The BA has called for more free parking in town centres and a reduction in red tape to help struggling businesses.

It also argued that charity shops present “unfair competition” to bookshops due to the valuable tax breaks they get. There are more than 250 specialist charity bookshops in the UK, while a further 8,000 charity shops sell books as part of their ranges.

Tim Godfray, the BA’s chief executive, said that bookshops are facing “huge pressures from so many quarters”.

via Hundreds of bookshops face closure – Telegraph.

US retailer Barnes & Noble is “developing a partnership with Waterstones to add the Nook to its locations this year”, according to reports on news site Bloomberg Businessweek which quotes an unnamed source “familiar with the situation”.

via B&N ‘developing partnership’ with Waterstones over Nook | The Bookseller.

The wonderful English novelist Joanna Trollope is the first guest author in the DLR Library Voices series which starts next month. Trollope is the author of 16 highly acclaimed best-selling novels, the latest of which, The Soldiers Wife, deals with the difficulties facing a military wife awaiting her husbands return from a tour of duty in Afghanistan.

via Trollope is star guest of Gleeson – Books, Entertainment – Independent.ie.

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.’

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.

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.

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.

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.

Let’s see who gets creative!

Joyce died on January 13th, 1941; originally, copyright in these works in Britain and Ireland extended for 50 years, until 1991. However, some two years after that date, EU copyright law was harmonised to bring it into line with German practice and the period was extended to 70 years.

The end of copyright protection will enable creative artists and theatre companies to stage adaptations and re-enactments. Public broadcast will also be possible. Joyce’s solitary play, Exiles,  can also be freely staged, and productions are likely.

via EU copyright on Joyce works expires – The Irish Times – Sun, Jan 01, 2012.

O’BRIEN HAVE ASKED ME TO NOTE THAT APPLICATIONS FOR THIS POSITION ARE NOW CLOSED.

Irish publishing house The O’Brien Press has a vacancy for a Marketing/Publicity Assistant. The position will involve assisting and providing support to the Marketing Manager in all aspects of marketing, publicity and events. It will involve working on all new and backlist titles, as well as helping to roll out the overall marketing strategy. The successful candidate will be energetic and enthusiastic and will be able to work well on their own and as part of a team. They will be able to work well under pressure. An interest in social media or experience in online marketing would be preferable. Experience in the publishing industry would be preferable but not essential. This is a full-time position beginning in January 2012.

Apply with CV before 5pm on Wednesday 21st December to:
Carol Tierney, The O’Brien Press, 12 Terenure Road East, Dublin 6, Ireland
Email: Carol@obrien.ie Ph: +353 1 492 3333