New fantasy at London Book Fair
Michael Warlen debuted his fantasy novel Shadow of Prophecy: The Elysian Prophecies Book 1 at this year’s London Book Fair — the fair has been described as “record‑breaking,” signaling strong industry demand for new speculative series. ( ). Separately, The Reading Glass Books is slated to appear at the LA Times Festival of Books on April 18–19 at USC (Booth #960), so if you’re planning festival stops there are specific booths and dates already set. (webwire.com)
A new fantasy writer used one of publishing’s biggest trade floors as his launchpad: Michael Warlen introduced *Shadow of Prophecy: The Elysian Prophecies Book 1* at the 2026 London Book Fair, which ran March 10 to 12 in London. The book was presented there as the opening volume of a planned six-book saga. (kingnewswire.com; financialcontent.com) That venue matters because the London Book Fair is not a fan convention first; it is a business fair where publishers, rights sellers, agents, and licensors go to make deals. The fair’s own site describes it as a place where the global publishing community gathers to build relationships and license content. (londonbookfair.co.uk) This year’s edition was also the last one at Olympia London before the fair moves to Excel London in 2027. Warlen’s debut landed during that transition year, when industry attention was already unusually concentrated on the event itself. (kingnewswire.com; londonbookfair.co.uk) Reports tied to the fair said attendance topped 33,000 publishing professionals and exhibitors reached 1,005, which is why multiple writeups called the 2026 show “record-breaking.” Trade coverage from the week of the fair also described the market as busy and rights-focused, not quiet or defensive. (kingnewswire.com; publishersweekly.com) Warlen’s novel was positioned squarely inside that rights-and-series economy. Advance publicity for the book described it as fantasy built around the scholar character Elysia Calderon and framed it as the first installment in a six-book arc, which is exactly the kind of packaging that can attract interest from booksellers and rights teams looking for repeatable worlds instead of one-off titles. (financialcontent.com; pr.wallowa.com) The fair itself has been leaning hard into the mechanics of how books get bought, edited, and sold across markets. Its 2026 conference program included sessions on the path from submission to publication, alongside the usual rights and industry programming, which helps explain why an author launch there is aimed as much at intermediaries as at readers. (londonbookfair.co.uk) The next public-facing stop in this same orbit is on the United States festival calendar, not in another trade hall. The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books is scheduled for April 18 and 19, 2026, on the University of Southern California campus, and general admission is free. (latimes.com; usc.edu) The Reading Glass Books said it will be there at Booth 960 in the Black Zone and described the 2026 appearance as its fourth time at the festival. That gives readers an actual date and booth number, while the London launch shows how these books first get introduced to the trade before they reach a wider festival crowd. (webwire.com)
