Last week, the Mushens Entertainment team descended on Olympia for the London Book Fair 2024. Many wonderful meetings were had with international co-agents, publishers, and Film/TV executives. We also had fun spotting our authors’ books in the publisher stands and we loved watching Elodie Harper interview Richard Osman, who was Author of the Day on the Wednesday of the Fair.

For those unfamiliar with the London Book Fair, the team arrives early on a Tuesday to set up our stand across five tables. We bring copies of our books, early reader copies, and our gorgeous hot pink (and laboriously created) Foreign Rights Guides. What follows is effectively a series of 30-minute speed dates, where our Agents rapidly pitch the books that are a good fit for the co-agent, publisher, or Film/TV executive. If we get a good response, we send the manuscripts across, sometimes with extra information such as publisher plans or quote sheets. We have a wonderful Foreign Rights team at Mushens Entertainment, who work tirelessly to get more international deals for both our frontlist and backlist titles. 

On Wednesday, the buzz for Richard Osman’s interview spread throughout the building as the time approached and a queue snaked its way around the top floor of the Fair. It was very exciting for the team to see not one, but two of our authors in action. Richard and Elodie were a hilarious duo, as they discussed the real-life inspirations for The Thursday Murder Club, the serious question of whether being tall makes you a better writer, and how Richard’s writing process involves planning and writing three chapters, which then inspire the next three chapters. When Richard was asked how his We Solve Murders series would be different from his The Thursday Murder Club series, he noted that there would be significantly more helicopters in We Solve Murders!

On Thursday, we had our final meetings until the London Book Fair ended in the early afternoon. Then, Team Mushens took their piles of books home and had a well-deserved rest! This week, we are back in the office, so we have been sending out many of our authors’ books to the people that we met at the Fair and receiving offers on them.

We look forward to attending LBF next year!