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

Speaking on RTÉ’s Today With Pat Kenny radio program Derek Hughes of Hughes & Hughes has condemned the decision to allow WH Smith enter the market in Dublin Airport by awarding them the contract for Terminal Two saying: ‘You also have WH Smith in T2 (Terminal Two) which I think is a shame. T2 should represent the best of Irish retail, you may as well be in Manchester or Birmingham. All best Irish retailers should be represented and it would have been lovely to have Hughes & Hughes there.’

In a wide-ranging and open interview Hughes gave an explanation of the collapse of Hughes & Hughes in February 2010. According to the retailer, the business failed because of a huge drop in business principally at Dublin airport where passenger numbers dropped from 24 million to 18 million. Hughes said that the company had ‘a €12 million drop in turnover and we had actually an increase in our rents and we had rates going up significantly also … it didn’t add up’

Hughes has returned to bookselling with Sivota Ltd which now trades under the Hughes & Hughes brand and has now opened a seventh 6,000 sq foot store in the Jervis Street Centre which offers books, stationery, cards and toys and it sited in the former Waterstone’s store.

Speaking about the financial health of the company he said, ‘This year we’ll certainly get to break even. Within the retail business, and more especially the bookselling business, Christmas is absolutely critical to us.”

Asked about the impact of ebooks Hughes said that ‘the whole industry is hit by the ereaders, but the physical book itself is so important’ and that ereading had ‘captured about 20% of the market ..  it is a competitive threat.’ Hughes said, ‘we do have a strong digital strategy going forward … we will be a clicks and mortar retailer in 2012.’

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.’

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

Last week a new science-fiction and fantasy title, A Dance With Dragons, sold 2,200 copies in hardback in Ireland. What’s more, it did so at over €20 per copy. An impressive result and a great boost for the booksellers who sold it.

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.

~~~~
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.

Easons, the largest Irish bookseller, has opened a dedicated schoolbooks webstore, Eason School Shop.

The move comes amid increased online competition from rival booksellers and moves from Eason to revamp its own website as outlined in its strategic plan earlier in 2011.

Delivery from the site is free of charge for all orders over €10 however customers whose orders are under €10 face a delivery charge is €3.80 to anywhere in Ireland.

The opening offers include an opportunity for schools to win a library worth €5,000 and discounts for all customers on Penguin Classics and dictionaries.

The launch is supported by radio advertisement.

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

Our top ten listing is running a little behind so over the next few days we’ll be rolling out about four of them. Enjoy.

While Melissa Hill has stormed the charts this week and passed by Kate McCann’s book, the overall sales for the top ten have only budged slightly and the dynamics make that clear. All the same, the reduction in McCann’s share of sales is showing the continued strength of fiction at the moment.

1: Something from Tiffany’s, Melissa Hill, 2,299
2: Madeleine: Our Daughter’s Disappearance and the Continuing Search for Her, Kate McCann, 1,920
3: The Confession, John Grisham, 1,063
4: Stand by Me, Sheila O’Flanagan, 962
5: Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen, 867
6: The Search, Nora Roberts, 765
7: A Game of Thrones Book 1 of a Song of Ice and Fire, George R.R. Martin, 718
8: Taken, Niamh O’Conor, 659
9: The Moment, Douglas Kennedy, 639
10: Rodrick Rules: Diary of a Wimpy Kid:Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Jeff Kinney, 624

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: 10,516 Units
Increase since last week: 389 units
% Increase since last week: 3.84%
Average Units Per Title: 1013

~~
Fiction: 9 titles, 7,596 units or 81.74%, RRP £9.21
Non-Fiction: 1 titles, 1,920 units or 18.26%, RRP £14.99

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

~~
Average RRP: £9.79
Increase in RRP since last week: £0.30
% Increase in RRP since last week: 3.16%*
*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 4th June 2011

Images Credits:
Some rights reserved by ALA – The American Library Association

A remarkable sale this week of Kate McCann’s book on her daughter’s disappearance. IT marks a stunning rebound for non-fictions sales in the top ten. It isn’t however the vanguard of a new field of non-fiction titles being the only title to make the top ten. It also represents a huge chunk of the top ten and flatters the results in our Dynamics tracking.

It was an okay week for Irish authors, with four making the list and a decent week for Irish publishers with Poolbeg claiming yet another top ten title and Penguin Ireland (at least Irish based and employing Irish editors and staff) clocked a number three for debut author Sarah Harte.

If you take out the massive impact of Kate McCann’s book, the week looks a lot less impressive. In fact it’s more of less flat.

1: Madeleine: Our Daughter’s Disappearance and the Continuing Search for Her, Kate McCann, 3,602
2: Stand by Me, Sheila O’Flanagan, 1,222
3: The Better Half, Sarah Harte, 973
4: Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen, 942
5: Port Mortuary, Patricia Cornwell, 823
6: The Moment, Douglas Kennedy, 753
7: The Fifth Witness, Michael Connelly, 717
8: Casa Clara, Kate McCabe, 643
9: Ghost Light, Joseph O’Conor, 608
10: A Game Of Thrones, George RR Martin, 604

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: 10,887 Units
Increase since last week: 3,028 units
% Increase since last week: 38.53%
Average Units Per Title: 1089

~~
Fiction: 9 titles, 7,285 units or 66.91%, RRP £9.43
Non-Fiction: 1 titles, 3,602 units or 33.09%, RRP £14.99

~~
Authors: 10
Irish Authors: 4, 40%
Irish Published Books: 1, 10%
OR (if you include Penguin Ireland) 2, 20%

~~
Average RRP: £9.99
Increase in RRP since last week: £0.20
% Increase in RRP since last week: +2.04%*
*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 14th May 2011
Image Credits

Padraig Lawlor, author of Make It Happen: A Success Guide For Teenagers, was on Sunshine 106.8FM with Lynsey Dolan on her Dublin’s TLking show last week. The interview is below:

Padraig Lawlor On Dublin’s Talking

You can buy his book here.

Publishers Description
Liberties Press presents Make it Happen: A Success Guide for Teenagers, the first book aimed directly at teenagers, enabling them to achieve their goals. With an attractive and eye-catching layout this interactive guide, examines the subconscious and the power of thoughts/beliefs in influencing actions – much in the same vein as hit-film Inception. This is a vital book for teenagers, but also parents and career guidance teachers, in learning how to get the best from young adults.

Teenage-motivational books have always existed. However, they have normally followed the same vein as those aimed at adults; serious, “life-changing”, and somewhat preachy. Make it Happen is really for teenagers – not a makeover on an adult self help guide. It uses styles and techniques such as “Channel Hop”, “Reality Bites”, “Replay”, and other reader-friendly terms to highlight and examine the most important aspects of the book.

Make it Happen focuses on the subconscious, and shows teenagers how easy it can be to achieve any goal or dream. By interspersing technical and informative notes with real-life stories and examples of Make it Happen’s strategies in practice, the fast paced and varied book ensures the teenage reader stays captivated. Modern day examples such as U2, Facebook, and the X-Factor also feature to emphasise points, with the attractive and colourful layout further appealing to the target market.