LBF 3
Settle down, avid physicists. We are not talking about a pound-force of 3 (one pound-force, commonly abbreviated to 'lbf', is the force equivalent to that exerted on a mass of one avoirdupois pound on the (idealized) surface of Earth.) No, today was the final day of the London Book Fair.
(Also, 1 pound force (lbf) accelerates 1 slug mass 1 ft/s2. Makes you think.)

You're busy people, so here's the summary. I promise more detail will follow once I've had a lovely sleep.
- 14 meetings
- one very hard presentation / answer session which was the judging for the young publisher of the year thing. The questions didn't play to my strengths - I had a lot of things left over on my mental checklist once the 15 minutes were up. It was also one of those situations where I was trying hard to listen to the question and kept thinking 'right, concentrate. Concentrate! You have to remember this question! Pay attention! Listen! Oh, the question's over,' just like the bit in Taking the Plunge where Bernie's being proposed to and all she can think is "Remember this, Bernie! This is important! Stop thinking about remembering it and start concentrating! Bernie!" Still, that all worked out fine - maybe my answers were ok, too. I also had prepared a Venn diagram which came in handy. If you've got a Venn diagram on your side, you're ok, in my experience.
- one excellent, brilliant deal which I will tell you about in a month or so
- James sold Greek rights in Memphis, from a guy who saw the MySpace page! As he says on his blog, that's booktwo.
- Every other person I met said 'ooh, I read your blog'. It is unnerving, but nice, but also weird: why do you never comment? I demand more comments.
- Special Treat of the Day: You can download your own zombie flyer here. Hell, why not?
Off to my sofa now for a well-earned sit down. Bye LBF 2007! We'll miss you! Byeee!
Tomorrow: Anna's in town, so that can mean only one thing - Strategy Day! Yey! Essentially that means a very long lunch. Expect pearls of wisdom and brilliant insights to guide the future of publishing in general, and Snowbooks in particular, later in the week.
Comments: 6
Hahaha! Glad to know I'm not the only one who remembers nothing being said at the most important moments.
Posted by: Stacie Lewis on April 18, 2007 11:17 PM
Guilty... I read the blog all the time, but I don't think I've ever commented. Performance anxiety...? Hmm, maybe! I will just state for the record that I enjoy it immensely and that it makes me feel I'm still in touch (just a little bit) with the publishing world, even though I officially left it a couple of years ago. Perhaps publishing is like Hotel California - you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.
Posted by: Lou on April 19, 2007 11:04 AM
Hello
Stopped by your stand to say a quick hello but you were deep in meetings, so snuck away quietly...Hope you had a good fair, I was only there for a couple of hours and felt exhausted by it, so dread to think how you must be feeling today!
Posted by: Jessica on April 19, 2007 11:57 AM
I am one of those nice weird people who never comment! But I did come over to say hi at LBF, so am I temporarily exonerated?!
Posted by: Equiano on April 20, 2007 08:28 AM
Hi Emma
Still recovering from the book fair so would have replied earlier but just wanted to reassure you there are people out there - one of them being me, who sneak in on your blog unobserved and silent! I have made a mental note to comment more on blogs as it always seems so quiet out there whenever I blog. Hello...hello...anyone?
Posted by: keirsten Clark on April 23, 2007 02:43 PM
Hello, I'm a sporadic reader of your blog...I'm just making my first forays into book writing (got one coming out next year) having been a journalist (sorry!), so I find your thoughts a fascinating insight into the world of publishing. Good to know also that there are people out there willing to do something different!
Jo
Posted by: Jo on April 25, 2007 07:12 PM