London Book Fair 2025 – Our Top 5 Takeaways!

London Book Fair is always full of insightful panels and topical discussions, with lots of expertise. It’s fantastic to hear about all of the great work happening in publishing, and we have put together our top 5 takeaways from various panels across the fair. 

1. Going back to basics, the importance of reading was shown by The Reading Agency, London Book Fair’s Charity of the Year, as Emma Braithwaite, Head of Skills and Engagement presented on the important work they do. Research shows that choosing to read is the biggest indicator of a child’s opportunity and future success, and can help mediate socio-economic status. So it’s imperative to get books in the hands of all children – they then become the future consumers, or potentially the publishers of the future!
2. The 2025 Trailblazers had some brilliant advice for those people looking to start their journey to become publishers of the future, in the SYP’s How to Get into Publishing panel: join publishing networks of like-minded people, be relentless, go after what you want and build what you believe is missing from the industry. Be authentic, do your research and have a vision and confidence within yourself that you can get there! Listen to feedback but question why things are the way they are.
3. Inspired’s CEO Suzy spoke on the SYP panel ‘When Are You Ready to Take Your Next Step?’ which had lots of advice for professionals in publishing considering moving on: always go for a job which will push you further, and keep you learning. Think about what transferable skills you may have for a sideways step, or where you may need to upskill for a move upwards. Make it known you are looking to progress and keep track of your achievements, so you can put forward a business case of how you are adding value.
4. Mentorship was a strong theme which came up in the PublisHer panel on ‘Empowering Women in Publishing’, and on The FLIP’s panel on ‘What Does Advocacy Look Like in Publishing?’. Whether it be mentorship or reverse-mentorship, there is so much that can be learned from others. Don’t be afraid to knock on doors and make it known you’re looking for a mentor. This can be inside or outside of your organisation, but when senior leaderships are themselves mentoring, it sets a really supportive and positive culture.
5. AI has been a topic in a lot of conversations and it was great to see how it can be positively used to create opportunities rather than threats in publishing. Georgia Kirke, CEO and Founder of ClioBooks.ai explained more on the panel on ‘Leveraging AI to Optimise Revenue & Books Production Time’. ClioBooks.ai allows authors to speak their books, so it’s not written for them but can help to get them written faster, and can also make the writing process more accessible to people who may have barriers such as being neurodivergent, or disabled. 

It was inspiring to hear from industry experts and the publishing industry looks to have an exciting future ahead. If you are looking to take your next step in publishing or to recruit for your team, do reach out to any of the team at Inspired!