I felt that it was difficult to talk to people on the floor, as i felt that i couldn't approach people professionally. I couldn't get in contact with any of the art directors, so it was often just exchanging my business card.
Most artist interaction is on-line, and this is creates a big divide and an unwelcome atmosphere towards artists when attending the fair.
People that actually wanted to see my portfolio where actually stationary sellers, weather if this was unpopularity of the stalls or not is something i cant really say, however some portions of my artwork i think are largely translatable into stationary and other such accessories.
Even in the Illustrators pavilion i was more often approached by other artists than people looking for artists.
While the talk with the art directors was some what informative, the only things i took away from it where:
Consider mailing a dummy book in, it makes a bigger statement and it's more likely to be read and considered when it's a physical object.
You may need less than you consider when mailing a dummy book in, only around 8 pages of fully formed sequential art and another chunk of it in rough might be needed for a graphic novel, and work is subject to change.
My talk was one of the art directors a book cover designer from Schoolastic was more about just affirming what i already know. While i did want to see someone from self made hero, or a simmilar company it seemed to be incredibly geared to children's book.
Ie, looking around at other artists and seeing what is currently popular, And each and every company will have their own biases towards certain kinds of art, and how art is presented.
I would not go to the London book fair again unless i had a more fully formed product to show, as people seemed even less interested in you if you where just looking for work within the feild, and not pitching a product. However i don't think that with my current portfolio that my artwork is going to be a large part of the print medium just yet.
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