source: http://www.olympia.co.uk

This year’s London Book Fair took place in a new venue – the Olympia. This aged exhibition center that once opened its doors to Buffalo Bill himself (by the way, we really recommend the history of Olympia, available here: [CLICK]), for three days of April turned into the center of the publishing world. Despite the initial chaos (“Does anybody know where this stand is? How do we get to the agents center?”), most people we encountered during the fair appreciated halls filled with natural light, and the small-talk about the new venue served as a perfect icebreaker more than once :)

As literary agents, we mainly exchange e-mails, catalogues and manuscripts. Every fair is a great opportunity to talk in person and share experience, thoughts and ideas. For the past few years, there have been no “book of the fair”, one that everybody talks about and fight over already during the fair. In case of children’s books, there is no specific new, strong trend that would cause an outburst of similar titles. Middle grade is still growing strong, while contemporary young adult novels are also growing in importance. As for adult titles, well, the book simply must have that “special something”!

But London Book Fair is not only about 30-minute business meetings (thank God!), but also about those less formal, evening outings. This year we had the pleasure of visiting The Ivy, as well as trying some extraordinary Spanish delicacies in fantastic company.

Macadamia Agency unanimously consider the Fair to be a success – not only did we get to meet with our foreign clients and Polish publishers (cheers to all of you!), but we also discussed future cooperation with some new partners. Stay tuned for some Facebook announcements soon!