O’Brien Press

Frankfurt Day One 2010: TOC Frankfurt, Canada Livres International Rights Seminar

The Frankfurt Marriot
~ Eoin Purcell ~ Leave a comment

The Frankfurt MarriotIt has been an excellent if somewhat tiring first day here in Frankfurt.

First up was O’Reilly’s Tools Of Change Frankfurt, which started with an interesting overview from Andrew Savikas followed by Pablo Arrieta and Douglas Rushkoff who gave the highlight quote of the morning y telling the room that 60% of them were superfluous to the needs of publishing.

Rushkoff was both right and wrong in his prophecy I suspect, but time will tell. It has certainly been the topic of more than a few conversations I’ve shared in recent years and numbers both higher and lower have bounced around, the emphasis being in a 40-60% range.

My session seemed to go okay, but it is always hard to call these things. I was lucky to have an engaged audience for the questions and answer portion of the session though.

While I was there the rather interesting news about Richard Nash‘s (a longtime American based Irishman) first list at his Red Lemonade (get it!) imprint broke. This is kind of the first of two shoes to drop so wait for the community type announcement when it comes, I expect it will be very interesting indeed.

On top of that, during my session, in another room, where he was giving his own talk (one I’d have loved to see) clever old James Bridle only went and announced a rather cool new project, Open Booksmarks. I wish him, and the project, luck, it’s interesting and I think it has legs too.

Once my session was over it was off to the Messe for the Canada Livres International Digital Rights Seminar, which had at least one Irish attendee other than myself, Ivan O’Brien of O’Brien Press.

That series of talks and the panel discussion that followed was excellent. The speakers gave such a diverse view of how ebooks are shaping their markets and their realities.

John Oakes of O/R books has a model that makes their own website the primary sales channel. They sell ebooks and print editions direct to customers and have had some success, notably Going Rouge, a title on Sarah Palin that parodied her Autobiography, Going Rogue. They also license paperback editions of the books to other publishers for sale in traditional bookstores which seems like a reversion to the days of paperback houses to me, not such a terrible idea in some ways.

Perhaps the two most eye-opening talks for me were from Ronald Schild from MVB Marketing (a subsidiary of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association) and Silvia Clemares head of digital publishing at Grup62. They were eye-opening because both talked about efforts by their native book industries to respond to digital change in strategic focussed ways. In Ronald’s case it was Libreka and for Silvia, Libranda.

But they weren’t the only innovators either, Erin Creasy from ECW Press outlined not just the sheer complexity of their ebook rights situation, but also their new digital only press, Joyland a smart play if ever their was one.

Michael Tamblyn of Kobo Books also spoke and he was (as he always seems to be) excellent. he focussed on international sales and how they have taken off for Kobo. One fascinating slice of a day in the life of Kobo, May 21st 2010 showed them selling ebooks into over 150 countries, which is frankly amazing and shows you what a scrappy upstart can do.

I had a great day and met (if for some, MUCH too briefly like Richard Padley, Sophie Rochester and Kate Pullinger) some great people, much more busyness ahead tomorrow!
Eoin

Children’s Books Ireland: Digital Developments Seminar

~ Eoin Purcell ~ 5 Comments
kindle_etch02
With thanks to Flickr user adafruit used under CC Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic Licence

I’m working with the wonderful people at Children’s Books Ireland to make a Digital Developments Seminar happen in Tallaght Library on 28 November 2009. I’m really rather looking forward to it:

Digital Developments will focus on where digital changes have taken publishing so far and what further changes can be expected in the future. The seminar will also offer practical tools and strategies to authors, booksellers, and publishers alike, on how to take the next step into the world of digital and social media.

The half-day event will feature a keynote address from me and a panel discussion featuring Ivan O’Brien, Susan Carleton and Vanessa Robertson. It is going to be wonderful.

For more information visit the event page over at CBI.

I’m hoping that it will be practical, useful and focused on the real application of technology for authors, publishers and booksellers.
Eoin

Talking to the (Irish) Publisher: Ivan O’Brien

~ Eoin Purcell ~ 1 Comment

Eoin Purcell

Introduction

What it is:
An occasional series of posts where I get answers to the same four questions from different publishers*.

Why I am doing it:
Partly because there is so little web based discussion of Irish Publishing. Partly because I think people will like reading the stuff. Mostly because I will find it interesting.

And the Questions:

1) What is the biggest current threat to Irish publishing?
2) What do you believe Irish Publishing’s Unique Selling Point is?
3) Do you think that Irish publishing receives enough state funding (or too much)?
4) Do you think Digitization, e-books and all that goes with that is a threat or an opportunity?

And today’s instalment:

IVAN O’BRIEN (O’Brien Press)

The O’Brien Press was established in 1974, evolving out of a family-run printing and type house, and over the past 32 years has established a reputation for quality and excellence in publishing for adults and children.

The O’Brien Press launched its first publication in November 1974. Me Jewel and Darlin’ Dublin, written by Eamonn Mac Thomais, was brought out while the author was still in jail and was an immediate success. It has been reprinted many times, and has become a minor classic.

The answers:

1) What is the biggest current threat to Irish publishing?
Probably the insane margin crunch brought on by the combination of a range of factors: the biggest single one is probably the all-conquering march of retail price-promotions, both in-store and online.

Even when a book is a success, it’s that much harder to make any real money on it to justify the investment. You also have steady increases in the advances that are being offered to authors, largely driven by the arrival of outposts from most of the conglomerates in Dublin. The level of advance you are expected to deliver presupposes a substantial success, so the cost of failure is that much higher.

Salaries and rents are also increasing much more rapidly than book prices, which have been pretty much static for a decade now. Throw constant pressure from retailers for more discount into the mix, and there’s not much left for the publisher!

2) What do you believe Irish Publishing’s Unique Selling Point is?
We are small, nimble companies that know our market well. We come up with great ideas that are tailored for our buyers, and produce high quality products rapidly. And we really care. I’m not sure how unique that all is, of course!

3) Do you think that Irish publishing receives enough state funding (or too much)?
No, not even nearly enough. Ireland’s march to Boston and away from Berlin (led by the all-conquering competition authority) means that the cultural value of publishing is largely ignored. We are able to point to our great writers winning awards all over the place, and quietly gloss over the fact that most of these are published in Britain.

To claim that this will have no effect on the cultural integrity of the work is niaive at best. Irish state supports for publishing are well below the levels of just about anywhere else — just go to any bookfair and see the size of and investment in the Czech, Catalan, Welsh, Canadian (I could go on!) areas, and compare them with poor old Ireland. Our cultural presence at these events is minimal, which is indicative of the esteem in which publishing is held.

4) Do you think Digitization, e-books and all that goes with that is a threat or an opportunity?
Yes. It is both a threat and an opportunity.
Threat: the investment required to built a robust digital infrastructure is beyond the scope of most small companies, so we will all have to choose partners/providers to exploit the new markets. This will be expensive and will involve substantial up-front cost, with no guarantee of return and (critically) relatively little control over how things evolve. Margins will be squeezed as never before.

Opportunity: new markets and a (more or less) level playing field in delivery, if not in marketing. If we invest enough in making our books findable, searchable and pertinant, there is no reason for us not to complete with the big boys. If we are nimble enough in terms of exploiting online marketing opportunities, we can shout a lot louder than our normal voices would suggest is possible.

A very fine start I think you will agree.
Onwards,
Eoin

* I may at my random leisure and fancy choose non-publishers without apology or explanation (though they will all involve book type folk).