Cork based independent publisher The Collins Press has revamped its website.

The changes which feature a separate section dedicated to eBooks and mean that purchasing both print and eBooks is easier and simpler for readers.

Separately the company also announced an extension of the ebook range. Collins has now converted much of its backlist titles to electronic editions including one of the publisher’s most successful titles, An Unsung Hero: Tom Crean – Antarctic Survivor by Michael Smith.

The company says ‘Ebooks are now a significant part of publishing and we are embracing them with enthusiasm’

With public voting finishing over the weekend, the nominated authors and publishers in this years Irish Book Awards are no doubt starting to feel a little anxious about their chances.

IPN will report the winners as soon as they are announced on the night and would like to take this chance to wish the best of luck to all nominees.

Any predictions? Fire them into the comments!

Tim Smyth, who managed of the Bookshop at Queens University in Belfast until it was closed earlier this year, has joined the Ulster Historical Foundation as Business Development Officer.

Smyth will be responsible for increasing the organisations publication output, which currently includes around ten projects a year, promoting collaboration with other publishers as well as exploring new areas like heritage tourism.

Speaking to Irish Publishing news Smyth said that he hope to ‘work with other colleagues in Irish publishing’ to promote good relationships and collaboration in what were difficult financial times.

Smyth said that he was really up for the new challenge and would enjoy working with the foundation to promote the history, heritage and culture of Ulster and the island as a whole, something he was noted for doing in his role at the bookshop.

The foundation was founded in 1956 and has developed an impressive family history research arm alongside a publishing and bookselling arm.

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.’

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

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:

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Mercier Press, the Cork based independent publisher, has reissued three of Tom McCaughren’s classic children’s books; The Legend of the Golden Key, The Legend of the Phantom Highwayman, The Legend of the Corrib King.

The books explore a series of mysterious cases and feature cousins, Tapser and Cowlick. Mercier acquired the titles when they purchased the Children’s Press as part of their acquisition of the Anvil Press in 2009.

Best know for his Run With The Wind series of books on foxes, Tom McCaughren is a former reporter for The Belfast Telegraph, The Irish Times and RTE.

Originally from Ballymena, Co. Antrim, he has written fifteen books altogether. He has won five awards for literature including The White Ravens from the International Youth Library in Munich, the Reading Association of Ireland Award and the Bisto/Children’s Book Trust Books of the Decade Award.

Irish eBook Distribution Company, ePub Direct, has announced plans to add Libraries to the distribution options available to client publishers.

The company has reached a deal with Overdrive to in a move will give clients access to 15,000 library outlets in 13 countries, 70 of which are based in the UK and Ireland. ePub Direct currently distributes eBooks to 85 online retail websites for publishers including Amazon, Apple, Kobo, Waterstone’s, Barnes and Noble and DirecteBooks.

Gareth Cuddy, Managing Director of ePub Direct, explains why library distribution was the next logical step for the company, ‘To be able to offer library distribution to our customers has always been part of our strategy. Increased discoverability ultimately leads to higher sales for publisher’s titles. The substantial growth in eBook library lending shows this is an area publishers need to be involved in. Only by enabling customers to decide when and how they read, borrow, and purchase their eBooks, will publishers see the greatest return for their eBook catalogues.’

Publishers can avail of this service from 1 July 2011.

ePub is based in cork and currently has around 40 client publishers.

The O’Brien Press has sold Russian rights to their best-selling Alice & Megan series of children’s books written by author Judi Curtin. Russian publisher Exmo has bought rights to the first five books in the series.

Talking about the international success of her series, author Judi Curtin commented, ‘I’m really delighted to hear that, once again, Alice and Megan are off to a place I’ve only dreamed of visiting. It’s great to think of children from such a different culture reading about everyday life in Ireland. I hope that one day I’ll be as well-travelled as my characters are.’

The series, which includes seven titles about best friends Alice and Megan and one colourful cookbook ‘penned’ by the duo, has received widespread praise.

Ivan O’Brien, Managing Director of The O’Brien Press said, ‘International success is the true mark of quality in literature for readers young and old, and Judi’s success is well-deserved. Friendship is a universal topic and Alice and Megan look likely to continue on their travels for some time yet! Congratulations to Judi from everyone at O’Brien Press.’

Curtain’s latest book with The O’Brien Press, Eva’s Journey, reached No.3 in the Irish children’s fiction best-seller charts in December 2010 and will be followed by the next Eva book, Eva’s Holiday, in August 2011.

In April 2011, Curtin released Friend’s Forever: The Time Spell the first in a new series with Puffin Ireland, one of that imprints first titles.

Independent Cork publisher, Collins Press has had two of its titles presented to Queen Elizabeth II in the course of her state visit to Ireland.

The Queen was presented with The GAA: A People’s History by Mike Cronin, Mark Duncan and Paul Rouse.  This lavishly illustrated book was commissioned by the GAA to commemorate GAA 125 and is part of the GAA Oral History Project.

In cork today the Queen will also be presented with Serving a City – The Story of Cork’s English Market by Diarmuid O Drisceoil and Donal O Drisceoil has just been released in paperback, perfect timing for the royal visit. This lavishly illustrated book captures the tastes and colours of this central part of Cork life, past and present, and highlights the architecture, stallholders, customers and products. From offal to olives, it is a celebration of an essential part of the Cork experience. The English Market, Ireland’s most famous food emporium, has been serving the city of Cork since 1788. It has survived revolution, fire and famine, depression and boom, and changing tastes in food and retailing.

Another week of fiction’s domination of the top ten. Though that comes with a health warning, the level of sales for the top ten is down some way since last week and only one title breaks the 1,000 unit barrier, Sheial O’Flanagan’s Stand By Me.

This week’s chart also shows the influence of TV and film. George RR Martin’s A Game Of Thrones, the first in his A Song Of Ice & Fire series, makes the top ten by dint of the success of the new TV series. Likewise, Water For Elephants which has been a sort of slow burning hit, kept rolling by book clubs and word of mouth has hit the top ten due to the forthcoming film.

One of the impacts of this film and TV invasion is that the Irish author cohort has reduced somewhat to only 50% of the top ten.

1: Stand by Me, Sheila O’Flanagan, 1,027
2: Ghost Light, Joseph O’Conor, 939
3: The Fifth Witness, Michael Connelly, 832
4: Love and Marriage, Patricia Scanlan, 659
5: Sing You Home, Jodi Picoult, 655
6: The Slap, Christos Tsiolkas, 602
7: Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?, Claudia Carroll, 584
8: Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen, 542
9: Room, Emma Donoghue, 535
10: A Game of Thrones, George RR Martin, 508

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: 6,883 Units
Decrease since last week: 3,119 units
% decrease since last week: 31.18%

~~
Fiction: 10 titles, 6,883 units or 100%, RRP £10.19
Non-Fiction: 0 titles, 0 units or 0%, RRP £0

~~
Authors: 10 (one book is co-authored)
Irish Authors: 5, 50%
Irish Published Books: 0, 0%

~~
Average RRP: £10.19
Increase in RRP since last week: 0
% Increase in RRP since last week: -0%*
*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 30th April 2011
Image Credits
Some rights reserved by icantcu