The London Book Fair

So on wednesday I went back down to london to pay a visit to the Book Fair.  Held every year, it's the calender event for publishers and supposedly, authors.  Now I'll freely admit that I only considered going to it two weeks ago, having read an article in Writers magazine that said it was no longer just about Publishers but also about Authors, so I didn't get time to organise interviews with publishers to promote myself, but I did get to attend a number of seminars.

First impressions

It's huge...

Now that's not a bad thing, and certainly from the point of view of interest in the publishing world, it's a good thing, but as a number of guides that I read (belatedly) said, wear comfortable shoes, because you can walk for literally miles in here without coming across the same thing.  The majority of the people there were business, there were a few authors, but they were either on the panels having been invited, or wandering around looking like they were trying to avoid the police (After all, if you're not a published author, what business do you have there.), and so it felt for me.  The seminars were interesting, nothing that I hadn't heard before and nothing groundbreaking, finish the book, make sure it's the best it can be, choose your platform carefully, and it was there that I found the most interesting revelation...

Following from the keynote address from Anthony Horowitz

http://www.theindependentpublishingmagazine.com/2014/04/digital-minds-conference-keynote-speech.html

Amazon are "Evil Bastards", but he has to use them anyway.

And I have to say that the Amazon/Createspace rep at the event certainly earned his money, he was everywhere and I do mean everywhere, including the Alliance of Independent Authors panel on self publishing, but although he himself was a perfectly affable chap, helpful and cheerful and a representation of everything Amazon want you to believe they are, it was not him that got my attention.

It was everyone else around him, all of them infinitely polite whilst being wary, in the manner of gazelles drinking at the same pond as a tiger, all wanting to share the water whilst being very careful not to end up lunch.

And of all the things I took away from the convention, that was the one that stuck the most, beware the predators, because as an author, you're never going to be a predator, you're prey, no matter how good you are, you're never going to get the claws and fangs that those running the place do, so you have to make yourself look like a herd, network with others, have many of you, and support each other, which is a problem when we're as many solitary introverts as we all are.

So I shall be going next year, organising in advance, taking books to sell and generally having a better time than I did this time having done preparation, but still...

Watch yourselves near the watering hole...