It’s taken us a few days to recover from what was an exhilarating London Book Fair, but now we’re back with our feet on the ground, we’re happy to report that the book industry is as buzzing as ever. Meeting with over 150 publishers, not to mention 50 production companies and film scouts, we relished spreading the love for our wonderful authors throughout the world.
We are so encouraged by the continuing boom in the German publishing industry. They are very much in line with UK and US tastes, and continue to be our strongest foreign language market. Israel is also growing well, with new legislation more sympathetic to the book market. The continued merging of publishing houses worldwide creates more buying power, while the creation of new imprints offers an exciting opportunity for us to find exactly the right home for our authors.
There is a growing hunger for non-fiction, something that we couldn’t be happier about as we work on expanding our non-fiction list, as well as having just launched our non-fiction competition.
The film and particularly the television industries go from strength to strength, with big-budget companies such as Netflix and Amazon coinciding very nicely with a growing demand for book to film or TV deals. We are thrilled, but not in the least surprised, to have so much interest from them.
Penguin Random House also hosted a wonderful drinks celebration with all of the international publishers of The Chalk Man with author C. J. Tudor, ahead of the global release in 2018.
So all round, London Book Fair 2017 was uplifting, encouraging and thrilling. The industry is thriving, and the world is hungry for the written word; we shall continue to do everything we can to give it to them.
Next stop, Bologna!
