The London Book Fair is back this year, and as usual there's a lot on that writers will find useful. The show this year is semi-hybrid, by which I mean that the talks going in the main theatre will be filmed, and made available to ticket holders later in the month.

As it happens, I find the most useful talks in the Author HQ, but that's because I'm more interested in self-publishing than in being published by a mainstream publisher.

However, your needs are probably different to mine, so I suggest you look in the first instance at the "track" called Authors: Central to our business. You'll find the sessions listed here: programme. Be aware that the each day of the three day event has its own tab. I mention that because I couldn't understand why there were so few sessions until I realised that I was only looking at the first day!

The event takes place in Olympia, and what I usually do when I attend is take the train to South Kensington rather than changing to get to Olympia. For a start it's usually less crowded, secondly if it's a nice day it's a nice walk (but there are several buses you could take), and thirdly it means passing a few shops where I can buy a sandwich or two without queuing up for ages or seeing my bank manager for a loan.

I always find myself energised by the sight of all those lovely books! 

This article first appeared in my newsletter “Write!”, for writers of non-fiction.