Trade Day 2019 Review
Trade Day 2019 Review by Mariel Deegan President of Publishing Ireland
It was great to see some of you at Trade Day last week at the Dublin Book Festival in Smock Alley. There was a really strong line up of speakers from both within the Irish book trade and abroad. As a publisher, I can attest to the value this day always brings to me and my staff in unchaining us from our desks for a day and giving us the freedom to engage with the wider publishing world. Among the highlights of the day were packager Tony Potter’s insight into the world of hand-produced books and the co-editions that make them cost-effective (an area I previously knew nothing about) and a panel with Irish publishers who have branched into new areas, including Gill moving into children’s, Wordwell into trade history and No Alibis bookshop moving into literary publishing. We had a double dose of Nielsen data from Philip Stone which gave fascinating insights into the growth (and contraction) areas of publishing in Ireland and the wider world (which is always useful when assessing the rights potential of your list). Bob Johnston explored 30 years in bookselling (and ten years of the Gutter Bookshop), while our final panel looked at the potential for selling books beyond our borders, through rights sales and publishing to different formats like audio.
The value of Trade Day, however, is never just in the speakers, but in meeting your colleagues in the industry and the potential new entrants, up from the Masters in Literature and Publishing in Galway. It’s always a great opportunity to step back from the desk and exchange new ideas. This year our post-Trade Day drinks were sponsored by Books Ireland, who announced they are taking the brave but necessary step away from physical magazine production to become a fully digital platform for Irish book news. This will enable them to be more responsive, without the time lag of 2-month production cycles, and on behalf of Publishing Ireland, I would like to wish them all the best with this new direction for them. Booksirelandmagazine.com is the place to go for all your Irish book news!
Presentations are available to our members in the member’s area on our website.