Liza talks London Book Fair 2023
London Book Fair sees publishers from all over the world coming to London to talk books, rights, and (the odd bit of) industry gossip. As a UK-based agency we do a lot of our work with British publishers, but our foreign rights team are constantly pitching our list abroad, searching out new territories to sell our authors’ books into, and expanding their readership across the world. The book fairs are the perfect time to pitch to our international contacts directly – matching faces to email addresses and highlighting the books that we think will be of particular interest to them!
This year, Rachel and I returned to the London Book Fair to spread the word about all books that Mushens Entertainment represents. I enjoy the hustle and bustle of the fairs although I do tend to lose my voice at the end of them. We get to see co-agents from all over the world, as well as editors we currently work with and those we don’t, as we are always looking to expand our relationships with publishers.
With the easing of travel restrictions post-pandemic, this year’s LBF felt busier and livelier than the last. More people were able to travel over from Asia, Europe, North and South America, and the fair felt busier and much louder than ever before. We were even joined by two new additions to the fair this year – Catriona and Kiya! Catriona who has been an incredible addition to the ME team celebrated her 6-month anniversary at the fair itself by putting faces to the email addresses of all the people she has been in contact with since she began her job. Kiya also jumped into the fray and pitched her heart out to support our authors and entice publishers to read their books.
While at the fair, we always ask publishers what they are looking for so we can tailor our conversations and get the most appropriate works before them. This year, we heard a few things that will intrigue querying authors!
First of all, a lot of people are on the hunt for high-concept thrillers with an international angle. People are still looking for that good escapist read! Along these lines, editors are craving love stories – not just the classic romcom, but something perhaps with a speculative twist, and definitely love stories that break the mould. In this sense, they want to see love stories between friends, relationships between parents and kids, more LGBTQ stories, and anything that looks at relationships in ways we haven’t seen on the page before. Historical fiction is also still bustling and people are looking for feminist retellings, as well as stories about characters normally sidelined in history. It is time to give voices to those we have never heard from before. Lastly, and my personal favourite, is that a lot of international editors we work with are starting SFF imprints! Romantasy is really having a moment (my inner teenager is dancing with delight), and want to see this in their inboxes – and so do I!
We immediately had books to offer in these categories and many editors are now reading material and offering on things we pitched to them. Whether this is backlist or frontlist titles, we talk about all of them and continuously breathe new life into authors’ international careers.
If you are an author who is interested in, or is currently writing something that we have mentioned above, head over to our submissions page as we would love to hear from you!
