THURSDAY 14 APRIL 2016

VISIT PW AND BOOKBRUNCH AT STAND 6C75

UK Fair exhibitors remain upbeat

Publishers yesterday maintained the positive mood that prevailed at the opening of the London

said: “I like West London, because our visitors prefer it.”

Book Fair, writes Neill

Denny, with optimism about the business and approval for the Fair venue.

London has become a credible alternative to Frankfurt. There are many Americans who are coming to London and are liking it very much. I am enjoying this week. Some years ago it wasn’t taken seriously.”

Stephen Page of Faber described the mood as “really great. There’s a reason there’s a deal frenzy, and we are having an excellent rights fair.”

Tom Weldon, CEO of
Penguin Random House,

At wholesaler Gardners, MD Jonathan Little was “very busy”, and added: “London is now international; we have to be here.”

Amanda Ridout of Head of Zeus and Richard

Charkin of Bloomsbury were among those using the word “confidence”.

International visitors happy

Hachette CEO Tim Hely

Hutchinson said: “It seems very busy, my staff are very happy. Confidence is good, people are pleased to see the market is stabilising and that the print market is up.

“We have the money but we want to put it on the right books. LBF has become more important, it is now a pretty full blown rights fair–it has become indispensable.”

Enrique Parrilla, CEO of Lantia, a Spanish publishing conglomerate from Seville, praised the quality of the LBF’s attendees, which he said were of a “high calibre”, writes Edward Nawotka. He also praised the seminars: “If I wasn’t here looking for partners to expand our international distribution, I could have spent the entire day attending seminars.”

interesting–it is one of the main reasons I come”. Lopez-Del Amo deals in rights from a variety of European markets, and noted that it was now much easier to come to London and have meetings in and round the Rights Centre, which he described as “more casual” than the one at Frankfurt.

Gordon Fournier of National Geographic said that though he was more or less pinned to his booth, he felt the Fair was “busier than last year, for sure.”

INSIDE:

MAN BOOKER INT’L

SHORTLIST

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Ian Chapman, CEO and

Publisher at Simon &

CHIKI SARKAR Q&A

Schuster, also talked about the key role of LBF: “It’s upbeat–although the way you feel all depends on the books, and there is money around for the right books.

The sentiment was echoed by David Lopez-Del Amo, of the Beijing-based Sinicus literary agency, who said that when he has a chance to pull himself away from working the Rights Centre, he has found “the conferences are all

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LONDON BOOK FAIR GALLERY

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Gallimard’s director of foreign rights, Anne-Solange Noble, said: “Of course, as one of my colleagues has said before, in no other country is the Rights Director so important to the author as in France, because we don’t have a culture of literary agents–so here, in London, I am very busy.”