Katie Morris describes herself as a natural organiser, which is just as well. This week Katie has been at the heart of London Book Fair, the second biggest event of its kind in the world.

About 25,000 people from 124 countries have gathered at the Olympia exhibition centre.

What will be the coming year’s best-sellers? What trends will emerge as the publishing world grapples with new technology and seeks new opportunities?

Katie, 35, is event manager here. Her role means pulling together the book fair’s many strands, which include 200 seminars.

As a keen reader she is happy that the perks include meeting famous authors.

It’s a long way from Armathwaite, in every sense. Katie grew up in this Eden Valley village, between Carlisle and Penrith.

The distance has removed any trace of a Cumbrian accent. But her parents Richard and Sue still live in Katie’s childhood home.

She attended primary school in Armathwaite then at nearby High Hesket. Her secondary education was at boarding school in York.

After graduating from Durham University, Katie worked at Eden Housing Association in Penrith for a year.

But London was calling.

“Lots of my friends moved there to work,” she says. “It was somewhere I’d always thought about living.”

She moved to the capital in 2004 and joined her current employer, Reed Exhibitions, as a marketing manager.

Five years ago Katie’s interest in books helped her move to one of Reed’s flagship projects: London Book Fair.

This is one of the UK’s biggest trade exhibitions. The fair is a global marketplace for negotiating publishing rights and selling the written word across numerous channels: print, audio, TV, film and digital.

As a member of the marketing team Katie was instrumental in expanding the fair’s social media presence, and in the venue change from Earls Court to Olympia. She was appointed event manager last April.

London Book Fair lasts for three days, and takes a year to organise.

“You’re always thinking ahead,” says Katie. “As soon as the show wraps you’re onto the next one.

“It’s fairly intense. It’s fast-paced but you have to be really patient.

“It must be in my nature to organise events. I’ve always been interested in events and organising, from school committee to being social secretary for the boat club at university.

“The key is planning ahead. Really think about ‘this is the end date: what will it look like then? How do we achieve that?’”

The essential aspects of planning, organising and marketing come with another element in Katie’s role.

“There’s the creative aspect. We’re in a creative industry. So you need to reflect that.”

One example came last year when Great British Bake Off host Mary Berry visited the book fair.

Book facts

  • UK book buying grew by five per cent in value in 2015, for print, digital and audio books
  • The UK consumer book market is now worth more than £2.2bn
  • In 2015 the value of printed books sold grew for the first time in three years: up by four per cent
  • Children’s fiction is leading print book growth in the UK
  • Audio books saw double-digit growth – up 27 per cent
  • eBook growth plateaued. eBooks now account for 53 per cent of adult fiction purchases
  • In 2015, self-published eBooks accounted for 22 per cent of the market, up from 16 per cent the previous year

“There was a pop-up version of The Ivy club. Mary Berry opened that. We had a dedicated cocktail.”

Did she drink it?

“She definitely tasted it. But it was very early so she didn’t have much.

“It’s really exciting to meet some of these people. I’m a huge crime fan. Marian Keys is here this week. Philip Pullman was speaking yesterday. I love His Dark Materials.

“I’m really excited about Julian Fellowes [author and creator of Downton Abbey]. I’m a huge Downton fan. He’s written a novel. It’s being serialised.”

This is Belgravia, a story which is appearing first on a downloadable app, in 11 weekly instalments.

Belgravia is a good example of how the publishing industry is adapting to technology.

There have been fears that the rise of eBooks would threaten publishers.

More than half the novels bought by adults in the UK last year were eBooks.

But publishers are taking advantages of new opportunities.

“The book fair is a great place for publishers to talk about what they can do with their contracts.

“There’s gaming, films and TV. For the last two or three years we’ve really moved that forward.”

One example was a deal struck between publisher Harper Collins and Sainsbury’s.

Mog, the cat character created by Judith Kerr, featured in a Sainsbury’s ad campaign last Christmas. This also included a new book and a toy.

With so many people – and cats – to consider, Katie’s job demands plenty of flexibility.

“There’s always something that comes up. Occasionally things don’t go according to plan.

“A few years ago the book fair was affected by the ash clouds, before my time here.

“But we’ve all been working in the industry for quite a few years. You’d be amazed at how smoothly things run.”

This is a competitive line of work. What advice does Katie have for people hoping for a career in event management?

“Start as early as you can. I got involved informally from quite a young age. I started from the bottom and worked my way up.”

She isn’t sure if growing up in Cumbria helped shape her career path. But she does know that she loves it here.

“It was a fantastic experience. I come back as often as I can. It’s important that my family are still there.

“It is very different to London. But there’s some amazing culture going on in Cumbria. My mum is involved in organising the Highlights Rural Touring Scheme [which stages music and drama shows in rural areas].

“I like to think she got that from me! But maybe I did get it from her.”

Publishers are going back to the future. Serial episodic fiction – a mainstay of publishing in Victorian literary magazines – is back in fashion thanks to 21st century technology.

Ninety cent of these stories are read on mobile phones.

Young readers and writers have led the explosion in growth. More than two-thirds of regular readers are aged 18-23.

Increasing demand has been driven by platforms such as Tumblr and Wattpad, which has 40 million regular users per month worldwide.