Agents’ Hotlists London Book Fair
Agents’ Hotlists Rights Key
United Kingdom United States
France Germany
Italy Spain
UK & Commonwealth UK & Translation
World English-language Other territories listed in bold
pleasing aesthetics would be welcome, successful exhibition venues are, like football referees, those that let the game flow. Rights trading, of course, is a
large part of that LBF 2026 business and, going by our Agents’ Hotlists (see p4-22), it will be trope-heavy with skies full of dragons. Romance and romantasy remain strong – there are 73 novels across our Hotlists in this space, a fifth of all entries. While the Hotlists are but a slice of titles that will be shopped at LBF, these are the ones agencies think will be the hits. There is a significant push into
Rights
Last Olympians: venue to bow out in blaze of dragon fire
A
sentimental London Book Fair (LBF) veteran might shed a tear when the lights are dimmed
at the end of the 2026 show, for this will (presumably) be the event’s last time at Olympia before it moves to Excel. You could hardly blame feelings of nostalgia: Olympia has hosted more of the 54 LBFs than any other venue and many fairgoers will have cherished memories. Or, at the least, a Groundhog Day-esque blur of convivial stand parties. But the hall’s renovation has inconvenienced attendees in the
last few fairs, and even when this is completed – as new LBF director Emma Lowe notes (see p24) – the exhibition space will be smaller than when the works began. Aside from still-cramped conditions, this would hamper LBF – the Market Focus money-spinner (excuse me, cross-cultural exchange), for exam- ple, has been in a holding pattern as there has been no space to put on a guest-of-honour pavilion. There has been some carping
about the move east and worries about the soullessness of Excel. To which the obvious retort is: have you been to Frankfurt? While
the Regency romantasy sub-genre, such as SA Lawless’ “Fourth Wing meets Bridgerton” The Duchess, sold by Ed Wilson at Johnson & Alcock to HarperVoyager. In the post-Heated Rivalry world, plenty of queer and sapphic romances are on offer, but the biggest trend is a blend of elements that include cosy-ish or cottage-core romcoms with horror: see SJ Cristea’s How to Save a Dog From the Underworld (Kiya Evans, Paper Literary). There is probably less horror
than at 2025’s Frankfurt Book Fair but much of it is on the more liter- ary end, including Tif Robinette’s Swallerjaw (Sam Edenborough, Greyhound) and Saranya Murthi’s
Agents’ Hotlists About
The Bookseller’s Hotlists are literary agencies’ top manuscripts out on submission with UK and international publishers, compiled by Tom Tivnan for the London, Bologna and Frankfurt book fairs. Each agency selects
their own titles, limited to a maximum of five. Rights deals listed
are confirmed deals unless these are noted as being on offer, at auction or with option publishers; for entries with no rights flagged, the title has yet to be acquired in any territory. Six of the largest
global markets (UK, US, France, Germany, Italy and Spain) have deals denoted with
flags (see Rights Key, above) and list the acquiring imprint. Agents noted are
primary, not translation, agents, barring a select number of instances, such as firms that specialise in foreign rights. To participate in
upcoming hotlists, email tom.tivnan@
thebookseller.com.
03
Romance and romantasy remain strong – there are 73 novels across our Hotlists in this space, a fifth of all entries
Ratri (Matthew Marland, RCW). It is a strong LBF on the literary side full-stop, with an abundance of new outings from prize winners such as Max Porter (Lisa Baker, Aitken Alexander) and Kamila Shamsie (Victoria Hobbs, AM Heath). Non-fiction has had a rough ride
in the UK of late. But green shoots have been in the more serious politics, economics and sciences market. There are rafts of books on anti-authoritarianism (Isabella Weber’s Anti-Fascist Economics; Sarah Chalfant, The Wylie Agency), the crumbling of the world order (Luke Harding’s Betrayal; Susanna Lea, SLA), Russian political corrup- tion (Jamison Firestone’s Rule of Lies; Patrick White, PEW) and even the US president’s recent idée fixe, Greenland, in Dan McDougall’s Line in the Snow (Matilda Forbes Watson, WME).
REPORTING Tom Tivnan
SHUTTERSTOCK
London Book Fair Special
Agents’ Hotlists
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