According to the book information group the Irish Consumer Market (ICM) has seen year-to-date sales of €25.5m down a huge 11.1% on 2012 and 2.4m units down 15% on 2012.

The best performer was Fiction which was only down 8.7% with sales of €7.2m. Non-Fiction was down 11.6% with sales of €12.8m and even the Children’s market, which has often been more resilient was down 13.4% with sales of €5.4m.

No news on whether any of this drop in sales was the result of ebook sales and given that the figures include print sales through sites like Amazon.co.uk, the news paints a negative picture of the year to date for booksellers and publishers alike.

Eason has reached agreement with Hughes & Hughes for its stores in St Stephen’s Green, Santry and Ennis to transfer and operate as Eason franchises from May 2013.

Franchise stores will also open this year in Mallow, Shannon and Killarney. These are expected to create about 35 new jobs. Mr Hughes said becoming an Eason franchisee “makes sense” for the business “given the decline in the overall book market and the threat from online”

via Eason adds Hughes & Hughes outlets to chain – Retail News | Service Industry News | The Irish Times – Wed, Apr 24, 2013.

In many ways the news is good news  if the alternative is bookstores closing and people losing their jobs.

According to the company, Kazoo aims to produce self published books of a quality that equals and surpasses those produced by traditional publishers.

The company offers independent authors editorial and publication packages starting at €2995 and ranging up to €3595. The packages include between 100 and 200 copies of their book in paperback (or hardback if choosing the hardback option), ISBN, typesetting and a professional proofread for author’s books.

Kazoo also offers a members area that the company claims will provide extra resources like a Kazoo Guide To Building Your Brand Online, a Kazoo Advance Information Sheet and a Kazoo Press Release Guide.

According to the company the ‘closure will in no way affect the other H&H branches, all of which will remain open.’ The cafe based in the bookstore, Cafe Libro, will continue to trade as normal

The company also says that loyalty cards and H&H gift vouchers will continue to be honoured in their remaining stores and outstanding customer orders will be available to collect from our Stephen’s Green branch.

In a note to customers posted on the Hughes & Hughes website, the team from the Dundrum store said, ‘We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our customers for your support, conversation and loyalty over the five years we’ve spent in Dundrum. You have helped to make our bookshop a truly wonderful place to work and it has been a pleasure and an honour to be a part of your lives. We wish you all the very best for the future and continued happy reading to you and yours.’

The closure comes just three years after the Hughes & Hughes chain went into receivership and closed all its stores. Some of the stores reopened when a new company, Sivota Ltd, acquired some branches and the brand and trading name of Hughes & Hughes.

Julieann Campbell for her book Setting the Truth Free: the inside story of the Bloody Sunday justice campaign
(Liberties Press, 2012) and Douglas Murray for his book, Bloody Sunday: truth, lies and the Saville Inquiry (Biteback Publishing, 2012).

A Special Award also of £2,500, was given to the journalist and writer Peter Taylor for his work covering Northern Ireland over many years.

The Prize was presented by Olivia O’Leary at a ceremony at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Iveagh House.

Speaking for the judges, Professor Roy Foster said, ‘This year we short-listed a number of books dealing with re-examining the past: Marilynn Richtarik’s and David Fitzpatrick’s masterly biographies of a playwright (Stewart Parker) and a churchman (Frederick MacNeice); and two highly original panoramic histories by Diarmaid Ferriter and Alvin Jackson, putting Ireland’s recent history in a new perspective.

“But in the end we decided that the Prize must be jointly awarded to two books on the terrible events of Bloody Sunday in Derry and their aftermath. Julieann Campbell’s account of the campaign waged by the families of the victims presents a fascinating account of a grass-roots movement fuelled by few resources other than an absolute determination to see justice done; Douglas Murray’s account analyses the proceedings of the Saville Inquiry accessibly, thoughtfully and with forensic care. Both books in different ways demonstrate the necessity to investigate and face up to the unwelcome facts behind received versions of the truth, which is as essential in Northern Ireland as it as ever been.

“The same is true of Peter Taylor’s journalism, books and television programmes over many years, which we felt deserved a special award. The work of all three winners is squarely in the tradition of the Prize, which emerged from Jane Ewart-Biggs’s own determination to make something constructive out of the memory of tragedy.”

The six shortlisted entries were:
Julieann Campbell, Setting the Truth Free: the inside story of the Bloody Sunday justice campaign (Liberties Press)
Diarmaid Ferriter, Ambiguous Republic: Ireland in the 1970s (Profile Press)
David Fitzpatrick, ‘Solitary and Wild’: Frederick MacNeice and the Salvation of Ireland (Lilliput Press)
Alvin Jackson, The Two Unions: Ireland, Scotland and the survival of the United Kingdom, 1707-2007 (Oxford University Press)
Douglas Murray, Bloody Sunday: truth, lies and the Saville Inquiry (Biteback Publishing)
Marilynn Richtarik, Stewart Parker: a life (Oxford University Press)

Irish based Epos films have acquired the option through Prizeman & Kinsella, Monagahn’s agents.

The book has also been sold into Ireland, the UK, the US, North America and Canada, France, Germany, Slovakia, Estonia, Czech Rep, Turkey, Poland, Latvia, Australia, New Zealand securing publishers such as Lattes, St Martin’s Press, Mainstream and Luebbe. Two publishers in China have secured the book in Chinese and traditional Chinese imprints.

The book will be translated into at least nine different languages to date and deals are still being negotiated worldwide.

Moore, who lives in Midleton and is a lecturer in the Department of Biochemistry at University College Cork, said he was ‘delighted and honoured to receive the Ballymaloe Poetry Prize’, which is €5,000 plus two nights B&B and dinner for two at Ballymaloe House. ‘This is a major award and is a huge encouragement to me. I have been reading poetry since my mid-twenties but only recently started writing under the guidance of experienced practitioners,’ said Moore who received third prize in another Cork based competition, the Gregory O’Donoghue Poetry Prize, in 2012.

The second prize (€1,000) went to ‘Oranges’, a poem written by Kita Shantiris, a psychologist and CEO of a mental health centre in Los Angeles. Paula Cunnigham, who works part-time as a dentist in Belfast, won the third prize (€500) with her poem ‘Fathom’.

The competition was judged by Leontia Flynn, winner of the Forward Prize for Best First Collection and a Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. She also commended poems by Vona Groarke, Dan O’Brien, Kita Shantiris and Suji Kim, which will appear in the summer issue of The Moth, which runs the prize.

All three winning poets will be attending a special event at Ballymaloe Cookery School on Saturday 30 March to celebrate, and their poems appear in the spring issue of The Moth, available in bookshops and newsagents throughout Ireland.

Stephen Paul, Managing Director of The Ivy Group said, ‘We searched long and hard for an eBook partner and found ePubDirect’s presentation the most compelling. Since joining ePubDirect we’ve noticed growth in markets we hadn’t previously been able to reach and are looking forward to expanding further.’

Gareth Cuddy, CEO of ePubDirect said, ‘ePubDirect is excited to distribute on behalf of The Ivy Group. Our distribution network connects publishers to more than 1000 sales channels and 25500 libraries, taking our customers’ eBooks to a global marketplace.’

The move comes as ePubDirect added Chegg and ValoBox to their distribution options for publishers along with a recent deal with Wheelers which increases the company’s geographic spread to Australia and New Zealand.

Your job will be to distil the needs of the sales teams and the needs of our customers (teachers and lecturers) into a creative and compelling marketing message across all forms of media. This is a part-time position, working exclusively in Gill & Macmillan’s education business.

YOUR ROLE:

Working closely with the marketing manager and editorial, sales and design personnel, you will:

• Brief and manage a variety of marketing projects: production and circulation of flyers, advance notes, order forms, catalogues; production of adverts etc.
• Brief and manage the cover design process
• Follow up on marketing and publicity leads
• Compile and send out review copies
• Maintain the product offering of our education titles on the Gill & Macmillan website

YOUR SKILLS:

• Excellent creative skills and a good design eye
• Excellent copy-writing skills
• Experienced in all forms of marketing
• Excellent communication and literacy skills
• Excellent attention to detail
• Ability to ‘join-the-dots’ on all projects
• Thrive in a busy environment
• Perform well under pressure
• Knowledge of the Irish education system would be an advantage
• Knowledge of Photoshop, Acrobat, InDesign, Facebook/email marketing would also be an advantage

Closing date: Tuesday 12 March 2013

Applications, including CV and covering letter to Anita Ruane, Marketing Manager at aruane@gillmacmillan.ie. Please note that only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

Duties will include admin, editing, media (traditional and social) and anything else that might crop up in the course of the working life of our busy publishing office. The ideal candidate will be creative, adaptable, able to multi-task and willing to learn and work hard. You will be part of our team although you will be expected to take the initiative at times.

POSTED | 15th February 2013