#LBF16: Britain’s Got Publishing Talent
This is a guest post from Tom Chalmers, Managing Director at IPR License, on The London Book Fair 2016.
Spring is in the air and what better place to be than London, especially when you have a huge book fair on your doorstep. Celebrating its 45 year anniversary, The London Book Fair remains one of the primary global marketplaces for rights negotiation and the sale and distribution of content across print, audio, TV, film and digital channels. This multi-media approach is something reflected not only by the fair but also across the whole industry.
We saw the majority of the UK publishing arena move away from the long-standing electronic versus print debate some time ago, but this still gives rise to the new age question of how to best maximise the value attached to all forms of content. At LBF the Tech Zone and cross-media areas will certainly be sections which are bound to generate a great deal of interest. And these are obviously ones in which we will be spending a good amount of time in, amongst others, and engaging with a range of people regarding potential licensing opportunities.
Taking a glance across the entire seminar programme, it’s a positive sign to see lots of events covering licensing, rights and translations. Education and knowledge remain key components in maximising revenues across these areas and I hope these sessions will be of great value for publishers to help them further increase their licensing bottom lines. It’s also good to see authors at the heart of the fair with the Author HQ demonstrating LBF’s role in acknowledging the changes being seen throughout the industry and the increased prominence attached to author related activity.
Looking briefly at the UK publishing landscape, after a few challenging years we are in the midst of a period of relative stability. With increased stability comes renewed optimism, and with renewed optimism comes innovation and even growth within key areas. 2016 has already generated a wealth of business opportunities and events such as LBF mean we can engage face-to-face with the key players in a variety of areas to further maximise any available opportunities.
The UK remains at the heart of publishing world. As such it will be good to see the spotlight shining brightly on a wealth of exceptional smaller presses as well are the largest publishers, all of which continue to nurture some exceptional titles and work hard to champion the best of British talent.