The hub of the publishing world

The London Book Fair is the global marketplace for rights negotiation and the sale and distribution of content across print, audio, TV, film and digital channels. In 2021, we will celebrate our 50-year anniversary.

Staged annually, we welcome more than 25,000 publishing professionals to London for the week of the fair to learn, network, and kick off their year of business.

A global marketplace

We want to bring colour to the world with worlds. Every year we curate a first-class fair to give you a multitude of opportunities in London, the global publishing centre.

Since 2004, our Market Focus initiative has helped create both commercial and cultural partnerships around the world. Each year, we put the spotlight on publishing trade links with the country or region being showcased.

This is your opportunity to connect with the best of the industry in one place, as we bring together publishing professionals from all corners of the globe.

History of the fair

From very modest beginnings in the Berners Hotel near Oxford Street in 1971 as the Specialist Publishers’ Exhibition for Librarians, The London Book Fair – as it took the name in 1977 – has grown to be an essential part of the international book trade calendar.

Today, the entire international publishing industry is represented, from the giant houses, with which we are all familiar, to the smallest independents. There are the publishers of blockbuster novels and academic texts, and the producers of children’s books and graphic novels.

To walk its floors is to experience knowledge and stories in all forms. It is impossible not to be captivated, fascinated and inspired.

Visit

If you are involved with the creation, distribution, sale or treatment of content, we want you to walk our floors and meet, talk, observe and discover.

Find out more

Exhibit

You have the chance to set the tone for the publishing year with us by becoming a part of LBF 2021, a key touchpoint in the publishing calendar.