Sri Lanka stall at London Book Fair a great success:

British authors eye SL publishing houses

The Sri Lanka Publishers Association, The Booksellers and Importers Association of Ceylon and the Export Development Board jointly organised the Sri Lanka stall at the 2011 London Book Fair in Earl's Court, UK in mid April.

Many of the recent publications of Sri Lankan publishers in English, Sinhala and Tamil were displayed and there was keen interest from booksellers, librarians and institutions from a number of countries including UK, Europe, Australia, USA, India, Pakistan, Singapore, Malaysia and Japan. A number of British authors also visited the stall and explored the option of getting their books published in Sri Lanka.

The delegates to the Book Fair had an opportunity to interact with those who came to the stall and to show the variety of books published in Sri Lanka.

The event also provided an opportunity to highlight the wide range of subjects covered by the publications and the excellent quality of the printed books. A catalogue specially produced for the Fair was eagerly taken away by the visitors. In addition, visits were made to a number of stalls of international publishers at the London Book Fair and discussions held. Brochures for the Colombo International Book Fair were also distributed.

According to Book Fair officials, over 23,000 publishing professionals attended the 40th London Book Fair this year, held from April 11 to 13. It is the premier book fair in the spring in Europe and is the window to the world for publications in the English language.