LONDON, 14 March 2024: The London Book Fair had its third and final day today, bringing the largest spring book trade and publishing event in the world to a close, with over 1,000 exhibitors and 30,000 attendees over the three days.

From publishers to authors, literary agents to booksellers, translators and VIPs, the last three days have seen representatives from the global book industry do business, share expertise, network and attend sessions covering key issues across the industry.

Gareth Rapley, Director of The London Book Fair, said: “What a brilliant Fair it’s been. We are delighted to see an incredibly strong attendance level across all days with excitement from start to finish – a testament to our compelling seminar programme and Fair offering overall. We’ve loved having Joseph Coelho and Michael Sheen attend today alongside many other inspiring panel speakers and VIP guests, and hope everyone enjoyed each day they came along and they had a productive Fair. We’re already looking forward to 2025!”

Clockwise from Left to Right: BookTok Panel with Joe.reads, Amy Andrawos, Anya Smith, Zubs; Caroline Cummins PA, Dame Caroline Dinenage MP, Chair of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, Gareth Rapley; Joseph Coelho, Children’s Author of the Day; Elmer the Elephant at Author HQ

Highlights from Day Three of the Fair: 

The final day of The London Book Fair opened with opening remarks from author and podcaster Kelechi Okafor, a video address by Bodour Al Qasimi, CEO of Kalimat Group, unveiling the shortlist of the PublisHER Excellence Awards, and a keynote panel on the Main Stage from SheEOs in Publishing, made up of Judith Curr the President & Publisher of the HarperOne Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Ameena Sayid, Founder and Managing Director of Lightstone Publishers and Emma House the Founder of Oreham.

Children’s Author of the Day, Joseph Coelho took to the Main Stage for a discussion with actor and broadcaster Greg McKenzie, where they shared insider tips for literary resources, inspirations, and how Joseph actually signed his first deal at LBF!

Over on Author HQ, YA Spotlight: How To Get Noticed in a Crowded Market, saw authors, Danielle Jawando and Lex Croucher join, Charlotte Eyre from The Bookseller and content creator Samantha Soar to talk about how to utilise BookTok with full impact to cut through the noise. 

Back at the Main Stage, Nicola Usborne, Managing Director at Usborne Publishing, Helen Freeman, Director of Oxford Children’s at Oxford University Press, Cassie Chadderton, Chief Executive of World Book Day, Jonathan Douglas, CEO of National Literacy Trust and Kelechi Okafor, sat down for a chat about cultivating a culture of reading for pleasure in a rapidly evolving digital world, sharing their insights into what the industry can do to captivate readers of all ages.

The Fair also welcomed Michael Sheen, Actor and Philanthropist, Farrah Storr from Substack, Tracey Markham, the Head of UK at Audible, writer Sunjeev Sahota, and Katy Shaw, Professor of Contemporary Writing and Publishing at Northumbria University, to the Main Stage for a phenomenal discussion about access and representation, exploring the state of play in the creative industries and access schemes and missions that are shaping the creative landscape.

Upon visiting the fair, Dame Caroline Dinenage MP, Chair of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee said: “The £11 billion value of the publishing industry to the British economy was apparent from today’s visit to the London Book Fair. From children’s books to fiction to academic textbooks, the UK has the strongest literary tradition in the world, and it is the publishing industry that maintains that tradition. I am very grateful to the Publishers Association for hosting me at the Book Fair today and for speaking to me about the challenges that the sector faces, which will greatly inform the work that the Committee is doing to support the UK’s world-beating creative industries.”

Diving into all things BooKTok, content creators Joseph Hall (@joe.reads), Amy Andrawos, Anya Smith, and Zubs Malik discussed BookTok’s undeniable influence on the book sales market sharing expert tips and advice for authors wanting to make their mark on the digital sphere.

SEMINAR PROGRAMME HIGHLIGHTS 

This year’s London Book Fair brought together internationally acclaimed authors, illustrators and translators from across the globe as well as exciting debut writers, including: Richard Osman, Dr Julie Smith, Steven Bartlett, Flavia Z Drago, Joseph Coelho, Kat Brown, Ameena Sayid, Geeta Pendse, Jonathan Karp, Jasmine Richards, Vicky Palmer, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Danielle Jawando and more.

LBF 2024 TOP DEALS

Day One Deals

• Gollancz has acquired The Unmagical Life of Briar Jones by author Lex Croucher, striking a six-figure deal for the novel and the author’s second standalone title 
• DK has acquired the new cookbook, Flavour, from chef and Darjeeling Express Owner Asma Khan
• John Murray has acquired Sir David Attenborough and Colin Butfield’s “landmark” book on the ocean after a five-way auction.  
• Headline Publishing Group, more specifically, non-fiction publisher Martin Redfern has acquired world all-language rights to Murder in the Gulag: The Life and Death of Alexei Navalny by veteran journalist and documentary maker John Sweeney 
• HQ has acquired Birthing, Davina McCall’s “positive guide” to conception, pregnancy and birth
• Viking has acquired The Quest for Strange: Why the Future Will Be Far Better and Far Weirder Than We Can Imagine, the debut book from Adam Mastroianni, experimental psychologist and writer of the Substack Experimental History 
• Hodder & Stoughton has acquired debut novel of Scottish journalist Emma Cowding, The Show Woman 
• In a seven-way auction, publisher Michelle Kane of Fourth Estate has acquired memoir, Inconceivable by Rebecca Coxon  
• Sphere has acquired debut novel The Retirement Plan by Sue Hincenberg 
• Pan Macmillan has acquired World Heptathlon Champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson’s “inspirational” memoir/manifesto, Unbroken 
• Penguin Michael Joseph has acquired Death at the White Hart, debut novel of “Broadchurch” creator Chris Chibnall 
• Hodder & Stoughton has acquired two veteran financial journalists’ examination of underground financial deals in Formula One, Caroline Reid and Christian Sylt’s book Fast Money: The Backroom Deals, Corporate Espionage, and Legendary Power Struggles that Drive Formula One 
• Publishing director Sarah Braybooke from Ithika Press, has bought world-English language rights to the book The Eighth House: A murder, a mother, a haunting, a part true crime, part memoir title from historical researcher Linda Segtnan  
• Profile Books has acquired What Does Israel fear from Palestine?, the new book by 2023 National Book Award finalist and human rights campaigner Raja Shehadeh 
• Hot Key Books has acquired YA fantasy Damien Ike and the Fallen House of Draven by artist and musician David Arlo and Glow Up, Lara Bloom author Dee Benson 
• The Borough Press has acquired Deep Cuts by Holly Bricklet, billed as Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow meets Daisy Jones and the Six.  
• Magic Cat has acquired She Speaks: The Women of Greek Myths, a feminist Greek myth reimagining title by “the new Mary Beard,” classicist Honor Cargill-Martin 
• Scriber has signed with two-time National Book Award Winner Jesmyn Ward. The first book is an essay collection, On Witness and Respair, which is to be published in 2025.  
• Summit Book has acquired Rob Franklin’s Great Black Hope, a “propulsive, glittering” debut novel about “race, class, addiction and love in all its complicated forms.”
• Europa editions has acquired Amanda by H.S Cross, set to be published in 2025.  
• Ingrid Gnerlich at Princeton University has acquired world rights to An Exploration of Time, by BBC host an author Jim Al-Khalili 
• Atria has acquired Life and Death in the Loop by Chicago Reader reporter Katie Prout 
• Bantam has acquired North American rights to two untitled crime fiction novels by prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump, intended to be a series

Day Two Deals

• Headline Review has acquired The Moonlit Maze, the debut adult novel from award-winning YA author Zoe Marriot 
• Sceptre has acquired the first historical novel from Australian author Emily Maguire, Rapture.  
• Harper Collins has pre-empted a literary horror debut novel from Emma Cleary, All those Strangers 
• HarperCollins is to publish The Collected Poems of JRR Tolkien by Christina Scull and Wayne G Hammond in September 2024 
• Canongate has acquired author and creative writing tutor Cathy Rentzenbrink’s book The Agatha Curve 
• Head of Zeus has acquired former foreign correspondent Alan Philips’ The Kremlin: Behind the Walls of Moscow’s Citadel 
• Quarto Kids has acquired a “heartwarming tribute to love…,” My Bright Shining Star, by Olympic medallist and javelin thrower Fatima Whitbread 
• Eriu has acquired champion Irish jockey Davy Russell’s autobiography, My Autobiography 
• Hamish Hamilton has signed a graphic novel project with bestselling nature writer Robert Macfarlane, actor-musician Johnny Flynn and artist Dave McKean to retell the Epic of Gilgamesh
• The Bridge Street Press has acquired world rights to Ben Wilson’s Coastlines: A Four-Billion Year Journey Along the World’s Seashores, for release in September 2026 
• Hodder Fiction has acquired Party of Liars, a thriller set from debut author Kelsey Cox 
• HarperNorth has acquired Bad Girls of Ancient Greece by debut author Lizzy Tiffin 
• Faber has acquired Diaries of Note by Letters of Note founder Shaun Usher 
• One More Chapter has landed a four-book deal with British Book Awards-shortlisted author Evie Woods, whose The Lost Bookshop was a digital-first hit that also turned into a print bestseller 
• Penguin Michael Joseph has acquired You Yeong-Gwang’s “uplifting and transportive novel,” The Rainfall Market 
• Quercus Fiction has acquired the rights to Emma Pei Yin’s debut When Sleeping Women Wake and one other novel

Day Three Deals

• Walker Books has acquired a trio of books by Flavia Z Drago, the Illustrator of the Fair at the 2024 London Book Fair 
• Manilla has pre-empted Niamh Ni Mhaoileoin’s “captivating” debut, Ordinary Saints,  exploring “family grief, queer identity and the legacy of the Catholic Church in Ireland” 
• Penguin Michael Joseph has acquired publishing director Leodora Darlington’s debut thriller The Exes 
• John Murray has acquired Broken Country by Clare Leslie, a “love triangle with the pulse of a thriller 
• Bloomsbury Publishing has acquired Jo Harkin’s move to historical fiction with her novel The Pretender 
• Del Rey UK and US have acquired Silvercloak, the first romantic fantasy from award-winning YA author Lauren Steven 
• Canongate has signed up Simon Garfield’s “lively, idiosyncratic and global history” of The Pen 
• Yellow Kite has signed with self-development coach, inspirational speaker and manifesting expert Roxie Nafousi; the as-yet-untitled new book will be published in spring 2025 
• HarperCollins has pre-empted Lime Juice Money by debut author Jo Morey, which combines “the transportation of The Beach with the earthy intoxication of The Paper Palace.” 
• Granta has acquired Dr. Kulbhushansingh Suryawanshi’s The Ghost of the Mountains: Unravelling the Secrets of the World’s Most Elusive Big Cat 
• Irish indie Little Island Books has signed a two-book deal with Leon Diop, co-author of Black&Irish: Legends, Trailblazers and Everyday Heroes, which won the teen and YA award at the 2023 An Post Irish Book Awards and is on the Children’s Non-Fiction Book of the Year shortlist at the British Book Awards 

William Collins has acquired the first book by Patrick Grant, fashion designer, tailor and judge on the BBC’s “The Great British Sewing Bee”.

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