News

Ennis Book Festival Launches 2012 Programme

January 27, 2012 – 9:35 am

The 2012 Ennis Book Club Festival will kick off with a discussion about the future of reading in the digital age. Running from 2nd-4th March this is the sixth year of the festival.

High profile authors attending this year include: Sheila O”Flanagan, Lynne Reid Banks, Patrick Gale, Kevin Barry and Christine Dwyer Hickey, Maureen Gaffney, Joseph Woods and Fergus Finlay.

‘This is our 6th Book Club Festival which is organised in association with Ennis Town Council and Clare Co Library,’ said Festival Chairperson Ciana Campbell. ‘What started from small beginnings has grown steadily into a nationally recognised event attracting book club members and readers from all over the country.’

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Books & Authors

Briefly Noted | Tweet Treats Goes Gourmand

January 27, 2012 – 9:03 am

Regular visitors to writing.ie may remember an interview Barbara Scully did with writer Jane Travers last year on the publication of her quirky book, Tweet Treats. You can read the article, Tweet Treats is a Treat For All  here.

We were delighted to hear that this fabulous book was nominated for a Food Writing Award recently and so asked its author Jane Travers to fill us in and tell us all about it.

via Tweet Treats Goes Gourmand.

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Briefly Noted

NBC News enters sizzling e-book publishing world – Political Bookworm – The Washington Post

January 24, 2012 – 9:02 am

Interesting news this:

NBC News has now entered the scramble, becoming the latest entrant in the e-publishing universe. The news organization is launching NBC Publishing, which will focus on turning out enhanced e-books using NBC’s current video and archival footage.

“We have over one million hours of archival video content going back to the ’20s and a really low cost structure to edit it and put it together,” Michael Fabiano, general manager of NBC Publishing, told Digital Book World.

via NBC News enters sizzling e-book publishing world – Political Bookworm – The Washington Post.

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Briefly Noted

Briefly Noted | Apple and digital publishing: A textbook manoeuvre | The Economist

January 20, 2012 – 8:47 am

But at the same time as Apple is working with incumbents, it is also encouraging others to attack them. Much like the App Store democratised the creation of software and blogging platforms spawned new media companies, the iBook Author and Apple’s online bookstore will open up educational publishing to new companies and to individual academics who want to create their own texts. This will lead to an explosion of new textbooks, many of which will compete with those of existing publishers.

via Apple and digital publishing: A textbook manoeuvre | The Economist.

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Briefly Noted

Briefly Noted | Kindle the fire to self-publishing | Money | The Guardian

January 17, 2012 – 12:02 pm

Without any formal advertising, Wilkinson’s first book, Locked In – first in a series of crime fiction novels – shot up the iTunes and Amazon book charts. “I got a Twitter message from someone I know, asking if I knew that my book was in the iTunes chart. I was somewhere around number 50. Then it just grew and grew.”

He sold his 100,000th copy on Christmas Eve, making it a “No 1 Amazon Kindle bestseller” in the UK. The selling price was 98p, with Wilkinson keeping 35% of that (approximately 30p after VAT). “It’s not as if I’m retiring to the Bahamas. I still work full time. It’s some extra money but it’s not a life-changing amount – not yet.”

via Kindle the fire to self-publishing | Money | The Guardian.

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Briefly Noted

Briefly Noted | Will Apple make iMovie for interactive books? — Apple News, Tips and Reviews

January 17, 2012 – 9:58 am

Interactive books with feedback and rich content on the iPad aren’t only for kids, of course; here’s a list of some with good grown-up oriented content. Plenty of companies have already been using the iPad as a platform to publish interactive kids’ books. A search on the iTunes Store will pop up everything from digital-only publishers like Atomic Antelope that build beautiful children’s stories for the iPad, to TouchyBooks and several interactive book versions of Disney movies. But we have heard Apple’s announcement is geared toward the younger end of the K-12 set, and this could fit with that idea. It also wouldn’t be a huge surprise if people took a new set of tools for building visual stories with rich content and ran with it and it eventually became much more popular outside of content aimed at younger kids and students.

via Will Apple make iMovie for interactive books? — Apple News, Tips and Reviews.

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Briefly Noted

Briefly Noted | The way ahead for publishing | Books | guardian.co.uk

January 16, 2012 – 9:11 am

Finally, the men and women engaged in publishing need to be bold and exuberant. This is an extraordinary age for writing and reading, and it seems to me that this endeavour will go better if it’s done with a sense of purpose and pleasure, rather than defensively. It won’t turn out well for everyone currently in the business, but so what? If publishing is useful and creates value then it will be of value, whoever is doing it.

via The way ahead for publishing | Books | guardian.co.uk.

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Briefly Noted

Briefly Noted | Study: Book Publishers’ ‘Optimism Waning’ As Digital Transition Continues | paidContent

January 16, 2012 – 9:09 am

Depressing new research by Forrester indicates that book publishers are becoming increasingly disheartened about the state of the industry: Only 28 percent of publishing executives think their company will be better off because of the transition to digital, down from 51 percent a year ago.

via Study: Book Publishers’ ‘Optimism Waning’ As Digital Transition Continues | paidContent.

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Briefly Noted News

Briefly Noted | Hachette acquires memoir of Roy Keane’s dog | The Bookseller

January 13, 2012 – 4:03 pm

Odd but interesting news today:

Hachette Books Ireland acquired UK and Commonwealth rights in the title, Triggs: The Autobiography by Paul Howard, with plans to publish to coincide with the European Championships in June 2012.

via Hachette acquires memoir of Roy Keane’s dog | The Bookseller.

Interesting on two counts, one that Howard is writing material other than Ross O’Carroll Kelly and two that he is writing this book for Hachette rather than Penguin Ireland.

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News

SPI Table Quiz

January 13, 2012 – 2:19 pm

Society of Publishers in Ireland (SPI) is running a Valentines table quiz in aid of the Irish Heart Foundation.

Where: Upstairs in the Stags Head, 1 Dame Court, Dublin 2
When: Thursday, February 9, 2012
What time: 19.00-21.00
How much: €20 per table, 4 per team (capacity for 11 teams so it’s going to be first come-first served)
In aid of: Irish Heart Foundation www.irishheart.ie

RSVP (as soon as you can) to: societyofpublishersinireland@gmail.com
For more details please check out SPI’s website.

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