London Book Fair

The London Book Fair is going on right now (sighs wistfully) and the word for the day apparently is hope and optimism, though that is coming with cautious and realistic advances (never, to be honest, a bad thing).

Victoria Barnsley, chief executive of HarperCollins, is interviewed about the future of the industry, and along with the same message of publishing ticking along with only slightly more cautious steps in the face of the global economic downturn, she discusses the future of publishing and predicts that this will be the year that traditional publishing finally hits the right mark with use of digital technologies. A few interesting comments about Lulu and self publishing, too!

Meanwhile, Agent Kristin is scoping out the London Book Fair herself, with hot new soon-to-be-published YA author Sarah Rees Brennan as her comedy sidekick. While Kristin posts tantalising pics and insightful commentary of the event, Sarah as ever produces a surreal and delicious travelogue of chaos and crazy.

Sighs. Book fairs. Why don't we have these in Australia? Okay it would be a LONG way to come for German and Finnish publishers who want to snap up book rights, but... we can bribe with lamingtons!