Penguin Ireland was the big winner in yesterday’s announcement of the Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards Shortlists. The company received a total of 10 nominations (and John Murray, its sister imprint another) twice that of any of its rivals.
The variety of Irish author’s nominated was impressive with Sebastian Barry, Neil Jordan, Derek Landy, Benjamin Black and Alan Glynn all nominated as well as Orla Tinsley, comedian Des Bishop, radio presenter Joe Duffy, award-winning jockey Tony McCoy, scriptwriter/director John Butler and Irish rugby player Donncha O’Callaghan.
Transworld Ireland, Gill & McMillan, HarperCollins and Pan Macmillan all garnered five nominations with the Hachette group of companies pulling in five as well. Random House gained four, Simon & Schuster three.
Smaller publishers also did well with Liberties Press gaining one nomination in the Ireland Am Irish Crime Fiction Book of the Year for Absolute Zero Cool by Declan Burke and Adam’s World of Wonders by Benji Bennett from Adam’s Printing Press joining the Junior section of the Specsavers Irish Children’s Book of the Year.
O’Brien Press, who recently acquired Brandon, gained three nominations, Mercier Press two as did Faber & Faber and Poolbeg with Granta, Atlantic, Andersen Press and Cosair gaining one each.
Public voting for the awards has now started and can be completed online, here. The winners will be announced at an awards dinner in the Concert Hall of the Royal Dublin Society on 17 November.
The Hughes & Hughes Irish Novel of the Year
Solace by Belinda McKeon (Picador)
On Canaan’s Side by Sebastian Barry (Faber)
The Cold Eye of Heaven by Christine Dwyer Hickey (Atlantic)
City of Bohane by Kevin Barry (Random House)
The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright (Random House)
Mistaken by Neil Jordan (John Murray)
RTÉ Radio 1’s The John Murray Show Listeners’ Choice Award:
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (Corsair)
The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt (Granta)
How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran (Ebury)
How the Light Gets in by Mary McEvoy (Hachette Ireland)
The Club by Christy O’Connor (Penguin Ireland)
My Dad was Nearly James Bond by Des Bishop (Penguin Ireland)
The Ireland AM Irish Crime Fiction Book of the Year:
A Death in Summer by Benjamin Black (Mantle)
The Bloody Meadow by William Ryan (Mantle)
Bloodland by Alan Glynn (Faber)
The Reckoning by Jane Casey (Ebury)
Taboo by Casey Hill (Simon & Schuster)
Absolute Zero Cool by Declan Burke (Liberties Press)
The Argosy Irish Non-Fiction Book of the Year:
How Ireland Really Went Bust by Matt Cooper (Penguin Ireland)
Easy Meals by Rachel Allen (Collins)
Circles Around the Sun by Molly McCloskey (Penguin Ireland)
Moscow, December 25, 1991 by Conor O’Clery (Transworld Ireland)
Just Joe: My Autobiography by Joe Duffy (Transworld Ireland)
Anglo Republic by Simon Carswell (Penguin Ireland)
Eason Irish Popular Fiction Book of the Year:
The Time of my Life by Cecilia Ahern (HarperCollins)
All For You by Sheila O’Flanagan (Headline)
Me and My Sisters by Sinead Moriarty (Penguin Ireland)
Love and Marriage by Patricia Scanlan (Transworld Ireland)
NAMA Mia! by Ross O’Carroll Kelly (Penguin Ireland)
The Pink Ladies Club by Emma Hannigan (Poolbeg Press)
Irish Sports Book of the Year:
My Autobiography by A P McCoy (Orion)
Engage: The Fall and Rise of Matt Hampson by Paul Kimmage (Simon & Schuster)
Walk On: My Life in Red by Ronnie Whelan and Tommy Conlon (Simon & Schuster)
A Parish Far from Home by Philip O’Connor (Gill & Macmillan)
Joking Apart: My Autobiography by Donncha O’Callaghan (Transworld Ireland)
Inside the Peloton by Nicolas Roche (Transworld Ireland)
Sunday Independent Best Irish Newcomer of the Year:
The Tenderloin by John Butler (Picador)
Solace by Belinda McKeon (Picador)
The Better Half by Sarah Harte (Penguin Ireland)
The Lingerie Designer by Siobhan McKenna (Poolbeg Press)
Salty Baby by Orla Tinsley (Hachette Ireland)
My Dad was Nearly James Bond by Des Bishop (Penguin Ireland)
International Education Services Best Irish Published Book of the Year:
Catherine’s Family Kitchen by Catherine Fulvio (Gill & Macmillan)
Make Bake Love by Lilly Higgins (Gill & Macmillan)
Revolution by Pádraig Óg Ó Ruairc (Mercier)
The Other Ireland by Mary Jones (Gill & Macmillan)
Connemara: A Little Gaelic Kingdom by Tim Robinson (Penguin Ireland)
Gorgeous to Go by Aisling McDermott (Gill & Macmillan)
Specsavers Irish Children’s Book of the Year:
Junior:
Adam’s World of Wonders by Benji Bennett (Adams Printing Press)
The Lonely Beast by Chris Judge (Andersen Press)
Sally Go Round the Stars by Sarah Webb and Steve McCarthy with Claire Ranson (O’Brien Press)
Stuck by Oliver Jeffers (HarperCollins Childrens)
Marco Moves In by Gerry Boland (O’Brien Press)
Senior:
The Saga of Larten Crepsley: Ocean of Blood by Darren Shan (HarperCollins Childrens)
Skulduggery Pleasant: Death Bringer by Derek Landy (HarperCollins Childrens)
And For Your Information… by Denise Deegan (Hachette)
Arthur Quinn and the World Serpent by Alan Early (Mercier)
The Real Rebecca by Anna Carey (O’Brien)
Bob Hughes Lifetime Achievement Award
Seamus Heaney
News
Friday Comment: Irish Booksellers Are Missing Out On Digital Sales
In countries like the US and the UK though the same book sold huge numbers of hardback copies AND huge numbers of ebook editions, 170,000 print copies and 110,000 e-book copies1 on its first day of sales alone in the US according to its US Publisher, Random House. In the UK, the Bookseller reports that, ‘HarperCollins sold more than 10,000 e-books’ and ‘ 28,840 copies last week in bookshops.’2
You would imagine that with a perfect opportunity to increase the visibility of ebooks in Ireland and with a clear market for the ebook version, Irish booksellers would have been keen to exploit the interest. You’d be wrong. No Irish bookseller sold a single copy of the book in digital form.
[pullquote]In percentage terms those UK & US number are very impressive too, 28.9% for the US and 25.6% for the UK. If those figures were translated into Ireland you might imagine ebooks accounting for some 440 units3.[/pullquote]
In percentage terms those UK & US number are very impressive too, 28.9% for the US and 25.6% for the UK. If those figures were translated into Ireland you might imagine ebooks accounting for some 440 units3.
The truth is that Irish ebook sales are nowhere near that level, we’d be lucky if they were 5%. That’s less than 100 units sold in digital format. The point is that for a title where ebooks are a clearly important part of the sales mix, Irish readers, if they want to buy an ebook version, MUST purchase that ebook from a foreign retailer. Not one Irish bookseller was selling the ebook edition as of this morning.
Even allowing for a lower ebook price point (around €12-€15 for A Dance With Dragons) and even allowing for the much lower ebook market share in Ireland, Irish booksellers are allowing foreign retailers to suck up their market and potentially capture their ebook sales in the future too. Imagine if just one retailer HAD sold the ebook to Irish readers and promoted it to Irish digital readers. Even if it had only been 50 sales they could have increased their revenue by €500 or €600. Who, in this day and age, can sniff at that?
[pullquote]Easons, to its credit, has at least made an effort with ebooks. Its store offers 60% of the titles in the top ten last week, but not the bestseller.[/pullquote]
Easons, to its credit, has at least made an effort with ebooks. Its store offers 60% of the titles in the top ten last week, but not the bestseller. The ebook listings pages on the site are attractive and the prices not outrageous. However the company does not seem to be pushing ebooks with any degree of enthusiasm.
As for the independents, ebooks seem to not exist for them. Of course they might reply what CAN we do? You might start by looking at what Readings, a small independent chain in Australia, is doing on the book.ish platform.
[pullquote]As for the independents, ebooks seem to not exist for them. Of course they might reply what CAN we do? You might start by looking at whatReadings, a small independent chain in Australia, is doing on the booki.sh platform.[/pullquote]
Options do exist. Kobo Books has already called for partners to help it expand internationally. Barnes & Noble, although they have not spoken publicly about their desire to expand the Nook’s reach, must be thinking about how to reach foreign markets. Even Google offers a potential partnership with its ebook service (which was just revealed as the partner for JK Rowling’s Pottermore site).
It seems to me that the key is combining content, a reasonably priced device and a real commitment to digital publishing rather than just lip-service. That strategy has worked for Barnes & Noble when they realized the future was digital and it previously worked for Amazon.
As ebooks grow in Ireland, as they surely will, booksellers failure to embrace ebooks actively will result in more and more digital sales leaking from the Irish market towards UK and US retailers who actually do sell the ebooks people want. Once they start buying ebooks from foreign stores they are unlikely return to Irish retailers for them. If Irish booksellers don’t look for a way to get involved in ebook sales and quickly, they will lose physical sales and not even have a hope of replacing them. That would be bad for them, bad for readers who value Irish bookstores and bad for literary culture in Ireland.
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Notes
1 | http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/14/books/george-r-r-martins-dance-with-dragons-sells-well.html
2 | http://www.thebookseller.com/news/hc-hits-digital-martin-milestone.html
3 | Based on a 25% market share of 2200.