Posted
on July 23, 2010, 3:41 pm,
by Ivan,
under Foreign editions.
It’s foreign edition time again: we had two new arrivals from Croatia today: our first books to hit the market there. It’s interesting to see how a new territory opens up over time, and they all do it differently. The normal pattern is for the initial sales to be of fiction that has done well in translation in other markets — mass-market fiction (The Mammy by Brendan O’Carroll: now in an impressive 14 foreign editions) and children’s fiction (Sisters … No Way! by Children’s Laureate Siobhán Parkinson: 11 languages to choose from) would usually break the market, and then the non-fiction comes into play.
Eastern Europe can have a differnt pattern, however, and Croatia is following this trend. Our first books in translation are two non-fiction titles — The General by Paul Williams, made into an excellent film by John Boorman, and Joe Cahill by Brendan Anderson, the biography of a life-long IRA activist.
The trial of Eamonn Lillis for the murder of Celine Cawley was one of the most-followed in recent memory: author Abigail Rieley talks about the trial and the media circus it generated, as well as about writing her book.
Posted
on June 9, 2010, 1:51 pm,
by Ivan,
under Events.
I’m delighted to learn that I shall be taking up the Farmleigh writers residency this summer. It’s a beautiful house set in acres of garden and the atmosphere there is perfect for writing. When I was shown around the building the librarian, Julia Cummins, introduced me to the book collection that Benjamin Guinness (1937-1992) gathered. It is incredible. First editions abound, including Ulysses and collections of poems by Yeats, with annotations in his own hand. But what excited me most of all was a thirteenth century manuscript by Gerald of Wales. By happy co-incidence this is one of the major sources for the impact of the Normans on Ireland, something which is very relevant to my writing plans. As well as working on a series of stories based on a group of hedonistic self-aware avatars in a virtual world, I’m going to write a book for the O’Brien Press on the coming of the Normans. It’s a great story, full of drama, and deserves to be looked at again in the light of modern scholarship.
While at Farmleigh I shall organise a few events related to children’s literature. I’m going to invite a prominent children’s writer to give a public talk. I’m also going to show local schools around the house and give them a reading from my own books. Included in these trips is St Joseph’s School for the Visually Impaired. My baby daughter Maya attends their pre-school and they’ve been brilliant with her, so I’m really pleased to be able to offer them something in return. I’m hoping – though she might not know it yet! – that the new children’s laureate, Siobhán Parkinson will be involved in that event.
In August I will be giving two creative writing workshops for writers of children’s literature. Places will be limited but anyone interested can send 1,000 words of their work in progress to farmleighinfo@opw.ie and we’ll get back to them.
Posted
on June 8, 2010, 3:41 pm,
by Ivan,
under Selling books.
As you can see in the picture, Crackle is still busily reading his O’Brien Press books! The fantastic Storytime promotion which we have been running with Rice Krispies is alive and kicking … When Hughes & Hughes closed their shops earlier this year it made things complicated, but we are delighted that the Hughes & Hughes shops in Santry, Ennis, Dundrum and Swords have re-opened, and they they will redeem your vouchers for books — or you can send the form, tokens and €1.50 per book to Kellogg’s Storytime Promotion, PO Box 9922, Dublin 15.
So cut the sides off those cereal boxes and get your hands on some great books for the summer.
Posted
on June 1, 2010, 8:59 am,
by Ivan,
under Selling books.
We are delighted that, as of today, O’Brien Press books are now represented in Britain by the wonderful people at Frances Lincoln. Like us, they started in the 1970s producing books for adults and then started a children’s list too — though they made this change a little earlier than we did (1983, rather than 1990). This makes them a perfect match for The O’Brien Press and it’s great to have all of our books represented by the same people in Britain — for the first time in a very long while.
Having met the team there quite a few times, I am very confident that they will be able to find new avenues for our books in the extremely competitive British market and am looking forward to the adventure!
So what’s involved? Celine would like you to pick your ideal cast of actors to play Wynter, Christopher and Razi in a movie version of The Poison Throne: get your thinking cap on! All the details are on Celine’s blog.
Entries close on 22 June and the winner will be announced on 2 July — so the winner will have The Rebel Prince in their hands MONTHS ahead of anybody else, as well as having a pretty unique set of books. It’s a great idea by Celine, and we are really looking forward to seeing the results.
Posted
on May 12, 2010, 12:57 pm,
by Ivan,
under Selling books.
If you go into your local Unicare Pharmacy any time in the next two months you will see a slightly unusual display on the counter: a perspex counterpack with half-a-dozen copies of It’s Called Dyslexia, a new title from The O’Brien Press, produced in association with the Dyslexia Association of Ireland. It’s a child-friendly introduction to what dyslexia means and how best to manage it. It’s unusual to see books in a pharmacy, but dyslexia can be a hidden problem, so we felt that making the book visible and available beyond the bookshops was important.
The books have only been on sale for a few days, and so far the results have been really good! Thanks to the lovely people in Unicare for taking a chance with this.
Irish children’s author Siobhán Parkinson was named the first ever Laureate na nÓg in a ceremony in Dublin yesterday. A new initiative by the Arts Council, with the support of Children’s Books Ireland, the Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs and Poetry Ireland, the honour was awarded to Siobhán by President Mary McAleese. A multi-award-winning children’s author, Siobhán has published many books for children and her work has been translated into many languages. Among her most popular and award-winning books are Four Kids, Three Cats, Two Cows, One Witch (maybe), which was described by Robert Dunbar as ‘one of the best Irish children’s books we’ve ever had’, Sisters … no way! and Amelia among others. Congratulations to Siobhán from all at The O’Brien Press!
Posted
on April 15, 2010, 7:36 pm,
by Ivan,
under Awards, In the News.
How can you compare Skulduggery Pleasant to PS, I Love You? Or It’s A Long Way From Penny Apples to Ross O’Carroll-Kelly? The good people at the Irish Book Awards have just announced their shortlist of the top 50 Irish Books of the Decade, and there’s everything there from crime fiction to children’s books via literary fiction and history, biography and popular fiction.
We in O’Brien Press are thrilled that Des Ekin’s wonderful The Stolen Village: Baltimore and the Barbary Pirates is on the shortlist. The raid in 1631 by Morat Rais and his Algerian pirates on a small Cork village and the kidnapping, or killing, of just about the whole population was the single largest raid on the British Empire: the outrage that this could happen went all the way to the king! Des’s book uncovers this long-forgotten episode and makes it live and breathe, and has been hugely successful.
It’s hard to compare the books to each other given the huge range, but it’s a very good selection of books that no shop should be without, though maybe SO broad that no one person would be interested in the whole lot! It’s good also to see quite a few other Irish-published books on the list, giving the lie to the idea that you have to go to London to publish the very best books.
It’s been an interesting journey: after months of discussion, development and testing, we have released our first ever electronic product: iPaddy: Irish Slang Guide. When iPhone apps became the big buzz last autumn, it became clear that finally there was a new way that people were willing to pay for content in real numbers: the Information Wants To Be Free movement is all very well, but it doesn’t pay the bills! O’Brien Press decided to jump in and test the water.
We selected our first product by matching the content we have with the market as we saw it: we wanted something entertaining, international and visual and it was not long before we realised that we had the perfect material in The Feckin’ book of Irish slang that’s great craic for cute hoors and bowsies. It is in bite-sized chunks, and the cartoons were just perfect for the small screen on an iPhone. Most importantly, it is genuinely funny.
Normally a publisher would have pretty much total control of a product, apart from physically printing it, so engaging a developer (we went for Plazro Games) to build the application was a new experience. Thankfully, they were great to work with, understood exactly what we were aiming for and had all the skills (3D graphics, 2D graphics, database, coding, marketing) that were required.
The next step was getting voice talent: it was clear that this would only work with great actors to take the humour from the page and make it work on the screen. Morgan Jones and Norma Sheehan are among the best in the game: the recording session was a blast, and they did a great job. Finally, the publication process is very different to anything we had dealt with before: an application is submitted to Apple for their approval before it can be sold: if there are no problems, one day you get a mail to say “ready for sale”, and there you go! No stock to print, hold and distribute either, which is nice.
Of course, the next thing is obsessively tracking the chart position of the app on your iPhone and telling all your friends about it. In the book world the charts come out once a week – the app store seems to update them every couple of mintes. At the last count iPaddy has sold copies in about 20 countries — conquering the world, one iPhone at a time, and just in time for St Patrick’s Day!
It’s foreign edition time again: we had two new arrivals from Croatia today: our first books to hit the market there. It’s interesting to see how a new territory opens up over time, and they all do it differently. The normal pattern is for the initial sales to be of fiction that has done well in translation in other markets — mass-market fiction (The Mammy by Brendan O’Carroll: now in an impressive 14 foreign editions) and children’s fiction (Sisters … No Way! by Children’s Laureate Siobhán Parkinson: 11 languages to choose from) would usually break the market, and then the non-fiction comes into play.
Celine Kiernan
If you go into your local Unicare Pharmacy any time in the next two months you will see a slightly unusual display on the counter: a perspex counterpack with half-a-dozen copies of 
Irish children’s author 
How can you compare Skulduggery Pleasant to PS, I Love You? Or It’s A Long Way From Penny Apples to Ross O’Carroll-Kelly? The good people at the 
