Book Fairs

As you would expect, headlines fueled the party conversations the night before the opening of the London Book Fair, focused on the new ceo of Simon & Schuster and the war in the Middle East. The traditional Monday night WME and Harper parties buzzed with news of Greg Greeley’s appointment, with eyebrows raised over his background at Amazon and how long he will stay in the job until KKR exits their investment, already two-and-a-half years into their “base case” of five to seven years of ownership. Meanwhile, in the virtual world, people were obsessing over New York Magazine’s What Do […]

The London Book Fair will move the international rights center in the Olympia this year, the Bookseller reports. The move comes after a “chaotic” time in the rights center last year, according to WME head of international rights Tracy Fisher, when the center was split into two sections due to construction at the Olympia, and portions of the ceiling fell down. “Layout changes were made this year due to concerns around the 2025 show, leading to some exhibitors deciding not take tables this year, or attend at all,” the Bookseller notes. Canongate also decided not to exhibit at the Olympia […]

As construction to revamp the Olympia convention center is due to wrap up over the next year or so, the London Book Fair will move to Excel in east London starting in 2027, scheduled for March 16–18. The move is part of a multi-year deal. LBF tried Excel for one year in 2006, when it was widely disliked (and briefly gave rise to plans for a competitive event organized in London in the Frankfurt Book Fair). The Fair details their unusual set of priorities in a statement, “After careful and extensive consultation with the industry, the LBF Advisory Board felt […]

Though many attendees felt like the Frankfurt Book Fair was quieter than last year, FBF reports that trade attendance for Wednesday and Thursday, the industry days of the fair, was up 3 percent. Visitors also increased on Friday and the fair was sold out on Saturday, both days that were open to the public. FBF counted 118,000 trade badge scans and 120,000 private visitor badge scans over the course of four days, up from 115,000 for each visitor type in 2024. (A reminder; FBF counts daily badges scanned, rather than tracking unique individuals attending.)

Many of this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair conversations are focused on speculating about recent news stories—former ceo Charlie Redmayne’s abrupt departure from Harper Collins UK, and who will take over from Jon Karp as Simon & Schuster ceo—where no one has any concrete information. Among the biggest recent deal announcements is Bessel van der Kolk’s COME TO YOUR SENSES, the follow-up to The Body Keeps the Score, which sold for eight figures to Macmillan, along with a workbook and two kids’ books to be published by Macmillan Children’s. Reportedly, several international publishers are vying for rights at the fair. And […]

Two panels at the Frankfurt Book Fair on Wednesday morning discussed working in the industry and how jobs are changing. Simon & Schuster UK and International ceo Perminder Mann, who came to her position in February, indicated what the company will look like under her leadership, in a conversation with Publishing Perspectives editor-in-chief Porter Anderson. Mann explained that she is a “collaborative but decisive” leader and has been told she “leads with empathy.” She explained that her goal is to “reset the culture” at the company, as she did as ceo of Bonnier UK. “Young people want to know what […]