LBF day 1 • 16 April 2007 • The SnowBlog

LBF day 1

          

James, with his Booktwo.org hat on, is doing an excellent minute-by-minute report on the London Book Fair, in comparison to which a mere daily summary seems rather mean, but here is a sample of what I've got up to today. I am sure I've missed out huge things - my brain is mangled already - and bear in mind that this is only my day - G, J and A have had their own hectic schedules. Still, here we go. - 14 pre-planned meetings with the great and good, ranging from retailers to foreign sales agents representing countries as diverse as South Africa, the US and the Far East.  
- a chance meeting in the aisles with the delectable Mark from Ready Steady Book / The Book Depository who showed me a picture of his perfect new puppy. Eee!
- Bumped into Michelle from Oshun, finalist in last year's IYPY award. 
- a catch up with Roni Jay from White Ladder.  I looked through an excellent book they're publishing called Getting Your Book Published which I could see was invaluable at a glance. Highly recommended. 
- Picked up the latest Sarah Hall book from the Faber stand on the way out (sorry, I'll return it tomorrow) which is fabulous. Almost finished it on the journey! I love dystopian novels. 
- Met excellent printers Haynes. Of course, they're really publishers of the fine car manuals, but bless them they are vertically integrated - in other words they have brought printing in-house - and are selling their excess capacity, for a rather reasonable sum. Hooray! I may yet have that modest salary I keep hankering after. 
- And much more, including rights interests, kindness, journalists and a few brave authors trying to sell their wares. 

Tomorrow: zombies, 21 more meetings, and a party. Phew. 
Emma