In addition to territorial rights, the service could easily be expanded to sell rights according to media: ebook rights, print rights, even film or television rights. Given how many first time authors are choosing the self-publish electronically, the service could help successful ebook authors find print publishers for their work, and vice versa.

Disruptive solution number two: A traditional publishing / Kickstarter hybrid

Another solution would be for an established publisher to create a new hybrid imprint, aimed at giving established authors who remain unpublished in a particular market an alternative to self-publishing. What I have in mind is a blend of traditional publishing and Kickstarter. The publisher would acquire the ebook rights to a title for free, in exchange for a promise to publish and promote the book on the Kindle and iPad. Furthermore they would give a conditional commitment to publish a print edition of the title, based on a certain number of readers sign up in advance to purchase it.

via The Boy With The Unsold U.S. Rights: Ideas for Disrupting a Publishing Pain Point.

The first week of any year are always interesting for bookshops. Gone are the crashing numbers from Christmas bestsellers and in come new year new you titles offering spiritual, physical or mental well-being. Of course some titles fit neither segment and just perform well and in the slightly quieter atmosphere, fiction titles can get a bit of attention.

Emma Donoghue continues on a high with impressive sales for January of 2,578 for Room, as does Emma Hannigan’s paperback edition of Poolbeg published, Miss Conceived (though at a much lower level). Hannigan’s sales have benefited from her Late Late Show appearance last Friday with both Miss Conceived, which leapt from 247 to number 3, and her memoir, Talk To The Head Scarf, which jumped from 4528 to 19, making the top twenty . Interesting too is Neil Jordan’s appearance for his novel, Mistaken.

Because it was launched only on Sunday, these figure DO NOT REFLECT the sales of The Fitzpatrick Tapes.

1: Room, Emma Donoghue, 2,578
2: One Day, David Nicholls, 989
3: Miss Conceived, Emma Hannigan, 970
4: Mistaken, Neil Jordan, 874
5: Jamie’s 30-minute Meals, Jamie Oliver, 818
6: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest, Stieg Larsson, 766
7: The Girl Who Played with Fire, Stieg Larsson, 740
8: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson, 737
9: Soundings:Poems We Did for Our Leaving Certificate, 699
10: The Official Glee Annual:2011, Charlotte Ward, 644

Data Supplied by Nielsen BookScan taken from the Irish Consumer Market week ending 8th Jan 2011

Image Credits

Some rights reserved by david_shankbone

A good week for Ryan Tubridy, Soundings and Dan Shanahan. Tubridy enters the top ten after just a week of sales and looks set to do well if he can maintain sales of that magnitude. Soundings re-enters the chart after a third reprint and is surely on course for many, many christmas stockings. Shanahan’s biography looks like it has the makings of a real Christmas winner for Transworld Ireland. Not to be ignored is the fact that two Booker nominated titles (including the winner) remain in the top ten here.

1: The Oh My God Delusion, Ross O’Carroll Kelly, 1,792
2: Jamie’s 30-minute Meals, Jamie Oliver, 1,702
3: Soundings:Poems We Did for Our Leaving Certificate, 1,456
4: Room, Emma Donoghue, 1,182
5: Wasters, Shane Ross & Nick Webb, 1,175
6: JFK in Ireland: Four Days That Changed a President, Ryan Tubridy, 1,116
7: The Finkler Question, Howard Jacobson, 1,038
8: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest, Stieg Larsson, 943
9: Dan Shanahan – If You Don’t Know Me, Don’t Judge Me, Dan Shanahan, 929
10: The Reversal, Michael Connolly, 927

Data Supplied by Nielsen BookScan taken from the Irish Consumer Market week ending 30th Oct 2010

Colm Toibin and Emma Donoghue have made the shortlist for the International Author of the Year at the UK’s National Galaxy Book Awards.

Toibin’s Brooklyn which was published by Penguin and Donoghue’s Room, published by Picador and Booker short listed, are the only Irish authored titles on the list, which also features Jonathan Franzen. Kathryn Stockett, Christos Tsiolkas and Stieg Larsson.

Category winners will be revealed at a star-studded awards ceremony, produced by Cactus TV, on November 10th. The public will subsequently be invited to vote online for the Galaxy Book of the Year and the final result will be announced on December 13th. The awards ceremony will be televised on More4 on November 13th .

Amanda Ross, managing director of Cactus TV commented, ‘It’s great to see such a wide range of quality books on the shortlist. They seem to represent what the public are reading now and in the lead up to Christmas.’

IMAGE CREDIT

Some rights reserved by Flickr user mtkr

The top titles are slowly but surely taking on a bit of a christmas shape. For instance, Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals falls just outside the top ten as do the Guinness World Records 2011 and Rachel Allen’s Entertaining At Home.

Even the presence of John Lonergan’s The Governor in the top ten and the lurking of Darragh: My Story by Darragh O Sé just inside the top twenty are signs that the heavy hitters are now on the shelves. It will be an interesting few weeks as the last few big christmas titles come to market and the hit or misses become clearer.

Another fine week for Penguin. From the strength of their list to date, they seem on course to repeat their impressive performance in the christmas period last year in 2010.

1: The Oh My God Delusion, Ross O’Carroll-Kelly, 3,012
2: Room, Emma Donoghue, 1,807
3: Wasters, Shane Ross & Nick Webb, 1,603
4: Worth Dying for, Lee Child, 1,424
5: Stairways to Heaven, Lorna Byrne, 1,277
6: Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert, 1,268
7: Homecoming, Cathy Kelly, 1,075
8: The Girl Who Played with Fire, Stieg Larsson, 956
9: The Governor, John Lonergan, 952
10: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest, Stieg Larsson, 935

Data Supplied by Nielsen BookScan taken from the Irish Consumer Market week ending 16th Oct 2010

What a week for Penguin Ireland. The new ROCK (Ross O’Carroll Kelly) book is selling like hot cakes coming in at a mighty number three with an impressive 1,960 sales. On top of that, the Shane Ross and Nick Webb penned Wasters also did well and sold over 1,500 units coming in at number six.

just outside of the top ten, Derbhail MacDonald’s Bust is selling nicely too, with some 770 units sold and a chart placing of thirteenth. Penguin Ireland publisher, Michael McLoughlin, announced on twitter that Bust was headed for a reprint. Interestingly their success puts the Irish contingent in the top ten at 50% for the first time in a little while.

1: Homecoming, Cathy Kelly, 2,136
2: Stairways to Heaven, Lorna Byrne, 2,025
3: The Oh My God Delusion, Ross O’Carroll-Kelly, 1,960
4: Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert, 1942
5: Room, Emma Donoghue, 1,842
6: Wasters, Shane Ross & Nick Webb, 1,538
7: Worth Dying for, Lee Child, 1,258
8: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest, Stieg Larsson, 1,068
9: The Help, Kathryn Stockett, 1,047
10: The Girl Who Played with Fire, Stieg Larsson, 1008

Data Supplied by Nielsen BookScan taken from the Irish Consumer Market week ending 2nd October 2010

Another huge week for Lorna Byrne’s Stairways To Heaven. But also a string week for Cathy Kelly and a still impressive result for Emma Donoghue.

Larsson’s books continue to sell in the region of 1,000 copies each a week, I can’t help but wonder how long that can go on for? Will the massive releases this christmas sweep them away or will they benefit from the flow?

Tony Blair just held off Cecelia Ahern and stayed in the top ten with his memoir, selling 971 copies to her 916.

1: Stairways to Heaven, Lorna Byrne, 3,161
2: Homecoming, Cathy Kelly, 2,658
3: Room, Emma Donoghue, 2,077
4: Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert, 1,959
5: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest, Stieg Larsson, 1,164
6: The Help, Kathryn Stockett, 1,148
7: The Girl Who Played with Fire, Stieg Larsson, 1,136
8: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson, 1,113
9: Mini Shopaholic, Sophie Kinsella, 1,006
10: A Journey, Tony Blair, 971

Data Supplied by Nielsen BookScan taken from the Irish Consumer Market week ending 25th Sep 2010

A  fine week for Lorna Byrne as already noted in our story about her number one. But equally a fine week for Emma Donoghue, whose sells continue to impress. Cathy Kelly’s newest is having an impact as well and the movie version of Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat Pray Love, is surely the reason for her renewed sales. Tony Blair’s sales have dropped off but they are still quite high and he holds on to a top ten slot.

1: Stairways to Heaven, Lorna Byrne, 2,421
2: Room, Emma Donoghue, 2,410
3: Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert, 1,691
4: Homecoming, Cathy Kelly, 1,655
5: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson, 1,415
6: ThGirl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest, Stieg Larsson, 1,332
7: TheGirl Who Played with Fire, Stieg Larsson, 1,323
8: The Help, Kathrynn Stockett, 1,297
9: The Book of Tomorrow, Cecelia Ahern, 1,221
10: A Journey, Tony Blair, 1,209

Data Supplied by Nielsen BookScan taken from the Irish Consumer Market week ending 18th Sep 2010

These figures were a little delayed but make for interesting reading.

Tony Blair continues to shine through with an exceptional week. However, the story must be the overall strength of the top ten. Driven by two newish releases in fiction, Sheila O’Flanagan’s Stand By Me and Cecelia Ahern‘s The Book Of Tomorrow and the continuing impressive performance of Emma Donoghue‘s Room. But overall, it was a solid week with each of the top ten titles selling in excess of 1,000 units.

While only three Irish authors made the top ten, all were in the top five and Derek Landy fell just outside the top sitting very nicely at 11 with some 1,254 sales.

1: A Journey, Tony Blair, 2,989
2: Room, Emma Donoghue, 2,951
3: Stand by Me, Sheila O’Flanagan, 2,382
4: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson, 1634
5: The Book of Tomorrow, Cecelia Ahern, 1,566
6: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest, Stieg Larsson, 1,516
7: The Help, Kathryn Stockett, 1,514
8: The Girl Who Played with Fire, Stieg Larsson, 1,436
9: Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert, 1320
10: The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown, 1,281

Data Supplied by Nielsen BookScan taken from the Irish Consumer Market week ending 11th Sep 2010

You know that school isn’t far away when the Maths Tables top the charts. Dan Brown scores another stellar week and Stieg Larsson‘s amazing performance continues. Rhonda Byrne, whose The Secret was such a phenomenal success a few years ago is back in the top ten with her new book The Power.

Emma Donoghue has sustained her incredible performance but she and  Sinead Moriarty, whose Pieces of My Heart remains in the top ten (and thus still technically number one in original fiction though Emma also sold 141 hardback copies of Room, which puts her over Moriarty’s unit sales, but who is counting!), are the only Irish writers still in the top ten.

1: Maths Tables , 1,876
2: The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown, 1,829
3: The Girl Who Played with Fire, Stieg Larsson, 1,776
4: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson, 1,689
5: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest, Stieg Larsson, 1,590
6: The Help, Kathryn Stockett, 1,492
7: Pieces of My Heart, Sinead Moriarty, 1,448
8: The Power, Rhonda Byrne, 1,445
9: Room, Emma Donoghue, 1,400
10: Don’t Blink, James Patterson, 1,336
Data Supplied by Nielsen BookScan taken from the Irish Consumer Market week ending 21st August 2010