territory, its publishing industry and the opportunities for conducting business with the rest of the world. Market Focus countries and regions have included the
Arab world The Arab world ( '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, comprises a large group of countries, mainly located in West Asia and North Africa. While the majority of people in ...
,
India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
,
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
,
Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
,
Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
,
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
,
South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...
,
Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...
,
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
, Baltic Country – Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania,
Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...
.


London Book and Screen Week

Launched in 2014, London Book and Screen Week was designed to celebrate the importance of the book and the written word at the heart of creative content across all formats. Comprising a week of events, the pinnacle of the week was the London Book Fair for the 43rd edition. Taking place in a variety of venues across the capital, London Book and Screen Week welcomed all those involved in writing, reading and creating content for book and screens in all formats from e-reader to silver screen. It incorporated, among other things, the Publishing for Digital Minds Conference, the recently launched Tech Tuesday, writers from this year's Market Focus and a direct-to-consumer creative writing event. The week focused on the business of publishing and storytelling from concept to consumer, shining a spotlight on authors, industry leaders, screenwriters, agents, publishers, retailers, etailers, developers, technology gurus and start-ups.


Controversy

In 2012, the London Book Fair appointed China's censoring organization, the
General Administration of Press and Publication A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air and space forces, marines or naval infantry. In some usages, the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED Online ...
(GAPP), to choose which Chinese authors would be represented at the event. Chinese authors such as
Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...
winner Gao Xingjian were not invited. A representative of the
British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lang ...
, a large financial supporter of the book fair, applauded the decision, saying that the chosen authors were more representative because "they live in China and write their books there", in contrast with "other writers who have left." The exiled Chinese writer Ma Jian used red paint smeared across his face and a copy of his banned book '' Beijing Coma'' while he protested the event. He was also "manhandled" while attempting to present a copy of the book to Liu Binjie at the fair. A number of international and UK media covered the China Market Focus 2012 programme, including Isabel Hilton from ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
''.


See also

* London Map Fair


References


External links

* {{coord, 51.496, -0.211, type:event_globe:earth_region:GB, display=title Book Fair 1971 establishments in the United Kingdom Annual events in London Book fairs in the United Kingdom Fairs in England Recurring events established in 1971