Daily Archives: February 28, 2011

News

CSO Data Suggests Monthly Increase In Books Sales

February 28, 2011 – 2:48 pm

The books, newspapers and stationery segment of retail sales saw an increase in January 2011 of 4.9% in value terms and 2.7% in volume terms when compared with December 2010.

However, the newly released Central Statistics Office data on retail sales in January (PDF) 2011 shows that retail sales the sector  were down 2.4% in value when compared to January 2010 while in volume terms the figure was down 2.4%.

The  results for the segment suggest that the downward pressure shown in last December’s figures has alleviated considerably in January but Torlach Denihan at Retail Ireland said in a statement that ‘last year was the third year in a row in which the value of core retail sales fell and the cumulative decline is now over 20%. The sector needs urgent action from the incoming government. While prices have been cut to the bone, the cost of running a shop has not fallen.’

Overall the Books, Newspapers and Stationery segment now stands at 78.2% of the 2005 value and 70.7% of the 2005 volume.

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Rights

Prizeman & Kinsella Sign Lee Dunne

February 28, 2011 – 1:18 pm

Prizeman & Kinsella, the literary agency run by Yvonne Kinsella and Patricia Prizeman, has signed one of Ireland’s most prolific authors, Lee Dunne.

Dunne has penned 20 novels, three feature films and more than 2000 tv and radio scripts for Irish and UK media organisations, including the RTE Radio Drama, Harbour Hotel.

His most famous work, Goodbye To The Hill was originally published by Hutchinson and has sold more than one million copies in a variety of editions worldwide. It was also one of the longest running plays ever staged in Ireland when adapted for the stage.

Goodbye To The Hill was part of a trilogy the third of which, Paddy Maguire Is Dead, was banned when published in Ireland in paperback in 1972. Despite this impressive tally, the title has now fallen out of print and the agency is keen to see it republished.

The agency will represent all Dunne’s titles on his books on his behalf. According to Yvonne Kinsella, Dunne has a new work ready to publish about his struggle to make it to the bright lights of Broadway.

Dunne started writing as a young cab driver in London, penning his first works between fares.

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Briefly Noted

Briefly Noted | Bloomsbury predicts 2011 to be "year of the e-book" | The Bookseller

February 28, 2011 – 11:35 am

In his chief executive’s statement Nigel Newton said e-books were experiencing “extraordinary” growth, particularly in fiction in the US, where e-book sales were already at 15%. He said according to Amazon 40% of sales of recent bestsellers were as e-books, with Bloomsbury “experiencing similar figures”. Man Booker winner Howard Jacobson’s The Finkler Question had digital sales of 42% of the total in the US in its first six months. Group e-book sales have increased more than 18-fold between 2009 and 2010 from $131,000 to $2.3m.

via Bloomsbury predicts 2011 to be “year of the e-book” | The Bookseller.

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