Tag Archives: Irish Writers

Briefly Noted

Briefly Noted | Kimmage surprise entry on William Hill shortlist | The Bookseller

November 1, 2011 – 10:04 am

Paul Kimmage is the surprise inclusion in this years William Hill Sports Book of the Year shortlist, after he was left out of the longlist.His book Engage Simon & Schuster, a biography of England Under 21 rugby player Matt Hampson who was paralysed after a scrum collapsed, joins titles examining the suicide of German international footballer Robert Enke, the culture of Spanish bullfighting and the range of different sporting fan cultures.

via Kimmage surprise entry on William Hill shortlist | The Bookseller.

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Irish Top Ten News

Irish Top Ten Week Ending 16/07/2011

July 21, 2011 – 3:52 pm

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

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

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

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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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Rights

Rights Deal For Judi Curtin In Russia

June 15, 2011 – 10:04 am

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.

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Irish Top Ten

Irish Top Ten Week Ending 14/05/2011

May 18, 2011 – 10:53 am

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

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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

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

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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
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News

Four Irish Authors On Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award Shortlist

May 13, 2011 – 4:27 pm

Four Irish writers have made this year’s Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award longlist. William Ryan, Alan Glynn, Adrian McKinty and Stuart Neville are pitted against a formidable list of UK authors, including Val McDermid and Lee Child.

Now in its seventh year, the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, in partnership with Asda, and this year in association with the Daily Mirror, was created to celebrate the very best in crime writing and is open to British and Irish authors whose novels were published in paperback from 1st January 2010 to 31st May 2011.

The award is unique in that it is the only one of its kind which is largely voted for by the general public. As of today (Friday 13th May), the public will have until Sunday 5th June to vote for their favourite title at www.theakstons.co.uk and the result of this vote will determine the six titles that make it onto the shortlist.

The shortlist will be announced on 1st July, and the eventual winner will be decided by a panel of judges including this year’s Festival chair Dreda Say Mitchell, the journalist and novelist Henry Sutton, the winner of a Daily Mirror reader competition and Simon Theakston, Executive Director of T&R Theakston Ltd. winner of the prize will be announced by radio broadcaster and festival regular Mark Lawson on the opening night of the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate on Thursday 21st July. The winner will receive a £3,000 cash prize, as well as a handmade, engraved beer barrel provided by Theakstons Old Peculier.

The complete longlist is below:

Blacklands, by Belinda Bauer (Corgi)
From the Dead, by Mark Billingham (Sphere)
Blood Harvest, by S J Bolton (Corgi Books)
61 Hours, by Lee Child (Bantam Books)
Winterland, by Alan Glynn (Faber)
A Room Swept White, by Sophie Hannah (Hodder)
The Woodcutter, by Reginald Hill (Harper Fiction)
Rupture, by Simon Lelic (Picador)
Sister, by Rosamund Lupton (Piatkus)
Dark Blood, by Stuart MacBride (Harper Fiction)
Fever of the Bone, by Val McDermid (Sphere)
Fifty Grand, by Adrian McKinty (Serpent’s Tail)
Still Bleeding, Steve Mosby (Orion)
The Twelve, by Stuart Neville (Vintage)
Random, by Craig Robertson (Simon & Schuster)
The Holy Thief, by William Ryan (Pan Books)
The Anatomy of Ghosts, by Andrew Taylor (Michael Joseph)
A Capital Crime, by Laura Wilson, (Quercus)

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Irish Top Ten

Irish Top Ten Week Ending 02/04/2011

April 6, 2011 – 9:52 am

Mother’s Day clearly worked wonders for book sales, and the winner, as seems to be the case at the moment, was fiction. Patricia Scanlan sold a positively Christmas-like 5,759 units last week, while Joseph O’Connor (aided no doubt by the One City One Book status) sold 2,500. Cathy Kelly also scored 2,305 sales.

The top ten as a whole was much stronger than last week rising by an impressive 65%. The sales were reflected in the UK too where Jean M Auel’s latest sold well.

The strength of the top ten was reflected in the next ten too with some well-known authors like Jamie Oliver, James Patterson and Melissa Hill just missing out on the top ten.

1: Love and Marriage, Patricia Scanlan, 5,759
2: Ghost Light, Joseph O’Connor, 2,500
3: Homecoming, Cathy Kelly, 2,305
4: The Brightest Star In The Sky, Marian Keyes, 1,654
5: Entertaining at Home, Rachel Allen, 1,411
6: Two Stories: A Girl in the Mirror,The AND The Memory Maker, Cecelia Ahern, 1,337
7: Room, Emma Donoghue, 1,226
8: The Slap, Christos Tsiolkas, 964
9: Minding Frankie, Maeve Binchy, 955
10: My Boy:The Philip Lynott Story:Fully Updated with Remarkable New Revelations, Philomena Lynott & Jackie Hayden, 865

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: 18,976 Units
Increase since last week: 7,507 units
% increase since last week: +65.45%

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Fiction: 8 titles, 16,700 units or 88.01%, RRP £9.24
Non-Fiction: 2 titles, 2,276 units or 11.99%, RRP £19.00 (though we know Allen’s cookbook is retailing at €9.99 in Eason)

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Authors: 11 (one book is co-authored)
Irish Authors: 10, 72.72%
Irish Published Books: 1, 90.9%

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Average RRP: £11.19
Increase in RRP since last week: +£1.24
% Increase in RRP since last week: 21.11%*
*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 2nd April 2011.

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Irish Top Ten

Irish Top Ten Week Ending 26/03/2011

March 30, 2011 – 10:01 am

As with last week, there is a very strong Irish representation in the top ten. Patricia Scanlan, Cathy Kelly and Joseph O’Connor’s sales combined with still healthy sales for a number of other Irish and foreign authors drove volume in the top ten higher by 30%. With O’Connor’s Ghost Light entering it’s month as the One City One Book choice, I suspect its sales will continue to hold up.

The weakness of non-fiction is reinforced by the fact that one of the two non-fiction titles in the mix is only there because of it’s heavily discounted pricing in Eason, a demonstration if you like of two features of Irish bookselling; the first, that Eason CAN move the market and the second, that large discounts shifts volume.

Given that and given the increase in RRP, these figures don’t actually say much about the health of the market, as Average Selling Price MUST be lower than the indicated RRP of £11.39.

1:Love and Marriage, Patricia Scanlan, 3,263
2: Homecoming, Cathy Kelly, 1,284
3: Ghost Light, Joseph O’Connor, 1,134
4: The Brightest Star in the Sky, Marian Keyes, 947
5: 10th Anniversary, James Patterson, 915
6: Room, Emma Donoghue, 889
7: Entertaining at Home, Rachel Allen, 873
8: The Slap, Christos Tsiolkas, 789
9: One Day, David Nicholls, 709
10: My Boy: The Philip Lynott Story, Philomena Lynott & Jackie Hayden, 666

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: 11,469 Units
Increase since last week: 2,649
% increase since last week: +30.3%

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Fiction: 8 titles, 9,930 units or 86.58%, RRP £9.24
Non-Fiction: 2 titles, 1,539 units or 13.42%, RRP £20.00 (though we know Allen’s cookbook is retailing at €9.99 in Eason)

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Authors: 11 (one book is co-authored)
Irish Authors: 8, 72.72%
Irish Published Books: 1, 10%

~~
Average RRP: £11.39
Increase in RRP since last week: £0.80
% Increase in RRP since last week: 7.55%

Data Supplied by Nielsen BookScan taken from the Irish Consumer Market week ending 26th March 2011
Correction:
In last week’s post about the Irish Top ten we stated that none of teh Top Ten has been published by an Irish publisher, in fact,  number 10 that week (as is the case this week) My Boy: The Philip Lynott Story, was published by Hot Press Books, an imprint of Hot Press Magazine, an Irish Publisher.

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News

Donoghue On The Orange Prize For Fiction Longlist

March 16, 2011 – 10:36 am

Emma Donoghue At The IBAsEmma Donoghue is the only Irish nominee on what is a varied but strong longlist for the Orange Prize For Fiction 2011.

The judging panel this year is chaired by Bettany Hughes and includes Liz Calder, Tracy Chevalier, Helen Lederer and Susanna Reid.

Hughes said that, ‘What proved a genuine delight this year was the power of observation and sympathy on the page. As a panel we had works of searing originality and epic scale in front of us – plus books that were intimate and sometimes magical.’

The shortlist will be announced on 12 April with the final winner announced on 8 June.

Lyrics Alley by Leila Aboulela (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
Jamrach’s Menagerie by Carol Birch (Canongate)
Room by Emma Donoghue (Picador)
The Pleasure Seekers by Tishani Doshi (Bloomsbury)
Whatever You Love by Louise Doughty (Faber and Faber)
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (Corsair)
The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna (Bloomsbury)
The London Train by Tessa Hadley (Jonathan Cape)
Grace Williams Says it Loud by Emma Henderson (Sceptre)
The Seas by Samantha Hunt (Corsair)
The Birth of Love by Joanna Kavenna (Faber and Faber)
Great House by Nicole Krauss (Viking)
The Road to Wanting by Wendy Law-Yone (Chatto & Windus)
The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer (Viking)
Repeat it Today with Tears by Anne Peile (Serpent’s Tail)
Swamplandia! by Karen Russell (Chatto & Windus)
The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives by Lola Shoneyin (Serpent’s Tail)
The Swimmer by Roma Tearne (Harper Press)
Annabel by Kathleen Winter (Jonathan Cape)

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Books & Authors

Dublin Book Festival Programme Released

February 14, 2011 – 11:49 am

The Dublin Book Festival has launched its full program in PDF and online.

Running from 2 March through to 6 March 2011, the programme opens with Dublin, Its Place I Literature moderated by Eileen Battersby and featuring Anthony Cronin and Dermot Bolger.

The programme also features discussions about; Ireland’s future with Mark Little, Shane Coleman, Justine McCarthy, Stephen Kinsella and Ken Foxe; Ireland’s crime problems with John Mooney, Barry Cummins, Abigail Rieley and Emer Connolly; Careers and personal finance with Colm Rapple, Brendan Foley and Jane Downes; a session on writing for young children with Sarah Webb, Kevin Stevens and chaired by Mags Walsh; and The Past is Now: Lessons for today from Ireland’s past, a discussion about Irish history with Ryan Tubridy, Diarmaid Ferriter and Susan Cahill.

The festival will also feature book launches for The Boy In The Gap by Paul Soye, The Last Irish Plague: The Great Flu Epidemic in Ireland 1918-19 by Catriona Foley and October Moon by Michael Scott

The Good Room in the Mercantile bar will feature a tea party extravaganza, Lady-dee nov’lists swanning about in all their glory, literary heads having cosy chats with cuddly writer Brian Leyden and Good Room games such as ‘Bring Your Girl/Boyfriend to Meet The Mammy’ and silent scrabble with the Child Who Can Be Seen and Not Heard. Irish Publishing News will host a Pecha Kucha session in the Good Room at 4pm on Saturday 5 March.

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Books & Authors

UNESCO City Of Literature Writers’ Forum For Dublin

February 2, 2011 – 8:47 am

The UNESCO City of Literature Office is to host a Writers’ Forum designed to engage with writers and to gather their opinions on how to develop the City of Literature designation.

The Forum will take the format of informal engagement through a World Café style event, to capture your views on a range of issues.

There will be two sessions (see details below) and writers are asked to contact elizabeth.cuddy@dublincity.ie or tel: (01) 6744873 before Monday 7th February to request a space at ONE of them:

Monday 21 February, 6.30pm – 8.30pm National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin 2
Wednesday 23rd February 10am -12noon, Dublin City Library & Archive, 138-144 Pearse Street, Dublin 2

The City Of Literature is a permanent designation which is awarded by UNESCO in recognition of the city’s literary heritage and its ongoing vitality in Dublin.

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