So it was the last day of the London Book Fair I always feel sad when it is about to end its such a fabulous collaboration of people and events to explore new avenues of the publishing industry and bring the industry into the future by talking about the current issues that our world is discussing.

The first talk I went to was a talk on book prizes for new writers. It was interesting to see how many use it as a platform to start their careers as there is a lot of publicity attached to winning awards. Another issue that came up was that there are too many prizes nowadays. I think its a bad thing when there is too many prizes for example over 10 for the same category as the prestige of the award is lost and the recognition as well. Awards are important to keep those who try for the awards challenged to create something new and original. Although it should not be taken for granted as a money making business.

The next talk I went to was on genres in children’s publishing. This included two people from two different publishers and a agent. It was really informative talk to see the two perspectives with a particular interest on picture books. I was very curious in whether both sides prefer to have an illuustrator or not when going to an agent they welcome it but with a publisher they prefer to match the author with an illustrator. There was one other interesting point talked about was the issue of rhyming picture books and certain issues you have with translation and illustration.

The last thing I went to see was a discussion on science fiction in comics which was the most fascinating thing I had seen all week. It brought up so many interesting issues for example a comic that Pat Mills had worked on had got banned and the effects that had on readers and why that had happened. They also talked about how the industry works and differences in the English and French markets which is mainly in how they publish in England its weekly and in France its done in volumes. They discussed what is there motivation behind there stories and how it mainly derives from politics and society not the new science of the day.

Overall, the London Book Fair 2016 has been a triumph of celebrating Shakespeare, to bringing new discussions on comic market and in general making the publishing industry more interconnected so we can give more books to the world to read.