London Book Fair: AI, copyright, young readers

The London Book Fair (LBF) will run this year 11–13 March at Olympia London. Publishers Weekly (PW) reports the fair expects to host more than 30,000 attendees and 845 exhibitors – numbers not seen since before the pandemic, according to Adam Ridgway, who took over as LBF director in April 2024.

Coming in the aftermath of the British government’s copyright-and-AI consultation period, which closed in late February, the fair will host continuing conversations about AI and the industry. On the main stage, speakers include president and CEO of the Association of American Publishers Maria Pallante, and CEO of the Publishers Association in the UK Dan Conway, both of whom are ‘in dialogue with their respective governments on AI regulation’, reports PW. Also on AI, Helena Gustafsson, chief content officer of Storytel (which just published a book written by an AI ‘author’), will ‘hold a fireside chat’ with president and publisher of Hachette Audio Ana Maria Allessi about AI and audiobooks, said PW.

New developments at LBF include the expansion of the international rights centre, ‘audio alley’ expanding into ‘audio village’, and a new programming block to address the challenge of declining youth reader numbers – including the main stage session Cultivating the Next Generation of Readers. Running concurrently with the fair this year is a three-day academic and professional publishing conference, which will ‘address various sustainability challenges, business model evolution, and the impact of AI on the sector’, reported PW. In one final innovation, LBF has named comics artist and British Book Awards winner Jamie Smart the inaugural Creative of the Fair.

Awards presented during the course of LBF include the Trailblazers Awards, the Selfies Book Awards, and the fair’s annual Lifetime Achievement Award, which this year will be awarded to associate director for export services at the Publishers Association Gloria Bailey.

Category: International news