In the 2023 London Book Fair International Rights Center. Image: LBF
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
A Total 276 Companies Are in the Rights Center
With many of us in the last stages of organization before London Book Fair (March 12 to 14), we have a quick look at the show’s International Rights Center, which again this year will be on the ground floor of the Olympia London complex for the most part, with spillover space upstairs.
The redevelopment of the venue feels as if it’s gone on as long as Olympic London has been standing—about 140 years. Information on that ongoing development project is here.
One effect of the adjustments that show director Gareth Rapley and his team have made to accommodate the renovations is a move of the trading center to ground floor. That’s turned out to come with advantages in the opinion of some agents who say they appreciate having quicker access to the rest of the show than they had when the rights center was up several floors in the adjacent conference center.
Gareth Rapley
This year’s center does have an overflow area on Level 1 above ground floor, and the LBF staff says, “We’re looking forward to transitioning the International Rights Center into one single space from 2025 when the renovation works at the venue will allow this.”
Trading at London Book Fair
Meetings on the London Book Fair stands of Hachette, Canongate and Faber & Faber. Image: LBF
Here are several quickly gathered facts about the 2024 trading floor at London:
- Table sales have gone “slightly” beyond those of 2023, we’re told, totaling more than 500 tables in 2024.
- Filtered for the International Rights Center, the list of agencies runs to 276 with an international spread that shows:
- Africa with 30 rights center agencies
- Asia and Indian Ocean Islands with 114
- Australia and the Pacific Islands with 61
- The Caribbean with 16
- Europe with 406
- Latin America with 41
- The Middle East and North Africa with 48
- North America with 208
- Antarctica: Seven
And in terms of discussions, the staff would like to point to a new presentation space this year, the International Markets Theater, which features programming from the British Council, the Society of Authors, Copyright Clearance Center, Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing, Beat Technology, English PEN, the British Center for Literary Translation, the Society of Young Publishers, the Book Industry Study Group (BISG), Springer Nature, Audible, Cambridge University Press, CILIP, and more.
As you look for interesting sessions in the Seminars section of the London Book Fair schedule, be sure to hit all three days’ tabs at the top.
A Programming Note
From left are Glenn Rollans, Maria A. Pallante, Dan Conway, and Nicola Solomon
At 2:15 p.m. GMT, on March 12, four key players will join us when Publishing Perspectives moderates a Main Stage discussion, Copyright and AI: A Global Discussion of Machines, Humans, and the Law, an advanced-level conversation exploring the risks and opportunities within the rapidly evolving ecosystem in an era of artificial intelligence.
The session will feature:
In the 2023 London Book Fair International Rights Center. Image: LBF
See also:
YS Chi Named London Book Fair’s Lifetime Achievement Award Winner
London Book Fair: Main Stage Programming Announcements
At London Book Fair: The International Publishers Association
London’s Rights Seminar; Bologna’s New TV/Film Rights Center
UK: The Research and Scholarly Forum: London Book Fair, March 14
London Book Fair Names Its 2024 Charities of the Year
London Book Fair 2024: Main Stage Keynote Sessions
UK: London Book Fair Names Its 2024 ‘Authors of the Day’
More from Publishing Perspectives on London Book Fair is here, more from us on trade shows and book fairs in world publishing is here, more on rights and the international trading issues is here, and more on the United Kingdom’s book market is here.
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