A rather excellent video featuring Jamie Byng, who’ll be appearing at Mountains To Sea in Dun Laoghaire in September

Upwardly mobile | moving in and what not
And he discusses new digs!
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Book Launch: Renegades: Irish Republican Women 1900-1922
Ann was on Pat Kenny yesterday, interesting book this one.
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Moving on
This really should be read, considered, parsed, filed and re-visited by publishers across the globe. It’s message, however unpalatable, is a vital one!
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Gollancz appoints Nash as digital publisher
On a very selfish level I admire Gollancz as a publisher, if only because they publish some of the finest sci-fi and fantasy.
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Miriam O’Callaghan and Mercier Press title
And why wouldn’t they? (I commissioned Moxie while working at Mercier Press)
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Sell, Socialise and Survive at the Frankfurt Book Fair
Good advice on Frankfurt. IPN will be there so don’t be afraid to send us your stories and releases!
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Edinburgh
Nice note on Edinburgh from Laura!
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Waterstone’s to open bar and restaurants
I think this makes sense, but don’t quote me on it!
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Samsung launches e-reader with W H Smith
When will the ebook and ereading bug bite home here? 
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PW Select: A Quarterly Service for Self-Published Authors to Launch in December
Publishers Weekly will launch a quarterly magazine in December focusing on announcements and reviews of self-published titles. However, listed self-published titles will come at a fee of $149 to the author and reviews will only be on selected titles.
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Publicity for Mercier Press titles
Three of Mercier Press titles were reviewed in national papers at the weekend.
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Reivew: Rules for a Perfect Life by Niamh Greene
IN Rules for a Perfect Life, each of the 27 chapters, like those in some self-help manuals, is headed by a maxim, which will, if followed, apparently change your life for the better.
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Tales of the Burren, and other places
A nice list of new local history titles
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Ireland’s desperadoes of the veld
Masked Raiders: Irish Banditry in Southern Africa, 1880-1899, By Charles van Onselen
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Book Club: Tenderwire by Claire Kilroy
An interesting move this!
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Review: Jumping in Puddles by Claire Allan
The Balamory lookalike seaside village of Rathinch may look postcard-perfect to summer visitors. But for locals who live there all year, it is a place of squinting windows, a hotbed of righteous gossip.
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Cló Morainn Covers
Nice post again!
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The economics of political memoirs
Interesting note on Political memoirs in the Uk and their sales!
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I Am Number Four – Pittacus Lore
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WH Smith slashes prices as e-book war intensifies
It’s getting hot and heavy there in ebooks!
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Smarter Than The Average Alec
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CALL ME ‘WRITER’ NOT ‘POET’, PLEASE
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James Joyce, Samuel Beckett and Walt Whitman are a girl’s best friend
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The Life of a Full Time Writer – yep, that would be moi!
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Room
Nice review of Room from Raven Books
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Lennon takes the lead
Rampaging ex-paramilitaries, undercover cops and the return of familiar serial killers – there’s lots out there for lovers of the crime genre, writes DECLAN BURKE  
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Review: Girl In A Spin by Clodagh Murphy
Write what you know, they say, but Dublin author Clodagh Murphy has broken the rule and set her second novel in the world of British politics.
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The Temple House Festival – Music & The Arts
Was there for No Place Like Dome, smashing grounds.
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Go Read This | Author Ray Connolly explains why he is publishing his latest novel chapter by chapter, online | Books | The Guardian
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Panel Picking: SXSW 2011
It thrills me that the book community is actively participating in the South by Southwest Interactive festival.
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Movie adaptation – No Country for Old Men
I loved the book, just loved it! Aint seen the movie yet.
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Armouron Toys Hit the Shelves
Go Oisín
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More Concerns about Australia/New Zealand Bookselling Giant; McNally Jackson Still Waiting for Espresso to Brew
Bookstores in crisis everywhere it seems
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Learning some things at dinner in Sao Paolo
Fascinating post from Mike Sjatzkin
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Book distributor CMD Booksource is closing its Irish operations effective 30 September.

The company says that ‘the economic situation was such that … [it] … was not possible’ to operate the business in Ireland profitably.

Speaking about the news, Publishing Ireland President Jean Harrington said that she was terribly saddened and that the focus of Publishing Ireland would be working with their ‘affected members to help and support them in finding alternate distribution.’ She also said that it provided an example of how important it was for government to implement ‘polices to help businesses do business.’

Client publishers including Mercier Press, Columba Press, Liberties Press, UCD Press and The Stinging Fly Press will now need to seek alternative distribution from 1 October 2010.

Although the company will stop shipping and distributing books on 30 September, CMD Booksource says it will still ‘collect cash from customers and chase payment of outstanding debt, which will be paid to client publishers in the usual manner.’ This should mean that no client publisher incurs a loss because of the closure.

CMD Booksource was formed in April 2009 when Scottish-based Booksource, which is 90% owned by Publishing Scotland, took over Columba Mercier Distribution a joint venture between Columba Press and Mercier Press.

The Scottish operations will be unaffected.

A spokesperson for the company said that ‘CMD BookSource was set up as a completely separate company to BookSource, therefore [there] will be no impact on BookSource. Luckily for BookSource the downturn in the UK hasn’t been nearly as severe as that in Ireland.’

A combination of Ghost Light sales slowing and Stieg Larsson hold steady means that Jospeh O’Connor‘s run at the top end of the charts is heading for an end.
I’ll be interested to see how long he now stays in the top ten and whether nominations for any of the upcoming prizes re-energize his sales. Colum McCann‘s paperback edition of Let The Great World Spin is selling nicely and, alongside Maeve Binchy, he rounds out the Irish contingent in the top ten.

1: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson, 1,710
2: The Help, Kathryn Stockett, 1,682
3: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest, Stieg Larsson, 1,541
4: Picture Perfect, Jodi Picoult, 1,467
5: Ghost Light, Joseph O’Connor, 1,449
6: The Girl Who Played with Fire, Stieg Larsson, 1,399
7: Broken, Karin Slaughter, 1,280
8: The Return Journey, Maeve Binchy, 1,249
9: Let the Great World Spin, Colum McCann, 1,241
10: Stolen, Lesley Pearse, 1,124

Data Supplied by Nielsen BookScan taken from the Irish Consumer Market week ending 10th July 2010

Five Americans and one British author have made the shortlist for the 2010 Frank O’Connor Short Story Award.

David Constantine is the only non-US writer to make the cut. He is joined on the list by Robin Black, Belle Boggs, TC Boyle, Ron Rash and Laura van den Berg.

The judges for the 2010 competition are Nadine O’Regan, Diana Reich and Mary Morrisy.

The competition, which is organised by the Munster Literature Centre and funded by Cork City Council, is in its sixth year and has a €35,000 prize fund and is the richest short story prize in the world.

The winner will be revealed in September at the Frank O’Connor short story festival in O’Connor’s home town of Cork.

The Full Shortlist
If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This (Picador UK, 2010) by Robin Black
Mattaponi Queen (Graywolf Press, 2010) by Belle Boggs
Wild Child (Bloomsbury, 2010) by TC Boyle
The Shieling (Comma Press, 2009) by David Constantine
Burning Bright (HarperCollins, 2010) by Ron Rash
What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us (Dzanc Books, 2009) by Laura van den Berg

Walsh Colour Print the Kerry-based printer has started an educational imprint. The company has started trading under the imprint Educate.ie.

Educate.ie launched with six text books and will debut an exam papers series in August.

The series features ‘detailed analysis of the examination papers and helpful hints’ and will be written by ‘teachers with concrete experience in preparing students for exams’.

Educate.ie will compete with established educational publishers Gill & Macmillan (who earlier this year acquired Carroll Education’s Primary list), Folens and CJ Fallon.

The 2009 Publishing Ireland Survey indicated that respondents in the educational book sector had revenues of €54.12 million in 2008.

Maverick House, the Irish based non-fiction publisher with operations in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and across Southeast Asia, has sold Czech rights to The Commandant: Rudolf Höss, the Commandant of Auschwitz, by Ian Baxter.

The acquiring publisher was Vydavatelstvi Vikend.

The book is the definitive biography of Rudolf Höss, the Commandant of Auschwitz, the concentration camp where between 1,100,000 and 1,500,000 men, women and children were murdered by the Nazis.

Day jobs and writers (4)
I think this is a great series, one to read!
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Luke Johnson Agrees With Me
Some Thoughts On bookshops that somepeople didn’t like!
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Amazon Start Taking Pre-orders on New Kindle DX
A fancy new Kindle DX
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Salmon Poetry presents the Galway Launch of ‘Where’s Katie?’ by Elaine Feeney & ‘Invitation to a Sacrifice’ by Dave Lordan
Salmon Poetry invites you to celebrate the publication of two new collections of poetry
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Darren Shan Q&A
Nice Q&A with Darren Shan
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Old stories prove new hits as Binchy takes top spot
Maeve is doing well in the UK as well as in Ireland!
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Another good week for Joseph O’Connor, Ghost Light seems to be striking a cord with readers. Stephanie Meyer’s success is more muted but still a very credible performance. Most impressive to me is the arrival on the top ten of The Twin, Gebrand Bakkar’s IMPAC winning novel. Perhaps the word of mouth is finally leaking through.

1: Ghost Light, Joseph O’Connor, 2,267
2: The Truth About You, Melissa Hill, 1,992
3: The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella, Stephenie Meyer, 1,774
4: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest, Stieg Larsson, 1,642
5: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson, 1,611
6: The Help, Kathryn Stockett, 1,516
7: The Twin, Gerbrand Bakker , 1,479
8: The Girl Who Played with Fire, Stieg Larsson, 1,439
9: The Return Journey, Maeve Binchy , 1,322
10: Picture Perfect, Jodi Picoult, 1,001

Data Supplied by Nielsen BookScan taken from the Irish Consumer Market week ending 26th June 2010

The Irish Independent reports that Elsevier Ireland Ltd increased its pre-tax profits by 3pc in 2009 to €24.6m.

The company, which is based in Shannon, is a subsidiary of Elsevier, the Dutch based arm of global Reed Elsevier group. It employs some 100 people and began operations in Shannon in 1976.

Although it booked considerable profits it does most of its trade outside of the country exporting scientific, technical and health journals to professional audiences.