The London Book Fair (LBF) is the world’s largest spring book trade and publishing event and presents a colourful array of over 1,000 stands of publishers and booksellers covering every literary genre imaginable.

Marketplace
As well as showcasing what’s new, the fair is a global marketplace for rights negotiations of books for TV and film and the meeting areas and cafes in the two vast halls at Olympia were full of people having meetings which could easily result in a Netflix production.

Trends
One of the many sessions at the event – UK and International Book Market Sales – held by NielsenIQ BookData – gave a fascinating overview of the business with the following headlines about trends in 2025:

  • While print book sales in the UK have dipped by 0.5 per cent in value (to £1.81 billion) and by two per cent in volume (to 191 million units) in 2025, adult fiction bucked the trend: its value was up to a record £582 million, and volumes saw an increase to 65 million units.
  • Spending on non-fiction has fallen to £791 million, with volume sales down to 59 million. However, sales of trivia and quiz books reached their highest level since official sales records began in 1998.
  • Owing to the rising costs of book production and inflation, the average selling prices hit a record £9.52
  • Readers continue to favour a variety of book formats, with audiobook sales in the UK showing strong growth.

Digital
In the business category, the main topics were AI-driven workplace skills, leadership resilience, and digital transformation. Kogan Page and Practical Inspiration Publishing were just two publishers in evidence with new titles on navigating the changing world of work and AI.

In 2027 the fair moves to Excel in London Docklands and will take place 16 – 18 March
www.londonbookfair.co.uk