A view on the London Book Fair

Approaching the London Book Fair in Earls Court some time ago, I saw an unpaid translator with a placard protesting outside a massive exhibition pavilion where tens of thousands of books were on display.The organisers of the Fair describe it as “the global marketplace for rights negotiation and the sale and distribution of content across print, audio, TV, film and digital channels”. There are demarcated special access areas where agents, media people, and publishers have their negotiations and do the deals that make the headlines in the trade periodicals. For the most part, the Fair is a labyrinthine alphabetical array of stalls that belong to publishers and other associated services (such as shipping, paper supply, design) from around the world who display their wares and spend hours hunched over tables with potential business partners matched through online appointments diary for the registrants; there are free pens, sweet baskets, big flashy logos and props (to wit, a large fake red London Bus sitting on an orange carpet). At lunchtime and close of day, a tide of suits and blackberry devices is disgorged into the tube station across the road