Members Update May 2019
Publishing Ireland Strategic Planning Day
The board of Publishing Ireland is having a strategic planning day on Wednesday 22 May in Messenger Publications, 37 Lower Leeson St, Dublin 2. We are delighted that Marion Sinclair from Publishing Scotland will be joining us to try to map the future path of the organisation. For the first two hours (from 10-12) we would like to welcome member publishers to join us to get the thoughts of the whole industry and get the conversation started.
If you plan to attend, please let Stephanie know, so that we have the right number of seats available! If you can’t make it, but would like to get something on the table for discussion, please let Stephanie know.
Books for Screen 2019
After the enormous success of Books for Screen 2018, we are having a sequel: Books for Screen 2019 will take place in the RIA on Monday 1 July. As with last year’s event, there will be a callout for pages of title information, so get your thinking caps on for which books you think will work best for screens big and small! We are broadening out the attendance this year, inviting screen directors, producers and screenwriters to attend.
Dublin Book Festival
The callout for events for this year’s DBF has gone out. Remember, this is our festival, and the only one with Irish publishing at its heart! The more we engage with it, the better it gets, and the stronger the message of the importance of Irish publishing becomes. Please contact Julianne (julianne@dublinbookfestival.com with your authors, titles and other event ideas by this Friday, so that the programming committee has the widest possible range of great ideas to work with.
Irish Book Week
IBW started with a bang last year, and it’s back again for 2019: bigger and better! The dates are 26 October to 2 November and the planning has started. The primary goal is to draw readers (and non-readers?) into bookshops across the land, to engage with authors and booksellers: and buy some books for themselves and others. There will be more details as the planning progresses, but please put the date in your diary!
At this point we just need a commitment and the contact details of your PR/publicity person. We will issue a list of participating bookshops who would like to hear from you, and we will let the booksellers know which publishers would like to take part.
Please let us know by 24 May whether you wish to take part in Irish Book Week 2019. We hope you will support this fabulous initiative which benefits everyone involved in the Irish book trade and helps us all to promote our authors, books and bookshops.
A promotional/networking oppotunity in Galway
The first of the Bookseller/Publisher ‘get togethers’ will take place in Charlie Byrne’s on the 12th June, with a further ‘get together’ planned for Waterstones in Cork, in July (TBC).
The purpose of the ‘get together’ is to provide opportunities for networking between publishers and booksellers and for publishers to raise awareness of current/forthcoming titles. This is based on events run by BA in the UK, which have grown from small beginnings 3 years ago to something more substantial.
The format is a ‘get together’ with BI members, the bookseller (in this case Charlie Byrne’s) and publisher(s) and author(s). It can also include some local business reps (Chamber of Commerce etc). Drinks, nibbles and some short speeches in the shop followed by a dinner in a restaurant close by – all refreshment costs are covered by sponsorship the BI have received from An Post
This is a very positive initiative on the part of Booksellers Ireland and a great opportunity to promote your current/forthcoming titles, directly to booksellers.
Please email Publishing Ireland Board members, Una MacConville (una@wordwellbooks.com) or Cecilia West (c.west@messenger.iecikly to register your interest for either or both events. Response date (s) are 17th May & 24th May.
Buying changes in Eason
Several members have said that they have been having significant issues this spring in getting purchase orders for new titles from Eason, raising the issues with Ivan O’Brien, as President. This has been a particular issue for publishers whose books were bought by Vinnie Heaney, who has now left Eason. Ivan met with Brendan Corbett as PI President to raise these issues and plot the way forward. The issue of getting POs was broached clearly and unambiguously, as were concerns about range and regional stocking.
Brendan committed that there will be a new member joining the buying team shortly. He also acknowledged that the backlist and range in Eason shops has been neglected, particularly in the last year, as they focussed on the front of the shop. Several publishers have made clear to Eason the level of business that they are losing at present as a result of the lack of focus, and emphasised the importance of the back of the shop to the Irish publishing industry. Brendan committed to having staff with specific responsibility for range and backlist.
Publishing Ireland is constrained in the actions that we can take in relation to trading between members and customers, but we are happy to collect and forward concerns, and press for action to ensure that all books can reach their markets through Eason shops: we will keep you informed as any firm information lands!
If you want to discuss this further, please contact Stephanie or Ivan.
