David Maybury | Blog

Dublin has a new independent bookshop – The Gutter Bookshop (run by Bob Johnston) – with a rake of events, launches and more planned! (And talking bookselling – Pearson reckons that the worst is over)

And here’s one way to encourage sales… have your book featured in a celebrity car crash. A pic featuring John Grinnin’s Get A Grip On Physics on the floor of Tiger Woods’s wrecked SUV has boosted sales of the book up Amazon’s bestseller chart.

Age Guidance on book covers hasn’t gone away – Booksellers in the UK are frustrated, on both sides of the arguement:

Convincing evidence that the initiative has helped increase sales would encourage Walker Books to have further discussion on the issue, said publishing director Jane Winterbotham. However, she added: “I think we have yet to see that, so are not planning to implement the new age guidance at the moment.”

Amazon are offering trade-ins for text books – including pre-paid postage labels available to print!

Rachel Cooke ponders the future of UK Libraries -

What can we take away from this mess? Only that it continues to be up to us – the people who love libraries – to keep our beady eyes open, and our boxing gloves always at hand.

John Grisham hit the screens of the Today show mid last week and talks web pricing with Amazon, WalMart, Barnes and Noble, and Target. The man himself reckons that printed books are endangered species – and eBooks aren’t helping. (Bad news then that the Kindle hit a new high on book sales)

Tim Adams explores the shifts in book buying this Christmas – chestnuts, fireplace and a kindle? Authors Sarah Rees Brennan and Ally Carter talk piracy.

Eoin Purcell talks children’s books and tech – and keeping with that theme: Galleycat asks – can twitter actually sell books? And Usborne gets itself a new website.

Gay Byrne talked books and the new FÍS Book Club with Derek Landy and Don Conroy – schools only!

Staying technological for a bit longer – the The National Literacy Trust (UK) has released figures showing that online social media encourage literacy.

And finally… Stephanie Meyer holds 5 of the top 10 bestsellers in the UK. Just sayin’.

Somewhere in the tangle of last week I managed to miss out on the Irish Pen event, New Kids on the Block. A night with agents, publishers and authors including – Svetlana (of Author Rights Agency fame), Siobhan Parkinson, (children’s editor at Little Island, New Island’s imprint for children and teens), and Paddy O’Doherty (children’s editor at Puffin Ireland).

Luckily, a roving reporter (aka Sarah Webb) was on hand to record all the details (Sarah was one organisers of the night). There has been the promise of a full write up of the night but to tide ye all over she has put up some of the important tid bits.

Go and have a read. G’wan.

To celebrate the launch of Judi Curtin’s Alice to the Rescue, O’Brien press have launched a mini-site for everyone’s favourite duo – Alice and Megan.

The site got me thinking of other recent sites, like The Moorehawke Trilogy, Amy Green or the Demon’s Lexicon and the purpose of a mini-site.

In the wake of Paths to Publications I’ve started to think about the best ways to publicise a book on/offline.

All four of the writers mentioned have large web presences already – why not just incorporate the publicity into the author sites? (An aliceandmegan.com address with a redirect to Judi’s site for instance?) Surely readers would prefer to read the author’s blog/comments more than just the publicity for the new book?

There is plenty about all of this on the web already – Marlene Stringer for starters.

“Promotion is not only about the book, it is about the author. It is about branding.”

Or Thad McIlroy’s ‘what makes a great author wesbite?‘ Then there’s the Nick Cave’s of the world, producing iPhone app ebooks with music composed and preformed for the book by the Bad Seeds…

In coming years we may look back on Bunny Munro as the book with which digital publishing came of age. An e-book which harnesses the power of what digital books can do by combining colour, moving images, social networking and audio to make something that is, arguably, in some ways a new medium.

And there is always Bubble Cow’s outlook – that publisher’s blogs are just pants anyway.

Readers/writers don’t really want to read about the books publishers are selling. We want to read something informative/educational/amusing/controversial. We want to connect and feel part of the process.

…an age-guidance figure is not information. It’s an opinion, but one that seems to have a special authority. There’s nothing wrong with a bookseller, for example, shelving one of my books on the 9-11 shelves; or a reviewer saying that the same book is suitable for 11 and upwards; or a teacher giving it to a child of eight, because she knows him and what he’s capable of reading. People make decisions and express views of that sort all the time. And their views differ, that’s the point. They are based on personal knowledge and opinion.

But when the book itself says 9+, or 11+, that figure has quite a different status. It looks as if the author is assenting to it; it looks as if I’m saying: “I wrote this for 11-year-olds. Everyone else can keep out.”

And I did not.

Philip Pullman on age branding in last Saturday’s Guardian and in Thursday’s Telegraph. The Forbidden Planet blog has a response to the article – and how age branding affects comics. Some interesting comments on the Book Fox blog after publishing Darren Shan’s statement, worth a read indeed!

Previously:
> everyone’s talking about… age branding
> everyone really is talking about age branding…

Interesting shortlist for the 2008 awards (not an O’Brien Press book on the list… or too many other Irish publishers!) Delighted to see Siobhan Dowd, deservedly, on the list alongside Tom Kelly and Michael Scott’s The Alchemyst. Some disappointing omissions (Enda Wyley/Derek Landy) and a few unexpected inclusions: Caitriona Nic Sheain and Jessica O’Donnell who are both new to me.

Two names that are not strangers to the shortlist, Oliver Jeffers and Kate Thompson both make a reappearance – and the grand-daddy of Dublin literature Roddy Doyle (also up for an Irish Book Award) is the last name on the list. Now, time to get reading.
Full shortlist:

The Alychemyst – Michael Scott
The Black Book of Secrets – FE Higgins
Discover Art – Jessica O’Donnell
Gaiscioch na Beilte Uaine – Caitriona Nic Sheain agus Andrew Whitson
The Last of the High Kings - Kate Thompson
The London Eye Mystery - Siobhan Dowd
The Thing with Finn - Tom Kelly
Titanic 2020 - Colin Bateman
The Way Back Home - Oliver Jeffers
Wilderness - Roddy Doyle

> Click here for details on the winners.