London Book Fair 2025 returns to Olympia with AI on the agenda

The London Book Fair took place at Olympia London from 11 to 13 March 2025. Ahead of the fair, its director Adam Ridgway told Publishers Weekly that it expected more than 30,000 attendees and 845 exhibitors, which PW reported as the highest figures since before the pandemic.

The stated themes were artificial intelligence and its effect on publishing, declining reading among young people, the continued growth of audiobooks, which had an enlarged area on the show floor, and pressures on academic and professional publishing. Speakers listed in advance included representatives of the Publishers Association and the Association of American Publishers.

Reporting from the fair, Publishers Weekly described busy halls and brisk rights trading, with particular interest in serious non-fiction on politics and current affairs, against a background of political uncertainty in the United States, the war in Ukraine and tension in the Middle East. Ridgway said attendance by American publishers was up again on the previous year.

London is a spring rights fair rather than a public one, and most authors will never attend. It is still useful to watch. The subjects that dominate its seminar rooms, this year AI and children's reading, tend to shape what publishers commission, how they write contracts and what they ask of authors over the following year.

Sources: Publishers Weekly: London Book Fair 2025 to focus on AI, developing readers; Publishers Weekly: Publishers are the world's professional survivors.