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.’

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.

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.

Independent publisher, Y Books is to launch an ebook only edition of Dermot O’Connor’s The Healing Code in January 2012.

It will be the first time the bestselling book will be available as an eBook. The book was originally published by Hachette.

In the book O’Connor, who was diagnosed with a severe form of multiple sclerosis, explores how he resolved to heal himself and how eight years after diagnosis, Dermot is in the best physical and mental health of his life.

The digital move comes on the back of Y Books being the first domestic publisher to have its titles listed on the new Irish iBookstore after Apple launched the service at the end of September. These included Mick McCaffery’s The Irish Scissor Sisters and Cocaine Wars.

Speaking at the time Chenile Keogh, Managing Director/Publisher at Y Books, said, ‘This is a very exciting move for Y Books. As a young and innovative publisher we wanted to take advantage of the opportunities that advances in technology offer us. We are proud to be the first Irish publisher to have our full list available through iBooks Ireland just days after its launch, our titles are also available through the iBooks international stores.’

A book signing for Paul Williams’ new book, Badfellas, in Easons Limerick has been cancelled today after a security concern.

Elaine Levins, manager at the Limerick store, said that the store’s planned signing was cancelled at ‘around 11.30am in the interest of public safety’ because of a security concern passed on to them by the author.

Levins said that in response to the threat the ‘armed response unity were active … along with more Gardaí.’

Levins also said the security concern did not relate to the crowd gathered at the store.

Speaking about the incident, Cliona Lewis, Publicist for Penguin Group in Ireland, said that the event had not yet been rescheduled.

Aoife Walsh, who worked as an assistant editor with Four Courts Press and is now Information Officer with Ireland Literature Exchange, has launched a new quarterly ejournal of new fiction, The South Circular.

Walsh said that she had ‘been watching the irresistible way in which digital is changing the consumption of content’ and that ‘rather than fear[ing] these developments, THE SOUTH CIRCULAR is committed to being an active participant in this continuing conversation on the communal reinvention of the publishing process.’

The journal has started accepting submissions from unpublished writers, from Ireland and abroad, of short stories of up to 2,000 words. Issue 1 will be published in March 2012.

The closing date, for stories to be considered for issue 1, is Monday, 12 December 2011.

~~~
For submission guidelines, please visit: www.thesouthcircular.com/submission.html.

Cork based independent publisher The Collins Press has revamped its website.

The changes which feature a separate section dedicated to eBooks and mean that purchasing both print and eBooks is easier and simpler for readers.

Separately the company also announced an extension of the ebook range. Collins has now converted much of its backlist titles to electronic editions including one of the publisher’s most successful titles, An Unsung Hero: Tom Crean – Antarctic Survivor by Michael Smith.

The company says ‘Ebooks are now a significant part of publishing and we are embracing them with enthusiasm’

The Irish Consumer Market (ICM) is showing a year on year decline approaching 10% according to the latest data from Nielsen Bookscan.

The Euro value of sales are down 9.3% to €97.8m while the volume of sales are down 9.6% to 9.4m units. The rate of decline in value terms has increased from figures released by Nielsen in October when value was only down 8.9%. However, the decline in volume has moderated slight down .1% on the same October’s figures.

The declines in the ICM are relatively consistent across broad sectors. The Fiction sector is down 8.8% to €28.6m in value, and down 9.7% to 3.0m units. Non-Fiction is down 9.4% to €46.2m, and down 9.2% to 3.3m units. The Children’s sector is down 9.5% to €22.5m in value, and down 9.7% to 2.9m units.

The firm also returned an £18m dividend to its Dublin-based parent company, paid out of accumulated profits

BBC News – Easons announces pre-tax losses of £1.5m.

This year’s Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards marked a victory for UK publishers and their Irish based imprints with only O’Brien Press, who recently acquired Brandon Books, among the native houses to win a prize.

Now in its sixth year, the awards nevertheless saw some 33.000 members of the Irish reading public cast their votes for the favourite titles and Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney presented with the Bob Hughes Lifetime Achievement Award by President Michael D. Higgins.

Despite the poor showing of Irish publishers, Irish authors did well, with winners including film director Neil Jordan, Irish Times journalist Belinda McKeon, celebrity chef Rachel Allen, cycling star Nicholas Roche and popular fiction author Sheila O’ Flanagan, crime author Alan Glynn and children’s authors Anna Carey and Chris Judge.

UK newspaper columnist Caitlin Moran won The John Murray Show Listeners’ Choice Award for her comic memoir, How to be a Woman.

The Crannóg Bookshop in Cavan won the award for ‘Bord Gáis Energy Irish Bookshop of the Year’

RTÉ Television will be broadcasting the highlights of the ‘Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards’ on RTÉ One on Thursday 24 November 2011, at 10.45pm. This programme will showcase one of the biggest celebrations of Irish books and writing with many of our most celebrated and loved authors in attendance.

The full list of winners is below:

The Hughes & Hughes Irish Novel of the Year:
• Mistaken by Neil Jordan (John Murray)

RTÉ Radio 1’s The John Murray Show Listeners’ Choice Award:
• How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran (Ebury)

The Ireland AM Irish Crime Fiction Book of the Year:
• Bloodland by Alan Glynn (Faber)

The Argosy Irish Non-Fiction Book of the Year:
• Easy Meals by Rachel Allen (Collins)

Eason Irish Popular Fiction Book of the Year:
• All For You by Sheila O’Flanagan (Headline)

Irish Sports Book of the Year:
• Inside the Peloton by Nicolas Roche (Transworld Ireland)

Bord Gáis Energy Irish Bookshop of the Year:
• Crannóg Bookshop, Cavan town

Sunday Independent Best Irish Newcomer of the Year:
• Solace by Belinda McKeon (Picador)

International Education Services Best Irish Published Book of the Year:
• Connemara: A Little Gaelic Kingdom by Tim Robinson (Penguin Ireland)

Specsavers Irish Children’s Book of the Year:
Junior
• The Lonely Beast by Chris Judge (Andersen Press)

Senior
• The Real Rebecca by Anna Carey (O’Brien)