London Book Fair - A few facts & photos from Monday

Day 1

Visitor numbers at LBF are down this year, but only by 2%. It still feels as busy as previous years.

New this year the Digital Zone
The Digital Zone provides short seminars on all aspects of the digital book industry.







Luckily the seminars are short as the seats are the most uncomfortable ones in Earls Court!

Peter Tomlinson, author of The Petronicus Legacy series, (available in paperback and eBook) perusing the Sony eBook reader and rather impressed with the results.

Some surprising statistics from around LBF:

• The UK consumes more video online than the rest of Northern Europe
• People now use social networks more than email to keep in contact and pass on information.
• The present demographics of Facebook is 45-54 year olds, it’s no longer a site mainly for the young.
• Two thirds of books bought last year were by people 42 years old or older.
• 14% of UK book sales are online, 28% in US. But 90% of all book sales in US are driven by online marketing.

Author blog tip: Write about your writing, how the next book is going, writing experiences ,etc

The Espresso Book Machine
A machine which can print books in store within 5 minutes of a customer placing the order. And the quality of the books seems to be good too. This machine is on loan from Blackwells bookshop in London, but there are other machines worldwide with more to come. Hopefully a shop, library or university near you will be getting one soon.