The cancellation and postponement of several children’s and literary titles due to be published by Mercier Press has been blamed on a reduction in Arts Council funding, the company said today.

The Cork-based firm confirmed comments made yesterday on Twitter by the children’s publishing blogger, David Maybury, whose as yet untitled book was to be published later in 2010.

Confirmation from the company came through an update on Twitter: ‘Regrettably, several literary and children’s projects have been cancelled or postponed at Mercier due to a 40% cut from The Arts Council.’

Mercier Press’ funding was reduced from €32,000 in 2009 to €20,000 in 2010. The Arts Council has had its overall budget reduced by over €8 million compared with the previous year.

In a phone interview, Managing Director of Mercier Press Clodagh Feehan said it was an ‘unfortunate’ situation.

She said the company would be ‘willing to negotiate with authors who felt they had opportunities to publish earlier (than the new dates) elsewhere’ and that they would honour all ‘existing contracts’.

Ms Feehan added that Mercier Press did not wish to damage anyone’s ability to succeed.

She said the company’s ‘focus was on survival’ in difficult economic conditions.

The Head of Literature for the Arts Council, Sarah Bannan, said that ‘some tough decisions had been made’ but that the Council was happy that it ‘didn’t have to discontinue its funding relationship with Mercier Press’.

Mercier Press was one of several of publishers who experienced a drop in Arts Council funding compared with last year. For a full list of the cuts and its impact see our spreadsheet here.

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*Mercier Press is the former employer of Irish Publishing News Editor & Publisher, Eoin Purcell. David Maybury is a sometime contributor to Irish Publishing News. Irish Publishing News Editor & Publisher, Eoin Purcell, acquired David Maybury’s title while employed by Mercier Press.