The London Book Fair: Tips for translators

Beatriz Aramendia offers advice to translators planning to attend the London Book Fair this year.

The London Book Fair (LBF) is a large book-publishing trade fair held annually in London, usually in the spring. It has been running for the last 42 years and is the second-most important fair in Europe after the Frankfurt Book Fair. As an attendee to the LBF several times, here are my tips for translators planning to visit.

• Check the programme online and highlight the talks or stands you want to visit.
• The LBF is a good place to network with translators, aspiring authors and self-publishing companies.
• If you wish to attend seminars related to the translation industry, The Literary Translation Centre is at the LBF, which offers interesting and useful seminars throughout the three days. English Pen and The Society of Authors usually take part in it.
• If your aim is to pitch a publisher about a book you are translating or would like to translate, this is not the right place, unless you have already a previously-booked appointment with a publisher (I know this by others’ and my own personal experience).
• When you read the programme online and it says that such and such authors will be at the Main Stage, they are not there in person, there is a small screen and you will listen to a pre-recorded chat (I found this very disappointing).
• Publishers are extremely busy meeting authors’ agents and negotiating with other companies, which means that an individual person trying to approach them normally gets  “no” as an answer. However, you might get a chance if you translate from/to a minority language, as their literature gets translated less. 
• Go outside the building and talk to other attendees, it has proved to be an excellent place to network and meet new people.
• There are hardly any places in the venue to sit down while wandering around. There are two or three cafes where you can get your lunch or coffee, but seating is very limited here too. However, you are allowed to bring your own lunch if you wish.
• Finally, the talks have limited seating spaces, so make sure you arrive some time ahead to each seminar you want to attend.

To conclude, I asked a number of translators attending the LBF for their opinion on this event. Most of them agreed that if the Literary Translation Centre was not there, they would not attend. Emerging translators felt the event overwhelming and mainly aimed at translations into English. On the other hand, some translators arranged to meet up with clients/potential clients they work or stay in touch with, in order to build up their working relationship.