Tag Archives: The O’Brien Press

Books & Authors

Briefly Noted | Tweet Treats Goes Gourmand

January 27, 2012 – 9:03 am

Regular visitors to writing.ie may remember an interview Barbara Scully did with writer Jane Travers last year on the publication of her quirky book, Tweet Treats. You can read the article, Tweet Treats is a Treat For All  here.

We were delighted to hear that this fabulous book was nominated for a Food Writing Award recently and so asked its author Jane Travers to fill us in and tell us all about it.

via Tweet Treats Goes Gourmand.

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Jobs

The O’Brien Press Seek A Marketing/Publicity Assistant

December 16, 2011 – 6:31 pm

O’BRIEN HAVE ASKED ME TO NOTE THAT APPLICATIONS FOR THIS POSITION ARE NOW CLOSED.

Irish publishing house The O’Brien Press has a vacancy for a Marketing/Publicity Assistant. The position will involve assisting and providing support to the Marketing Manager in all aspects of marketing, publicity and events. It will involve working on all new and backlist titles, as well as helping to roll out the overall marketing strategy. The successful candidate will be energetic and enthusiastic and will be able to work well on their own and as part of a team. They will be able to work well under pressure. An interest in social media or experience in online marketing would be preferable. Experience in the publishing industry would be preferable but not essential. This is a full-time position beginning in January 2012.

Apply with CV before 5pm on Wednesday 21st December to:
Carol Tierney, The O’Brien Press, 12 Terenure Road East, Dublin 6, Ireland
Email: Carol@obrien.ie Ph: +353 1 492 3333

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News

O’Brien Press Acquires Brandon Books

October 14, 2011 – 6:52 am

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.’

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News

O'Brien Launch Blog Tour For Kostick

July 6, 2011 – 10:57 am

The O’Brien Press has launched a Uk and Ireland blog tour for Conor Kostick’s latest young adult novel, Edda.

This is the first time Conor Kostick has taken part in a blog tour for one of his books and he is thrilled at the chance to share EDDA, in this online celebration of its publication, with readers on both sides of the Irish Sea. He commented: ‘What fun and how appropriate to showcase EDDA in this fashion, as one of the areas explored by the book is that of the possibilities for communication provided by electronic spaces.’

The tour, which runs from Monday 4 July to Saturday 9 July, will begin at Ireland’s foremost children’s book magazine, Inis. It kicked off with an extract from the magazine’s recent interview with Conor Kostick and a competition to win a copy of Edda.

From there, Edda visited YAPS, a colourful Irish book blog which celebrates young adult fiction, its writers and its readers. On Tuesday 5th July, YAPS featured a guest post, written by Conor Kostick, entitled Death and the Avatar, which explores the different rules that apply when writing about characters in virtual reality as opposed to real life. There will be another chance here for readers to win a copy of the book.

In the UK the tour stops at Write for your Life, an extremely popular blog about writing, where Conor will answer questions about his life as a creative writing tutor and how this has influenced his writing, on 6 July.

Also on the tour is Wondrous Reads, a fabulous young adult and children’s fiction blog in the UK, which will be taking part in the blog tour with an exclusive extract from Edda, on 7th July. In this extract, Ghost – an electronic intelligence – and her human friends in avatar form have crossed through a portal that has mysteriously opened in Ghost’s world of Saga and are soon attacked by a curious army of both modern and medieval soldiers. On the 8 July, the last UK stop on the tour will take place, as the fantastic My Favourite Books blog reviews Edda.

Finally on 9 July, the final stop on the tour brings EDDA back across to Ireland. Well-known children’s author Oisín McGann will feature a video conversation with Conor Kostick on his blog, with the two chatting about books, writing and the virtual world of EDDA.

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News

O'Brien press To Publish Mary Byrne's Autobiography

June 29, 2011 – 1:49 pm

Irish publisher The O’Brien Press has signed a deal to publish This is My Life, the autobiography of Irish X Factor star Mary Byrne.

O’Brien acquired world rights for the title in a deal brokered by Mary’s agent, Will Talbot, at Modest Management.

The book will chart Mary”s life from her early years and the first signs of her singing talent, to her time working on a supermarket checkout, to capturing the hearts of millions during her life-changing experience on The X Factor, to her dream concert: performing with Neil Diamond at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. It will feature exclusive and previously unpublished photos from Mary’s early life.

The book, written together with Sunday World showbusiness editor Eddie Rowley, will be published in November and will be priced at €16.99 and £14.99. Eddie Rowley is the author of bestselling books on Ronan Keating, Boyzone, Westlife and Daniel O’Donnell.

Ivan O’Brien, managing director of the O’Brien Press, said, ‘Mary touched the hearts of everyone who followed her progress on X-Factor. Not only is she a fantastic performer, but her winning personality and can-do attitude are inspiring. We are delighted to bring her full story, in her own words, to her legions of fans everywhere.’

Co-authour, Eddie Rowley, said, ‘Mary Byrne has a wealth of wonderful stories from her early family life which readers will find engaging, funny and at times very moving. She bares her soul in the book in a very honest fashion as she recounts her struggles along the way. Her great sense of humour shines through, even during the darker stories. It’s a very warm, uplifting life story that every woman will want to read and X Factor fans will love.’

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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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Books & Authors

Feckin Author's On The One Show

May 12, 2011 – 10:59 am

The authors of bestselling Feckin’ Series of titles, Colin Murphy and Donal O’Dea are to appear on BBC One’s The One Show today, Thursday 12 May.

Their appearance will be part of a special programme filmed in Dublin, which will explore the delicate relationship between Ireland and England, in typical indelicate fashion, ahead of the Queen’s State Visit to Ireland next week.

The series, published by The O’Brien Press has has sales of over 170,000 books worldwide.

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News

O'Brien Press Improves Balance Sheet

March 21, 2011 – 11:02 am

Despite a challenging market and worrying trends in book sales, publisher The O’Brien Press posted an increased level of retained earnings and net assets in the financial year to 31 December 2010 according to returns filed with the Companies Registration Office this month.

The company’s profit and loss account saw an increase in retained earnings from €290,640 to €304,508 an increase of €13,868 or 4.77% implying that the company had a profitable year in 2010.

The company satisfies the requirements of Part 111 of the Companies (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 1999 and as such it is not required to submit a profit and loss account making its trading activities difficult to parse.

In net asset terms, the company saw an increase from €317,640 to €331,508. The company also increased its cash in bank or on hand by €56,003 or 45%.

A nearly 31% decrease in stocks suggest that the Press has been following a conservative print strategy and has made considerable in-roads to stock on hand at the end of 2009. However this is balanced by a nearly 33% increase in debtors to €356,645 and a 21% increase in the company’s creditors to €373,436.

The O’Brien Press was founded in Dublin by Michael O’Brien in 1974 and published 34 new titles in 2010 and plans for 35 2011. According to the return the company is owned by three shareholders; Michael O’Brien, Ivan O’Brien and Ide Ni Laoghaire who also act as directors. Mary Webb, the company’s editorial director,  is also a director of the publisher though she does not hold any shares.

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Rights

Rights Success For O'Brien Author

March 14, 2011 – 11:00 am

Irish author PR Prendergast, a school teacher and father of three from Dublin, has sold foreign rights to publishers in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Serbia and Macedonia (Albanian language rights). According to his publisher in Ireland, The O’Brien Press, ‘many other countries [are] extremely interested.’

Prendergast’s title, Dancing in the Dark, has also been nominated for the 21st Bisto Children’s Book of the year Award this year alongside Oliver Jeffers, Sheena Wilkinson, Deirdre Sullivan and others.

The success for Prendergast marks yet another rights win for O’Brien Press who have been at the forefront of rights sales by Irish publishers in the last few years securing record rights sales for their author Celine Kiernan and her Moorehawk Trilogy.

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News

O’Brien To Publish New Judi Curtin

January 21, 2011 – 12:50 pm

The O’Brien Press will publish a new Judi Curtin novel in summer 2011. The book, Eva’s Summer, is the second in a new series by Curtin which started in 2010 with the bestselling Eva’s Journey.

The deal was announced this week by the company which also revealed that Curtin’s cumulative sales have topped 100,000 copies.

Ivan O’Brien, Managing Director, The O’Brien Press, said, ‘Judi’s following has grown with every book, and her fans were delighted to meet Eva, her new character, last autumn: Eva’s Journey practically flew off the shelves. O’Brien Press is delighted that Eva’s further adventures are going to appear this autumn in what is Judi’s 11th book with us. She is a special author and we love working with her.’

Curtin other works include the best-selling ‘Alice & Megan’ series for girls, which includes seven books about best friends Alice and Megan and a special cookbook ‘penned’ by the two best friends.

The author will also publish The Time Spell, the first of a new series  of books, with Puffin Ireland in April 2011.

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