A comment in response to my column in The Bookseller today caught my eye:
There is another strand to the issues facing Irish publishing, though, in that aside from fiction, Ireland, and I am troubled by saying this but believe it is true, behaves provinicially. There is a lack of books published by Irish publishers that stand alone on the international market, books that are not specifically related to Ireland. Obviously the Irish market is important, but in the wider scheme, it is small. Bookshops do support Irish titles, but they are also filled with books by UK and US publishers that are not specifically related to the UK or US. It would be good to see an Irish published non-fiction book do as well as some of the fiction produced. There seems no reason why there should not be more ambition to this end, and a drive to look beyond Ireland’s own shores.
And got me thinking. I wanted to find out what people thought, so here, is a poll with a simple question and answer! Let us know what you think!
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I would suggest anyone with the latest edition of the Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook to peruse through the listings for Irish publishers. Firstly, Irish publishers are lumped in with UK publishers – a consistent trend with various yearbooks. Look carefully at the description of each Irish publisher – what you will find is references to ‘General and Irish literature, or ‘with an Irish view/slant’!!!
What is Irish literature? In short, it is nothing without a broader international identity, Our best authors have an international identity. They carved that out for themselves. Our best authors, ironically, like our best business and sporting icons go abroad to achieve their ambitions, simply because we do not have the foresight, publishing infrastructure to sustain their ideals. That, in a word, is shameful. Shameful, that even UK publishers like Penguin and Hachette have tried to fill the vacant void that exists in these lands.
In 2006, Alan Hayes produced a report on Irish publishing and asked the question – ‘Is Literary Publishing in Crisis?’. It was then, and it still is. If anything, it’s worse now 4 years on. That Alan Hayes had the courage to put together that report for CLE, as a working employee, and deliver it with recommendations. A few of those were implemented, most never saw the light of day.
For those who answer NO to this poll, I would suggest they re-read Alan’s report, and think wisely again about why the didn’t click the YES button.
Eoin, I’d like to clarify one of the points here. There is at least one Irish publisher who specifically publishes for the international trade: Maverick House. As our website states, ‘Maverick House has one objective: to publish socially and politically relevant non-fiction books. What separates us from most other publishing houses is our approach and outlook: we publish not just for local markets, but for the international one.’
For example, a memoir we published about a Thai prostitute, Miss Bangkok, will be published in Polish next month. Our most recent book for the international market, ‘Mango Rains’ will not be released in Ireland, because the market here is not big enough.
The pertinent question, I would think is, are Irish readers provincial? You can see the (small) amount of international news in our newspapers and in the media.
The future of Irish publishing versus the future of publishing in Ireland was something I addressed when I spoke at Dublin Book Festival last year, and 12 months on the questions and the problems are still the same, but our approach at Maverick House has always been to look at publishing in Ireland in context; the market here is quite small.