Tag Archives: Irish Authors

And The Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Award 2011 Winners Are

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)

Guest Column: Crowdfunding A Book Release

David Gaughran talks about Crowdsourcing his latest self-published novel, A Storm Hits Valparaíso , through the recently created Irish website, Fund It.

Self-publishers have lots of advantages over the traditional route: we are quick to market, we can price very competitively and still turn a profit, we can write (and publish) whatever we like, we earn up to 70% royalties on our work (more if we sell direct), and we control every aspect of how our books are presented to the reading public.

One of the obvious downsides is that we have to pay for things like editing and cover design, and if you are committed to a professional approach, you will have to shift several hundred copies before you break even for all those out-of-pocket expenses, let alone recoup anything for all of your own time invested in writing, publishing, and promoting each title.

When I first heard about the US crowdfunding site Kickstarter, I was intrigued. Here were a bunch of artists, filmmakers, and writers who were leveraging the power of the internet to fund their creative projects. In return for their support, funders received rewards based on their level of contribution (from a copy of the book or movie to magazine subscriptions, special editions, unique artwork, or an invitation to the premiere).

Self-publishers have used Kickstarter to cover editing costs, pay for hardcover print runs, commission cover art, release limited editions, and create audiobooks.

Rather than a begging bowl being passed around, the rewards can be quite tantalizing, representing a bargain for those pledging. While some projects are unsuccessful in hitting their targets (and those who pledged are never charged), the slickest presentations with the most creative rewards are often oversubscribed, sometimes hugely. The only problem, for me, was that Kickstarter was only open to US artists.

Last month, I came across an Irish crowdfunding site called Fund It – an initiative created by the Temple Bar-based non-profit Business to Arts, and supported by the Department of Arts, Heritage & The Gaeltacht and British Council Ireland.

Using Fund It, successful projects have included poetry performances organized by a small press, an interactive storytelling map of Dublin for locals and tourists, a year’s print run for a student literary magazine, and soon, hopefully, my project.

Essentially, I’m using Fund It to take advance orders for digital and print copies of a novel that will be published in December. If successful, this will allow me to turn a profit before the book is even released.

This project was on a relatively small-scale, but I can see so much potential here. In the future, as my audience grows, I could use Fund It to pay for an offset print run or a limited edition hardback.

Aside from the rewards they receive, crowdfunding allows readers to feel like they are a part of the publication process – helping a book come into being – and they will see their name in the Acknowledgements too.

Book marketing, these days, is all about connections. Self-publishers (and small presses) can’t compete with the wall-to-wall promo that accompanies a blockbuster novel from a big-name writer. What we have to do is seek out those passionate readers who will champion our books to others – generating that ever-elusive word of mouth.

And what better way to get that conversation started than including your readers in the very act of creation?

____

David Gaughran is the author of If You Go Into The WoodsTransfection, and Let’s Get Digital: How To Self-Publish, And Why You Should. You can catch him at http://davidgaughran.wordpress.com

O’Brien Press Acquires Brandon Books

The O’Brien Press has announced the acquisition of Dingle based Irish independent publisher Brandon Books. The move comes a year after Brandon’s founder, Steve MacDonogh, died suddenly, leaving the publisher leaderless.

The deal includes the purchase of the Brandon name and a significant number, thought to be around half the existing list, of the publisher’s key titles, contracts and book stock.

O’Brien Press will continue to publish titles under the Brandon imprint and Ivan O’Brien, Managing Director of The O’Brien Press, said ‘We will be focusing on fiction of literary quality and will actively seek out new original talent, bringing to our Brandon imprint the care, flair and fresh thinking that has helped O’Brien become Ireland’s leading independent publisher. Of course, we will continue to publish established authors like Alice Taylor, Gerry Adams and Sam Millar. Brandon authors will benefit from our worldwide literary agency network and from our in-house design, editorial and production management.’

The acquisition marks a significant departure for O’Brien which, while publishing considerable numbers of children’s and young adult fiction, has only a limited adult fiction list.

Speaking about the acquisition, publisher and founder of The O’Brien Press, Michael O’Brien said ‘Steve was a man of many talents. From a small base in beautiful Kerry, he created an international literary press. He was a lifelong friend and colleague.’

Irish Top Ten Week Ending 24/09/2011

It’s quite the week for Ross O’Carroll Kelly with a whopping 2,743 sales his book tops the charts nicely. It’s no bad week for his publisher either, as his stablemate, Simon Carswell’s Anglo Republic scored a remarkable 1,179.

Irish authors hold up well (aided by a book written by a quartet or Irish women).

Christmas is hinted at by the presence of the Guinness World Records but the strength of the week rests primarily on ROCK and the phenomenal selling power of One Day by David Nicholls.

1: Nama Mia!, Ross O’Carroll-Kelly, 2,743
2: One Day, David Nicholls, 1,963
3: Kill Alex Cross, James Patterson, 1,269
4: Anglo Republic:Inside the Bank That Broke Ireland, Simon Carswell, 1,179
5: The Burning Soul, John Connolly, 797
6: The Decision, Penny Vincenzi, 781
7: The Help, Kathryn Stockett, 826
8: Click Click, Joyce Kavanagh, June Kavanagh, Paula Kavanagh, Marian Quinn, 663
9: Guinness World Records 2012, 630
10: Ma, I’ve Got Meself Locked Up in the Madhouse, Martha Long, 621

buy the book from The Book Depository, free delivery

Top Ten Dynamics
IPN is running a top ten dynamics section looking at the top ten with some data drawn out. Nothing too dramatic, but useful nonetheless.

Volume: 11,472 Units
Average Units Per Title: 1,147
~~~~
Fiction: 6 titles, 8,379 units or 73%
Non-Fiction: 4 titles, 3,093 units or 27%
~~~~
Authors: 12 (plus one corporate authors)
Irish Authors: 8, 66%
<strong>Irish Published Books: 0
~~~~
Average RRP: £13.29

Data Supplied by Nielsen BookScan taken from the Irish Consumer Market week ending 24th September 2011

Apple iBookstore LIVE in Ireland

Irish consumers can now purchase ebooks through Apple’s iBooks reading application.

Irish readers can purchase Maeve Binchy (one of three features Bestselling Irish Authors) ebooks for as little as €1.99.

Apple’s Irish customers can buy in Euro and directly through iBooks/iTunes Ireland rather than being forced to use the US store unlike the Amazon Kindle offering.

Until this launch visitors to the Irish iBookstore were offered only public domain books or books that Apple had chosen to make available for free.

As well as launching their iBookstore business in Ireland, the tech company yesterday brought 25 other countries around Europe into the program including Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Replublic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portgal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.

Tom Duddy On Seamus Heaney Centre Poetry Prize Shortlist

Irish author Tom Duddy is the only Irish poet to make the short list for the Seamus Heaney Centre Prize for Poetry with his debut poetry collection, The Hiding Place.

The Hiding Place, which is published by Arlen Househas also recently been shortlisted for the Aldeburgh First Collection Award in the UK.

The winner pf the prize will be announced on 25 November 2011 at a presentation with John Montague. The Chair of the judges is Professor Harry Clifton, Ireland Chair of Poetry.

The full shortlist for the prize is:
Tom Duddy, The Hiding Place (Arlen House)
Valerie Duff, To the New World (Salmon Poetry)
Anna Robinson, The Finders of London (Enitharmon Press)
Victor Tapner, Flatlands (Salt Publishing)
Katherine Towers, The Floating Man (Picador)

Irish Top Ten Week Ending 17/09/2011

An interesting top ten this week. For one thing, Penguin Ireland will be pleased with a fiction AND a non-fiction title sitting happily in the top five. What’s more along with Stockett’s, The Help, Penguin published titles make up 30% of titles in the top ten.

The list of Irish authors is also pretty strong with four making the top ten.

1: One Day, David Nicholls, 2,470
2: Skulduggery Pleasant: Death Bringer, Derek Landy, 1,253
3: The Burning Soul, John Connolly, 1,047
4: Anglo Republic:Inside the Bank That Broke Ireland, Simon Carswell, 986
5: Nama Mia!, Ross O’Carroll-Kelly, 852
6: The Help, Kathryn Stockett, 833
7: On Canaan’s Side, Sebastian Barry, 756
8: Ma, I’ve Got Meself Locked Up in the Madhouse, Martha Long, 707
9: Walk on:My Life in Red, Ronnie Whelan & Tommy Conlon, 621
10: Headhunters, Jo Nesbo, 614

Top Ten Dynamics
IPN is running a top ten dynamics section looking at the top ten with some data drawn out. Nothing too dramatic, but useful nonetheless.

Volume: 10,139 Units
Average Units Per Title: 1,014

~~
Fiction: 7 titles, 7,852 units or 77.18%
Non-Fiction: 3 titles, 2,314 units or 22.82%

~~
Authors: 10
Irish Authors: 3, 30%
Irish Published Books: 0, 0%

~~
Average RRP: £12.19

Data Supplied by Nielsen BookScan taken from the Irish Consumer Market week ending 17th September 2011

Irish Top Ten Week Ending 16/07/2011

It’s a week for Ice & Fire. The fifth book in George RR Martin’s epic series has had an amazing success across the globe and Ireland is no different. It pulled in a remarkable (for a science fiction & Fantasy title) 2,200 sales last week. What’s more, the first book of the series, although it’s sales dropped from last week, still delivered a  creditable result selling 763 units and just clinging on to its top ten place from last week.

I’d be fascinated to know what the ebook leakage figure was for Ireland for A Dance With Dragons, by that I mean, how many fans ordered the book as a digital edition either from a US or UK based services like Amazon. Considering that both the US and UK reported huge sales for ebooks editions of the title, I get the sense that there were many (I myself pre-ordered the book on my kindle and it cost me only $9.99. It is currently $19.89 for Irish readers). It is a mark of the relative protected/backward/challenged (take your pick) the Irish market is with regard to ebooks that no-one seems to be selling an ebook version at ANY Irish ebook site (of which few actually exist in any case) that I can find.

As this weekly look through has highlighted for some weeks, Fiction titles are in complete control of the top ten in Ireland and Irish authors made a valiant stab at it too. It was a good week too, with the figure for top ten sales up some 10% on the previous week. With summer reading offers still rolling you’d expect fiction to remain dominant for some time to come.

1:A Dance with Dragons:Book Five of a Song of Ice and Fire, George RR Martin, 2,200
2: All for You, Sheila O’Flanagan, 1,794
3: Minding Frankie, Maeve Binchy, 963
4: The Leopard, Jo Nesbo, 949
5: Fallen, Karin Slaughter, 912
6: One Day, David Nicholls, 911
7: Belle, Lesley Pearse, 896
8: Something from Tiffany’s, Melissa Hill, 853
9: The Reversal, Michael Connelly, 811
10: A Game of Thrones Book 1 of a Song of Ice and Fire, George R.R. Martin, 763

buy the book from The Book Depository, free delivery

Top Ten Dynamics
IPN is running a top ten dynamics section looking at the top ten with some data drawn out. Nothing too dramatic, but useful nonetheless.

Volume: 11,052 Units
Increase since last week: 1074 units
% Increase since last week: -10.76%
Average Units Per Title: 1,105

~~
Fiction: 10 titles, 9,978 units or 100%, RRP £11.39
Non-Fiction: 0 titles, 0 units or 0%, RRP £0

~~
Authors: 10
Irish Authors: 3, 30%
Irish Published Books: 0, 0%

~~
Average RRP: £11.39
Increase in RRP since last week: £2.29
% Increase in RRP since last week: 10.10%*
*It is important to note that RRP does not reflect actually selling price. Much of this RRP Increase is driven by one title which had a £25.00 RRP.

Data Supplied by Nielsen BookScan taken from the Irish Consumer Market week ending 9th July 2011
Image Credit:

AttributionNoncommercialSome rights reserved by icantcu

Irish Top Ten Week Ending 09/07/2011

Fiction dominates the list this week. Strong sales for established Irish female authors and a few old favourites like Grisham and Picoult. The presence of Martin in the Top Ten is all about the release of the fifth book, which, along with the buzz built up through the HBO series for his books, has ignited sales for the backlist.

1: All for You, Sheila O’Flanagan, 1,545
2: Minding Frankie, Maeve Binchy, 1,087
3: Something from Tiffany’s, Melissa Hill, 1,041
4: A Game of Thrones Book 1 of a Song of Ice and Fire, George R.R. Martin,1,032
5: One Day, David Nicholls, 1,016
6: The Midwife’s Confession, Diane Chamberlain, 860
7: A Tiny Bit Marvellous, Dawn French, 857
8: The Confession, John Grisham, 855
9: Harvesting The Heart, Jodi Picoult, 854
10: Stand By Me, Sheila O’Flanagan, 831

Top Ten Dynamics
IPN is running a top ten dynamics section looking at the top ten with some data drawn out. Nothing too dramatic, but useful nonetheless.

Volume: 9,978 Units
Decrease since last week: -549 units
% Decrease since last week: -5.22%
Average Units Per Title: 998

~~
Fiction: 10 titles, 9,978 units or 100%, RRP £9.19
Non-Fiction: 0 titles, 0 units or 0%, RRP £0

~~
Authors: 10
Irish Authors: 3(4), 40% (One Irish Author is in the Top Ten, Twice)
Irish Published Books: 0, 0%

~~
Average RRP: £9.19
Decrease in RRP since last week: £0.60
% Increase in RRP since last week: -6.13%*
*It is important to note that RRP does not reflect actually selling price.

Data Supplied by Nielsen BookScan taken from the Irish Consumer Market week ending 9th July 2011

Irish Top Ten Week Ending 25/06/2011

After a few weeks where sales seemed to be recovering for the top ten, this week dealt a huge blow with an over 15% drop in sales by volume. That nonetheless offered some bright points as Irish authors still held 4 of the top ten spots in the chart but the trend is disappointing.

The array of fiction is again broad, everything from commercial women’s fiction to children’s fiction with crime, literary and fantasy thrown into the mix. The strength of fiction might be more easily understood as the weakness of non-fiction in the first half of 2011 however, especially when the sales figures are so anemic.

All the same it is nice to see Maeve Binchy (why not listen to her talk about Minding Frankie here) in the number one spot.

1: Minding Frankie, Maeve Binchy, 1,573
2: Something from Tiffany’s, Melissa Hill, 1,475
3: A Game of Thrones Book 1 of a Song of Ice and Fire, George R.R. Martin, 1,109
4: Madeleine: Our Daughter’s Disappearance and the Continuing Search for Her, Kate McCann, 1,059
5: Let the Great World Spin, Colum McCann, 996
6: The Confession, John Grisham, 882
7: Miracle Cure, Harlan Coben, 818
8: Stand by Me, Sheila O’Flanagan, 790
9: Water For Elephants, Sarah Gruen, 780
10: Rodrick Rules:Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Jeff Kinney, 683

Top Ten Dynamics
IPN is running a top ten dynamics section looking at the top ten with some data drawn out. Nothing too dramatic, but useful nonetheless.

Volume: 10165 Units
Decrease since last week: 1,873 units
% Decrease since last week: 15.56%
Average Units Per Title: 1017

~~
Fiction: 9 titles, 9,106 units or 89.58%, RRP £8.55
Non-Fiction: 1 titles, 1,059 units or 10.42%, RRP £14.99

~~
Authors: 10
Irish Authors: 4, 40%
Irish Published Books: 0, 0%

~~
Average RRP: £9.19
Decrease in RRP since last week: £0.60
% Decrease in RRP since last week: 6.13%*
*It is important to note that RRP does not reflect actually selling price.

Image Credit:

Colum McCann. European Graduate School, www.egs.edu/, Photograph by Hendrik Speck, www.hendrikspeck.com/, Source: www.flickr.com/photos/hendrikspeck/

Data Supplied by Nielsen BookScan taken from the Irish Consumer Market week ending 25th June 2011