Eoin Purcell

The Irish Independent has a nice piece on the Murphy’s Ice Cream Book of Sweet Things of BOST as we have taken to calling it for short hand in the office. My favourite line:

It’s a great success story and the book, written in Kieran’s languid, laid-back style, makes an enjoyable read.

Good Stuff! You can buy the book here (Although, bizarrely they have a cover we decided against in the end!
Eoin

Eoin Purcell

I don’t want to be a bore
But this ebook and this one too, should not be for sale in Ireland for another 3 years at least, yet they are. I know, I just bought one from the Apple Apps Store

Considering a new paperback edition of Ulysses is available for about £7.50 and Portrait Of The Artist for a measly £2.50 on The Book Depository, I’d say 79 cent each is a massive bargain.

The copyright on Joyce’s works has lapsed in the US if I’m not mistaken (or at least if Wikipedia is not mistaken) but not here or in the UK. I’ll be Apple never anticipated a territorial issue with iPhone Apps?

The Joyce estate will no doubt be onto this one quick, in the meantime, download away. Hopefully this post will not be prescient if the ebooks are eventually withdrawn.

Mildly amused
Eoin

Eoin Purcell

The I missed a lot in the last few days edition

Publishing News is closing shop on its print and online news operations. These seems sad and a little depressing to me. I like The Bookseller and I have enjoyed the way their website has grown more functional and useful over the last year or so, but a bit of competition never goes astray.
Here

Speaking of The Bookseller, Penguin CEO John Makinson has a nice little piece online there about the forbiding nature of the Publishing industry to outsiders.
Here

Amazon have an HaperCollins implant working with them. Intriguing>
Here

Alan Sutton, my former boss @ Nonsuch Ireland, comes back from the ashes again with a new firm. He never stays down that man. it’s pretty impressive. You’ll note too that the comment thread has had to be policed and clamped down for the night!
Here

AND THE BIG NEWS
iTunes Apps Store turns out to be a bloody good way of selling e-books or at the very least of hosting them for sales. More on this next week when i think it through properly.
Here, Here, Here, Here, Here and Here

Mad?
The story is in Publishers Weekly, here.

Eoin Purcell

At The Bookseller’s Digitise or Die conference I listened to this guy. I liked some of what he said but felt his site Bookrabbit was a little strange and overly complex and something of a LibraryThing clone. Still it was innovative in trying to sell books at least and that makes what is happening there a shame.
Here

As for this, who didn’t see this coming for Lonely Planet and BBC?
Here

Eoin Purcell

Games are not all child’s play
This is an interesting piece though I’d have liked a little more meat, why are really good in depth feature pieces so rare in Irish journalism (I’d love an Irish magazine that promoted long form journalism, 5-10,000 word pieces):

The barrier for entry to the lucrative multibillion dollar cross-platform gaming business may be too high for Irish firms and if the industry is to have any chance of future success clever niches in areas like casual gaming and other supporting fields must be identified.

Still the parallels between book and games publishing are interesting (as are the obvious differences). One of the things that is increasingly frustrating to me is the way Irish people and economic actors simply surrender space to foreign competition. 20 years ago people would have said that Disney’s animation business was protected by enormous barriers to entry and a remarkable catalogue of movies, hello Pixar.

Surrendering territory to rivals can be a wise decision, often it is the correct decision, but there seems to be a tendency in Irish creative industries to surrender space simply because rivals are better funded, longer established and hold greater market share. Are there no opportunities to take some of that share through innovation, smarter products or even, god forbid it, better ideas?

Lots to work on today,
Eoin

Eoin Purcell

A lot of traffic
Comes to this site looking for answers about book covers. Generally, I’m guessing, this is more from self-publishing authors than traditional route publishers. I say this because it is rare for traditional publishers* to leave cover choice to the authors.

I thought I would add some thoughts for those visitors. Feel free to ignore it or to get in touch with questions.

Essentially there are five steps

1) Decide what genre your book fits into
I don’t want to hear that your book is unique. To some degree all books are. Responding that your book is unique indicates either laziness or lack of knowledge of the market you are writing for. Should you be going ahead with this project if that is the case?

Take some time to investigate the market, search for books that have similar themes or writing styles and try and think how you can fit into those genres. The questions you need to ask yourself are, is this a definable genre? That could be as broad as General Fiction if you like, or as narrow as 19th Century British Merchant Shipping if you prefer. But make sure you know what it is.

2) Figure out how you are publishing the book
This may seem trivial, but it will have a direct impact on your work-flow. Some publishing routes are easier than others, some may require you to have cover files ready earlier than internals, some may not offer you customized covers.

Whatever way you choose find our how they want cover files submitted. This will be be as .jpg, .tiff, .psd or perhaps even .pdf. Be sure that they also tell you what DPI and size the image/file should be. All of this information will be vital to making the cover look perfect at the final stages.

I’d use this opportunity to ask them about paper weights and make decisions about gloss, matt or demi-gloss stock. No option is necessarily the right one, but each has its uses. As with 1) take some time to search out the types and styles of covers that your competition favours.

3) Write a designer brief
I’d counsel drawing up a draft designer brief to give to whoever is designing your cover, even if that person is yourself. Why?

Just putting together the details about the book will help focus on the task at hand. I have drawn up a very loose sample you can use if you like. It’s here.

4) Hire a designer
You probably say this one coming but here goes. Many people who are pursuing self-publishing feel that they should be free to design their own cover, and indeed they are. However, the cover is THE key selling tool your book will have. Online and in-store, the cover is what the buyer sees first.

With that in mind, a professional, pitch perfect cover will sell more copies of your book than any other factor. Search for a good designer and pay them for their work. Don’t even dream of paying more than you need to though. A good design should cost you between €600 and €900 and not more.

There are cheaper options available and places like elance.com are great sources of freelance ability.

5) Allow time for a proof or even a rethinking of your cover
Whatever your timetable is, make sure that you plan all of these steps to ensure you have sufficient time to rethink a cover. Perhaps when your designer is finished you will not be happy with their work, or it will need serious tweaking.

Don’t be too worried. Even trade publishers rethink and comprehensively rework jackets at the last minute.

Wrap up

I am speaking from a trade perspective. I have heard that some academic houses do allow for authors to decide on covers if they don’t want a plain or series cover. I think the money is better unspent on the authors part in such cases.

A lot of this advice is only worthwhile if an author is intent on selling copies to a wide audience. If the market is limited to a few friends, then feel free to designer your own cover in whatever way suits!

Tired but happy to be finished driving for the weekend,
Eoin

Eoin Purcell

Kenny’s open a new book store in their new premises. COOL!
Here

A great review of The Making of the Irish Constitution, 1937, by Dermot Keogh and Andrew McCarthy in the DRB. I’m biased, I know, but this is one of the best and most historically valuable books published on the Irish constitution in recent years. It was a delight to be part of the company that brought it to the market.
Here

Sat in the audience for a panel with some people from Bookrabbit on it. Likd what they had to say even if the site itself seems like LibraryThing with less features and a really good e-commerce link up (Which LibraryThing has thanks to its customization: I just need to click a link on a book and it takes me to my preferred bookseller, The Book Depository, Genius)> Oh Andrew Keen was there too.
Here

Eoin Purcell

Just spotted this on Blathnaid Healy’s Blog

This should be interesting, especially in the context of this piece by Damien Mulley!
Eoin

Eoin Purcell

That is my work is interesting and fun
And when we get reviews like this one, how could it not be:

If it’s humorous accounts you’re after, then stick to Tony Hawks’ ‘Round Ireland with a Fridge’ but for a one-stop-shop guide to the best action adventures in Ireland, this is it.

And then there are the new authors
The ones who are going to go on to big things. In this case, Susan Connolly. In fact, about 3 years ago, I met Susan on a Luas having not seen her for a while. She told me she had written some stuff, I said, “Send it on!” and she didn’t!

Damsel finally came to me more as her friend then as a potential publisher. So when I suggested we make an offer for it, I think she was surprised. Nonetheless we persevered and with a help from the lovely Faith O’Grady at Lisa Richards we agreed a deal for Irish Rights.

Susan has a great future ahead of her and I’m glad Mercier will be part of that.

Writing lots of new title notes
Eoin

PS: Padraig Woods has a fantastic selection of Flickr images here.