Deaf Illustrator's Experience at London Book Fair
My own personal experience at LBF in 2024
Last week on the 12th-14th of March was the massive event London Book Fair!
Last year I meant to go, but ended up sick with COVID and in the midst of hectic deadlines so I couldn’t go. Fortunately, this year I had the opportunity and time to be able to go!
I thought that for this newsletter, I’d share what my own personal experience was like there as a deaf person so other deaf/Deaf people can learn from this to plan their trip.
This year I was not very organised as I wasn’t entirely sure about going in the first place due to being nervous and conscious that it’s a massive, noisy event but I wanted to put myself out there and try a bit of networking with other people, and the London Book Fair is a great place to start.
As a freelance introverted deaf illustrator, I get used to working from home all the time with my lovely fiancé’s company so it’s not too bad! However, it means when I go out for events like this it’s a bit scary, but also exciting.
I went for the last day at LBF as I thought it would be a bit quieter and also I had an event in the evening to go to with my best friends. Thursday was a lot quieter than the other days, and I found that was good enough for me and when I arrived it was impressive seeing the massive building for the event…
At the London Book Fair, you can purchase a sunflower lanyard for your hidden disability, however I couldn’t find where I could buy them and I asked someone who worked there and she wasn’t sure where they would be. So I would suggest to LBF to make it easier to find and buy in the future please.
I didn’t have much time due to train delays so I quickly begun going around the stalls to look at some beautiful books!
London Book Fair have an app on the phone that you can download which is super useful because you can quickly check what talks are coming up and check the map for what stalls you want to see.
I had the time and opportunity to attend to two talks. I was so happy to see BSL interpreters at the two talks I went to so I could understand everything being said rather than bits and pieces of a sentence being said where I have to put together sentences in my head which is always exhausting. So having an interpreter is always so good for deaf/Deaf people.
I actually didn’t get to take many pictures of the event as I was too busy going around talking to people and looking at books!
Next year, I hope to do two days instead now I know what to expect from the LBF.
On the first day of LBF there was a talk on Disability Representation in publishing by Reflecting Disability which is a new project to investigate into what is currently out there and what is represented. It’s a really important project and I will be keen to find out what they learn. I wish I was more organised and found out about this talk as I would have definitely gone to listen!
Please go and read Emma Clements’ blogpost “Using my Voice. Reflecting Disabilities in Children Books and The London Book Fair 2024” where she writes about her experience of speaking at the LBF with Reflecting Disability. I definitely recommend you to go, read and support her wonderful art.
Just to warn fellow illustrators, LBF is trading fair, so for illustrators there is not a lot to do but the talks were very interesting for illustrators and authors new to the publishing industry. There was a lot of different discussions in different areas of publishing you can choose from to attend to and learn from.
If you want more of an illustrator’s fair, the best one to go to is Bologna Children’s Book Fair from what I have heard through my friends. I hope to go one day in some years time!
Conclusion…
I really appreciated that London Book Fair made sure to include BSL interpreters which is amazing to see as us deaf/Deaf people are not used to being included like that and normally we have to fight for it. So I want to thank LBF for this. I found the talks really interesting and I have learnt so much from them. I loved seeing new books and meeting publishers. It was a great event to meet up with your friends if you all are going on the same day so be sure to plan together to make the most out of it.
Bluntly put, I thought that the Illustrator’s Gallery was a little bit disappointing to be honest. It was more of a snack dining area rather than a gallery! There were not many artworks up as well, and I had to awkwardly peer over the heads of people munching on their lunch to look at the illustrations. I can see London Book Fair is trying to include illustrators a bit more but hopefully it will be even better in the future as they need to or illustrators will continue feeling unappreciated in the publishing industry.
I obviously got a bit of a hearing fatigue from the day from all the listening, but I ended the day with seeing my deaf friends in London so I was able to wind down and relax with them after a great day.
Love,
~ Luce x