London Book Fair 2026 - Our Highlights and Takeaways
13 March 2026
We've just returned from three days at the London Book Fair, and it was a fair that felt significant. The last ever LBF at Olympia before the move to ExceL in 2027, with a publishing industry in active conversation about AI, reading, and what books are for. Here's what we took away.
Reading is the Story
The UK's National Year of Reading ran through everything at LBF 2026. Backed by the Department for Education and nine literacy charities including the National Literacy Trust, BookTrust, and The Reading Agency, it gave the fair its energy and its sense of purpose.
Pan Macmillan CEO Joanna Prior opened day two with a direct provocation: the decline in reading is a bigger threat to publishing than AI. Tom Weldon of PRH was more optimistic, noting that children's book sales have grown consistently for 20 years, but both agreed that structural investment in literacy matters more than any individual campaign. For us at Ulverscroft, a company built around removing format barriers to reading, this conversation felt very close to home.
AI, Copyright, and Protecting Authors
AI dominated more sessions than any other topic. The most striking moment was the launch of Don't Steal This Book on day one, organised by Ed Newton-Rex of Fairly Trained. Around 10,000 authors including Kazuo Ishiguro, Philippa Gregory, and Richard Osman published a symbolic empty book to protest AI companies training models on their work without permission, with copies handed out across the fair floor. Tom Weldon put the industry's position plainly: protect authors' IP, innovate responsibly, and never assume human creativity can be replaced. Sessions across all three days reinforced that AI copyright will be a defining story for publishing through the rest of 2026. The call to government is clear: transparency and fair compensation for authors whose work has been used.
Audio is Growing the Whole Market
Audible CEO Bob Carrigan spoke on day one about the company's 20 years in the UK and its next chapter, including an expansion to 11 new territories in 2026 with local-language catalogues in Dutch, Swedish, Polish, Turkish, and Arabic. More interesting was the UK research from NielsenIQ BookData: 29% of audiobook listeners report increased enjoyment of reading across all formats, and 22% say they read more print books since taking up audio. Audio doesn't replace reading; it deepens it.
Authors and the Platform Question
One session looked honestly at social media and the pressure authors feel to build a public presence. The consensus: follower counts don't reliably translate into book sales. Newsletters, Substack, and genuine community involvement are building more durable reader relationships than chasing viral moments. TikTok is primarily a discovery platform; Instagram serves existing audiences; BookTok skews towards romance and YA. You can still get a book deal without a large social following, though publishers do factor it in. The most useful takeaway: authors should only do what they genuinely enjoy and treat content creation as a skill rather than an obligation.
The Case for Scale and Long-Term Relationships
Tom Weldon made a point during his keynote that stuck with us. He described the scale PRH can offer authors: a sales team of 200 people taking books to international markets, a rights team of 40, audio and data science capabilities that most authors couldn't build alone. His argument was that scale, done well, is in service of the book and the reader. It's not about size for its own sake; it's about reach.
That resonates with how we think about our own work. Ulverscroft's long-term relationships with publishers and libraries are built on the same principle: a shared belief that books should reach every reader who wants them. Whether that means large print, audio, or standard, the goal is the same. More people, more formats, no one left out.
Until ExceL
Three days of conversations, and the thread running through all of them was straightforward: the publishing industry at its best is one that fights for readers and authors in equal measure. That's what brought us to Olympia this year, and it's what will bring us back to ExceL in 2027. Thanks to everyone who stopped by.