Hello to all my new subscribers, I’m so glad you’re here. Today’s piece is for my paid subscribers but my free post - Receipt from the Bookshop - will be in your inboxes on Friday. Book Club selection for March is this - discussion thread is open here. A monthly subscription to Terrible at Titles costs less than a latte; if you enjoy reading my work please consider a paid subscription to access everything. You can interview me for that promotion here and celebrate my one year on Substack here. All Shares, Restacks and Recommendations are really appreciated. Now let’s get to it…
Hello, it is I, your intrepid local independent bookseller, here with a special receipt from the mysterious beast that is The London Book Fair. If you don’t know what London Book Fair (LBF) is, Welcome to The Club, neither do I, and I’ve been four times! Maybe even more and I’ve blocked it out? Anyway, this time it was only a few days ago, so it’s still as fresh in my mind as the toilet roll supply was when the fair opened on Tuesday morning, which is when I was there to speak as part of a panel event.
As a bookseller and an author, I do not routinely go to London Book Fair. There’s no point me saying that you couldn’t pay me to go to London Book Fair, because you can. I had a speakers fee and travel expenses to cover this trip. I’ve presented at LBF before, but in the years that I’ve not been specifically invited to go and talk, I do not attend. Don’t worry though, this isn’t one of those #ad-I’m-paid-so-I-have-to-be-nice-about-it-things, I can tell you the truth - but I can only tell you my truth.