London Book Fair 2025: the people behind the books

At the Helsinki Book Fair, I have one rule. If it doesn’t fit into a single canvas bag, I can’t take it home. Local libraries are fantastic here, but so is the book fair discount, and some titles I want to buy, lend, and keep. While this is the place to meet other translators, literary agents, and authors, Helsinki is all about the readers. What do they want to read, right now?

At the London Book Fair, I didn’t buy a single book. I got given some, and may have accidentally sold one.* London is much bigger than Helsinki, noisier, with few places to sit and even fewer readers. In London, it’s all about the trade, or who gets the books to you. What do they do to make books happen?

If you couldn’t make LBF25, here are ten things the people behind the books said. They are literary agents, publishers, editors, translators, and authors. Whatever your role in birthing a book, you’ll have heard some of this before, but not all. And it bears repeating:

1. Are you writing for yourself, or for your reader? A great book is not a monologue, but a dialogue. (Nelle Andrew, literary agent)
2. Behind the book, we are on the same team. As a literary agent, my fate is directly tied to yours, the author’s. (Nelle Andrew again!)
3. Judge a book by its cover? Visuals tell a story about the story. While the black-and-white cover photo is unique, its colourful frame lets you know you’re holding a Daunt Books classic. (Marigold Atkey)
4. If you can’t meet your deadline, say so asap. From developmental editor to printer, if the people taking the next steps know early, they can help shift the schedule. (Katharina Bielenberg)
5. It takes a year between submitting your final manuscript and publication day. How will you use that year? To write your next book? (Alexa von Hirschberg)
6. Translators have lots of questions about your text. If the author does not want to answer, they’ll ask translators of the same book into another language. Collegiality is key. (Michele Hutchinson)
7. Authors might need their space to create. Respect that, just as they trust your role in the creative process. (Christina Sandu)
8. The last thing we want is for publishers to be seen as sausage factories. Quality has to come before quantity. (Fabienne Michaud)
9. Working with an editor has its own a special alchemy. It is an important relationship. (Soreeta Domingo)
10. Put your magic cloak of confidence on to speak to new audiences at the fair – other bookish types know it’s not easy! (Harriet Evans)

If you’ve got this far, you’ll see I’ve only cited women. There is one man I want to thank: Ian Giles, for organizing the excellent Assembly of Literary Translators the day before LBF25. From the assembly, we entered the fair together as friends. Because of you all, I needed my magic cloak a bit less often.

*What about the free books? Some sellers can’t transport their display copies home. If you’re around at the end of the fair, they’re glad for you to take them. True to form, my bag closed (just!).

What about the accidental sale? At one of my favourite publisher’s stands, a buyer from another country was looking at a book I’d love to translate. I was so enthusiastic about it that she set off to contact the rights agent. Serendipity like this is the joy of in-person events. Let’s see what happens next…

new retreat dates – seuraavat retriitit