David Maybury | Blog

A little late joining the fray – Little Island Books is coming. Launching on March 18 (their website goes live on February 1) But what are the new-comers looking for and what do they like? Well… Siobhán Parkinson spill the beans:

What are you working on right now? (Detailed notes on top secret projects are acceptable)

Hm, well … planning the Little Island launch – of SIX WHOLE NOVELS, two of which I have translated, two of which are TOTALLY NEW, and two of which are Old Favourites Back Again; getting ready for not one but TWO Terrible Twins coming on an investigative visit next week (hoping they are going to revamp my library, make Intelligent Comments and pots of coffee and possibly work out how to make bloody iTunes do what I want it to do instead of what it wants me to do); thinking about Bologna and staring a lot at my diary; thinking about the IBBY conference in Santiago di Compostela in September and wondering if I am allowed to go their by plane or do you HAVE to come in on foot over the Pyrenees (how do you spell that? and why?); getting very wobbly at the thought of all the work that is piling up and that all has to be done at the Same time by just one person with only one head, and that one full of much rubbish.

And tweaking my latest MS, which is a novel for 12ish people about … well, life, death, that sort of thing. And working on my Irish-language novel which is about life but not death, for a change. And teaching an elective course in creative writing. Elective – that means the people CHOOSE to do it, now, that’s the kind of course they didn’t’ have when I was young. Will that do?

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Silly season is looming and book releases are coming thick and fast… So what better way to mark the occasion than with a some interviews with the top children’s book publishers in Ireland?

All this week the blog will play host to tid-bits, one liners and rants from publishers/marketeers and editors from Irish publishing houses*. Find out what they are working on, what they really like and what they want from new writers!

Patrick Crowley, the marketing man for Mercier Press is next to answer those 6 dreaded questions.

What are you working on right now? (Detailed notes on top secret projects are acceptable)

Right now we have two hats on. One being our Christmas 2009 hat and the other hat is the Summer 2010 one. The focus in sales and marketing is on our new releases and our Christmas campaign. An effective integrated campaign is in place and the ground work needs to be done now to ensure our books are out there and that people know about them. Close cooperation with the retailers at this stage is vital and decisions are made around what to submit to particular promotions. All the who, where, when and how questions!

In Editorial, the focus is already on next years titles. We have an excellent production schedule already planned for pretty much the whole of 2010 and editorial are busy getting in manuscripts, proofing, editing, chasing authors, finalising details and dealing with annoying marketing queries!

>>> Click to read more about what Mercier Press are looking for in new writing and what has really impressed Paddy this summer. <<<<

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Silly season is looming and book releases are coming thick and fast… So what better way to mark the occasion than with a some interviews with the top children’s book publishers in Ireland?

All this week the blog will play host to tid-bits, one liners and rants from publishers/marketeers and editors from Irish publishing houses*. Find out what they are working on, what they really like and what they want from new writers!

Paddy O’Doherty, the brains behind recently announced Puffin Ireland, is next on the chopping block.

What are you working on right now? (Detailed notes on top secret projects are acceptable)

I’m reading through manuscripts of all genres for all age groups: gothic horror, historical fantasy, gritty suburban realism, animal adventures… Everything is here!

What titles/projects are you excited about seeing in the next few months?

There are one or two really excellent manuscripts which I am pursuing and hope to sign in coming weeks. Puffin Ireland would like to publish its first title in the early summer 2010 – all going well.

>>> Click to read more about what Puffin Ireland are looking for in new writing and what has really impressed Paddy this summer. <<<<

(more…)

Silly season is looming and book releases are coming thick and fast… So what better way to mark the occasion than with a some interviews with the top children’s book publishers in Ireland?

All this week the blog will play host to tid-bits, one liners and rants from publishers/marketeers and editors from Irish publishing houses*. Find out what they are working on, what they really like and what they want from new writers!

First out of the cages is Ivan O’Brien, from the O’Brien Press.

What are you working on right now? (Detailed notes on top secret projects are acceptable)

The publicity and launch plans for our brand new, innovative and gorgeous Bridges series. Nobody has done inter-cultural books in Ireland before, and we have put huge effort into making these appealing, beautiful and desirable: of course, the fact that they are Worthy means that getting them into bookshops is a challenge, so we will be more reliant on creative PR angles than usual for a new children’s series.

There’s also The Moorehawke Trilogy: we will be focussing effort at the Frankfurt Book Fair on targeting major (and smaller!) territories where this has not yet sold – it has done well in germany, the Aussie version looks terrific and we have to ensure that book 3 does the business for readers too.

What titles/projects are you excited about seeing in the next few months?

Blood Upon the Rose: nobody has done an historical graphic novel in Ireland before, or indeed one in English that I can think of (Colmán Ó Rathallaigh’s excellent legend books exist as gaeilge, of course) and we are really curious to see who will “get it”. Just because it has pictures does not mean it’s a history book, and just because it’s reality-based does not mean it can’t be a rip-roaring GN. The market will decide, of course!

>>> Click to read more about what O’Brien Press are looking for in new writing and what has really impressed Ivan this summer. <<<<

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