The Fair's major area of growth, which attracted significantly more exhibitors during the late 1970s and early 1980s, was in numbers of visitors from overseas, to a virtually complete conspectus of the international booktrade with which British publishers worked. They included publishers who sought rights or co-editions in the English language, as well as publishers buying licences of English-language books for translation into their own languages. Also many booksellers, and especially the agents and distributors who sold English-language books around the globe. Many of the Commonwealth countries were now sending collective exhibits and delegations. And all of this led to complaint from visitors, which was repeated year after year, often in letters to The Bookseller: Where are the major UK publishers? Although hundreds of publishers exhibited, most of the leading houses that dominated the general book-trade turned up their noses. Yet they nevertheless expected the visitors to the Fair to break their journeys to go to the offices. Clive Bingley and I had a variety of reasons put to us for their non-participation, such as alleged doubts whether "the Book Fair is a rights fair or a trade fair"; we replied that it was for anybody who wanted to do what business he desired in the book trade. A number of the houses said they "had nothing to learn from a British book fair", because they knew about the sale of books already, were in touch with everyone that they needed to know, and they "knew" that if they exhibited no new business would result. However, although these publishers would not take exhibition space, they still sent along editorial, rights and sales staff to meet the Fair's visitors clandestinely, so to speak! We were able to track how many people came from which various publishing houses by means of our registration-system. One year, non-exhibitors the Longman Group sent 37 people, Collins 26, Octopus 18, and Penguin 15. We thought it ironic that staff from these great houses had to come along, and wander about the corridors to meet their customers, and then take them away for coffee to discuss their business, because their masters would not pay for a stand at the Fair.
At the move of the event to the Barbican it took another leap forward in numbers of both exhibitors and visitors, but the Barbican was not a popular venue. We had been able to secure a reservation for it before building was quite complete, and were one of the earliest trade-fairs to use the site. But its facilities were quite a shock. Firstly, the whole Barbican area was very badly signposted and people experienced considerable difficulties in locating the exhibition-halls. Secondly, the exhibition-halls were very strange shapes, and had low ceilings. The reason for this (which we preferred not to publicise) was that the halls were originally planned to be car-parks. When, however, the City authorities discovered the enormous running costs of the Barbican, they sought a source of revenue by switching the space designated for car-parks to use for exhibitions. There were odd nooks and crannies, and it took quite a time for people to learn their way around.
Once installed at the Barbican the event seemed to reach a plateau. Although the number of overseas visitors increased, and the event was increasingly visible on the international scene, the number of exhibitors stabilised to:
- 1982 – 508
1983 – 497
1984 – 510
1985 – 520
It was this plateau of exhibitors which made Clive Bingley and me receptive to the approach (for the second time) from Industrial & Trade Fairs Limited (part of Reed International) to take over the event. We felt that if it was to move forward it needed to break with the perception of being run by two independent publishers (that ownership might have been one reason why the major publishing-houses felt they had nothing to gain from the event) and new thinking, as well as long-term investment, was needed. At that time, the annual cost of running the event, hiring the exhibition facility, and so forth, totalled more than £ 300,000, and this was before, as I intimate, the additional money that would be required to take the event to the next stage on the international book-fair exhibitions-ladder. Also, I have to say, the cash offered was encouraging!
Clive Bingley and I sold the London Book Fair shortly after the 1985 event. Industrial & Trade Fairs Limited immediately started to implement a plan for major growth, but were locked in to the Barbican for the 1986 event (which had 509 exhibitors). For 1987 they took the major step of moving the Fair to Olympia, and the subsequent enormous growth and success of the event over the years since then reflect their investment and their professionalism (which swiftly persuaded the major publishers to support the Fair).
For many years the British Government, through its various export promotion schemes, supported British publishers going to Frankfurt and other Fairs. Sometimes publishers exhibiting overseas have been fully subsidised, sometimes there has been a scale of subsidies. If only, however, in my period of involvement with the London Book Fair there had been some means of aid to promote the Fair internationally, or bring into Britain key purchases of British books, or potential purchases, who can say now what size the Fair today would have grown and helped secure the international markets for British books.
One question that has been repeatedly posed over the years is whether the public should be allowed in. The logical answer is, "Yes, but they have been invited, but haven't come in any numbers". Starting in the early 1980s there were announcements about the event, and indeed discounted tickets were offered by a number of magazines. But the public response was desultory; although they would have been welcomed if they had come in significant numbers (and extra time could have been added so as to separate the public from the trade-customers), there never was any buoyancy of interest.
The London Book Fair has developed enormously since the mid-1980s. At that time one could personally know the great majority of the exhibitors, and also a significant percentage of the visitors. With growth however, the event has gone forward to a much larger, higher plateau. It has been, perhaps, somewhat like watching a teenager grow up and exceed the parents' expectations whilst, nonetheless, the parent feels great pride in what their youngster is doing. I certainly had no idea at the outset that what I started in 1971 would become the major event of such value to the British and international book trades that the London Book Fair is today.
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