Liberties Press has begun offering customers PDF ebook editions of some of its books.

Liberties Press are the first Irish trade publisher to make ebooks available directly in this way, though Lapwing Poetry has done so for some time and several publishers have either Kindle of epub editions available through third party stores like Amazon and Directebooks.

Liberties ebooks will be priced at about 33% below the print prices and the first titles to be made available are:
Second Readings by Eileen Battersby
Stop Wasting Your Money by Conor Pope
Make Your Will by Jason Dunne and John G.Murphy
Step On, Step Up by Donna Kennedy
Surviving the Axe by Lisa O’Callaghan

Liberties Press has sold the German rights for their first original fiction novel, The Gathering of Souls by Gerry O’Carroll.

Claudia Negele at Goldmann Verlag part of Random House Germany was the acquiring editor and the deal was for a good five figures.

The Gathering Of Souls not only marks Liberties’ first origonal fiction, it is also subject to a new profit sharing form of contract between Liberties, the author and the authors literary agent, Robert Kirby (United Agents).

The book will be released in Ireland in early May.

Robbie Williams is to endorse, RanDumb: the Random, Dumb Adventures of an Irish Guy in LA by Mark Hayes which Liberties Press will publish in May.

RanDumb follows a year in the life of Hayes, as he moves to the bright lights of LA to pursue a career in acting.

Williams’ endorsement will be four words: “I like book, me”

The first edition of Published This Month, for April 2010, is below.

I’ve added the Number One Children’s title for April, Derek Landy’s Skulduggery Pleasant: Dark Days (HarperCollins | £ 10.99 | PB | Children’s Fiction | April 2010) because, the post needed a brighter header. There is a wonderful audio extract on the HarperCollins UK site.

The list is woefully incomplete but I’m hoping we can improve that as the service progresses. Publishers, send any additional titles direct to monthlybooks{AT}irishpublishingnews.com

Or you can download this excel file, fill it in and send it back by e-mail (it would sure make my life easier).

The Boys of St Columb’s: From the 1947 Education Act to the 1968 Civil Rights Movement – Profiles of Eight Remarkable Men from Derry
Maurice Fitzpatrick
9781905785773
€17.95 | PB | pp
The Liffey Press
Biography | April 2010

About The Book
The Boys of St. Columb’s tells the story of the first generation of children to receive free secondary education as a result of the ground-breaking 1947 Education Act in Northern Ireland.

About The Book
A martyr and a hero to his countrymen, Denis Barry is overlooked today. This book seeks to rescue this hugely respected Cork man from relative anonymity. Denis Barry toiled in the shadows of McSwiney and MacCurtain in the tumultuous period of the Irish War of Independence.

About The Book
Perry the Polar Bear is a brave cub who goes on a mission to save the polar bears and their home. This eco-friendly book teaches children about the effects of global warming and reminds us that anyone can make a difference

About The Book
A career book without the waffle for post-Celtic Tiger times, The Career Book has not been written to help you – it aims to help you to help yourself.

About The Book
Some of the most famous lines in Irish poetry come from the pen of William Butler Yeats, poet, patriot, dramatist and senator. This illustrated collection of forty of his best-loved works, on Love, Politics, Old Age, Myth and Legend includes people, places and events that were important to him.

About The Book
Danny, Mario and Me is a story of friendship between three teenage boys in an Irish border town in the 80s. Taidg, Danny and Mario are best friends, thick as thieves, untouchable, until one Friday night, when Danny hangs himself in a field at the back of his family home.

About The Book
When Desmond Doyle finds his girlfriend dead in the bath, having cut her wrists, he is devastated. But there are inconsistencies with how suicide wounds would be inflicted and he quickly comes under suspicion and is arrested for murder. Though soon released, Detective Inspector Harry Kneebone is convinced of Doyle’s involvement.

Family Life, An Inspector Starran Mystery

About The Book
In ones and twos the Sweeney clan and their partners, wives and children gather at Liam Sweeney’s farm on the outskirts of Ramelton, County Donegal to celebrate Liam’s birthday. The banter and storytelling is great as they await the arrival of the single missing family member. But when Inspector Starrett arrives unexpectedly at the farm it becomes clear that all is not well.

If I Never See You Again
NIamh O’Connor
9781848270916
£ 12.99 | PB | pp
Transworld Ireland
Fiction | April 2010

About The Book
In trouble at work and at home, Detective Inspector Jo Bermingham  soon discovers that someone has been playing the gangland at its own game – one in which there are no rules, and in which she – and her family – are in terrible danger …

About The Book
King of Country is Howard Wright’s first, much-anticipated, full-length poetry collection. Wright’s keen, painters eye never fails to see the irony in the mundane, rendering found art out of theeveryday in this wry and wily collection.

About The Book
Louisa is fed up with every aspect of her life. Boyfriend, job, flat – all these need an instant and radical makeover. And so she decides to change it all in favour of a carefree existence, exchanging her house for a trailer, her car for a motorbike, and her smart clothes for leisure wear.

About The Book
In Dublin, a newspaper editor called Cartwright is found dead. One of his colleagues, Owen Simmons, discovers a dossier on Cartwright’s desk. And in the dossier Owen finds a photograph, which brings him back, once again, to a dusty road in Africa and to the woman he once loved

About The Book
Beth Prendergast has fallen hook, line and sinker for her boss. But when Beth discovers she is pregnant he makes it clear that a baby was never part of his plan. Is Beth really ready to take on motherhood all on her own?

About The Book
Though she doesn’t know it, the day Aoife spots a neglected walled garden is the day her life begins again …

About The Book
The Ballymun Trilogy is a unique attempt by a leading Irish playwright to capture the birth, demolition and regeneration of a satellite town. From These Green Heights was previously published on its own by New Island, while The Townlands of Brazil and The Consequences of Lightning are previously unpublished.

About The Book
Building to a heart-stopping finale, with a cast of credible and colourful characters from the criminal underworld and police ranks alike, The Gathering of Souls is an authentic, dark tale of obsession, revenge and redemption.

About The Book
Enthralled by his own exquisite portrait, Dorian Gray exchanges his soul for eternal youth and beauty. Influenced by his friend Lord Henry Wotton, he is drawn into a corrupt double life; indulging his desires in secret while remaining a gentleman in the eyes of polite society.

About The Book
Dorian Gray, an extraordinarily beautiful youth, looks at his newly-painted portrait and despairs at the thought of how time will alter his looks. If only he could be beautiful forever – yes, he would give his soul for that!

About The Book
In any normal situation Fiona and Sarah would be friends. They are both smart and loving, great mothers, brilliant at life. And they both need a pal. But when Sarah arrives in Fiona’s small town on the Clare coast, it’s not a normal situation

About The Book
Debut novel from established short-story writer and poet about a 10-year-old girl who lives with her separated mother and two brothers. Set against the semi-urban backdrop of the River Liffey in 1980, the story unfolds through the narrator’s observations and interactions, and her naïve interpretations of adult conversations and behaviour. Heartbreaking at times, but also optimistic, humorous and enchanting.

About The Book
Introduction to Equity Investment Fund Accounting explains the basic principles of investment fund accounting in a jargon-free manner. This will come as good news to those with little prior exposure to this complex area of finance.

About The Book
We all have recipes that are dear to our hearts, passed on to us from our grannies, grandads, great aunts and uncles. This book is the culmination of an effort to collect, document and sample those recipes.

About The Book
The message is simple: excellent food is available at affordable prices. You just have to know what you’re looking for – and where to find it. Shrewd Food is the definitive guide. Inspired by the hugely popular website shrewdfood.ie, set up in 2009 by dedicated foodie and home-cook extraordinaire Elizabeth Carthy – who knows first-hand the challenges of feeding a family on a budget

About The Book
The Aran Islands produced writers such as Liam O’Flaherty and Tim Robinson who were inspired by their surroundings. The drystone-wall field-boundary system of the islands is one of Ireland’s richest cultural landscapes, retaining remarkable continuity with the past – Celtic occupation, Christianity, invasion, famine and evictions – a unique combination of the forces of humankind and nature.

About The Book
Combining an analysis of the major events of the year with the oral testimony of a wide range of respondents, this book tells the story of the most extraordinary year of the modern Northern conflict, as well as analysing its impact upon subsequent events.

About The Book
This book is an introductory guide for students and researchers in the history of Irish education from 1790 – 1922.

About The Book
A clear, lively, account of all the significant battles in irish history, from pre-history to the Normans to the Black and Tans in 1920-1, concluding with the Battle of the Bogside in 1969.

About The Book
This book studies the history of diplomatic and security relations between Ireland and Britain, giving context to the role of Anglo-Irish relations in the early years of the Northern Ireland Troubles. The conclusions are controversial. It is a history of a relationship, rather than any particular state, and thus contains criticism of all actors, including those in the Stormont government.

About The Book
This book illustrates the richness of the Catholic priesthood by reference to the lives of ten men who, at different stages in history, committed themselves fully to follow Christ as labourers in his vineyard.

About The Book
This collection of essays celebrates Professor Thorlac Turville-Petre for his scholarly work in late medieval English literature, in particular for his contributions to editorial scholarship and Middle English alliterative poetry.

About The Book
Portrait of one of Cork’s foremost guerrilla leaders, who fought in the War of Independence and the Civil War and was a leading politician in the Fianna Fáil Government for two decades until his untimely death in 1957.

About The Book
Follows the military course of the Civil War in Kerry in August and September 1922, focusing on specific engagements and tactics.

About The Book
Declan Lynch recalls the great moments — Packie’s save and his leap into immortality; Pavarotti’s ‘Nessun Dorma’ and U2’s ‘Put ’Em Under Pressure’; Kevin Sheedy’s sweet strike; and all that drinking. Days of Heaven is full of hilarious accounts of how the Irish abandoned reality in that glorious time called Italia 90.

About The Book
The Rise and Fall of the Irish Pub is the story the journey from dark days into glorious sunshine and back again into darkening shadows. Since the Irish pub, like Ireland itself, is remarkably resilient and has prospered for more than two millennia, the author argues that it will undoubtedly be able to reinvent itself requiring further chapters in its long and glorious history.

About The Book
This is the first volume of a two-part collection following on from O’Leary’s “Gaelic Prose in the Irish Free State 1922-1939″.

About The Book
St Columbanus is widely regarded as the first of the great Irish Christian missionaries to Europe. Unlike his predecessor and (almost) namesake, Columba of Iona, Columbanus undertook exile for life as he set off to bring the particularly Irish form of monasticism to the continent.

About The Book
The Live-Long Code reveals health expert Dermot O’Connor’s proven programme to significantly improve vitality and increase your lifespan.

About The Book
As well as offering a series of exercises in deepening your skills in breathing, this book covers the constructive use of breathing in movement, healing, stillness and general well being.

About The Book
This memoir is of particular interest because, unlike most accounts of imprisonment during this period, it was written with propagandistic intent and was first published by The Talbot Press in 1917.

About The Book
Growing up in the suburbs of Dublin, Aidan Storey was the youngest of seven, a much-loved, happy child who enjoyed family life and all the usual rough-and-tumble games he played with friends in his garden. The only difference was, when the friends left and the garden was quiet, Aidan was visited by Angels.

About The Book
A leading detective reveals the truth behind the headlines of some of Northern Ireland’s most violent crimes. Alan Simpson was the senior investigating officer in the case of the controversial killing of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane. As he writes here, “from the outset there was suspicion of security forces collusion in the murder.”

About The Book
Francesca faced the dawn of the new millennium debilitated by ill-health and despair, without any hope or faith in her future. This was until the loving angels and spirits that she remembered watching over her as a young girl returned to save her in adulthood.

About The Book
Where Are You Really From? is a fascinating and powerful memoir about oneman’s struggle to establish his own identity and a moving tribute to the woman who risked everything to keep her son.

About The Book
Most people who write memoirs tell about the harm that has been done to them by others. But in this book the author writes about the pain and hurt she inflicted on her family. When she started writing, every word she put down was infused with shame and guilt. How could this devoted mother, whose whole world was her family, have left her five children?

About The Book
Eddie shows how, by taking control of your response to the new world order, you can prosper in unforeseen new ways. Energise is the essential starting point for getting to grips with the imminent age of scarcity.

About The Book
This book outlines the career of one of the most distinguished figures in Irish musical life in the first half of the twentieth century — a Bavarian organist, Aloys Fleischmann senior, whose son would later become Professor of Music in UCC.  Fleischmann senior came to international attention through his work with the North Cathedral Choir in Cork, which was regarded as one of the finest of its kind.  He prolific composer who wrote nearly 400 works, and he was a highly respected teacher whose students included Séan Ó Riada.

About The Book
Taking his backdoor as a starting point, Joseph Horgan goes on a quest to explore the natural world, bringing with him the words of Patrick Kavanagh and others – writers, poets, naturalists and scientists – who roamed and wrote about the Irish countryside.

About The Book
Drifting Under the Moon will considerably advance his reputation, the new poems revealing an increased awareness of craft, a broadening and deepening of his vision.

About The Book
Encountering Zoe contains new and selected poetry from Tom MacIntyre, one of Ireland’s most respected writers. MacIntyre is a dual-language writer who has written six other books of poetry, as well as many plays for the Abbey Theatre (Peacock Stage).

About The Book
In poems laced with the blackest humour Kevin Higgins spares no-one, least of all himself.  In this his third collection of poetry,  he takes the reader through the hubris of boom time Ireland and out the other side into a strange country where everything is suddenly broken again.

About The Book
‘Gerard Smyth has a painstaking eye for the telling detail… in his hands the impact of simplicity is extraordinary’
- Philip Casey
‘He may do for Dublin in verse what Joyce did for it in prose’ – Michael Hartnett

About The Book
Bertie Ahern and the Drumcondra Mafia takes the reader inside the organisation and examines how they not only established the most efficient electoral machine in the country but put ‘their man’ in the most senior political office in the state. It also details how, in his rise to power, Ahern acquired substantial sums of money while propagating the image of a man with no interest in money.

About The Book
The story of contemporary Ireland is inseparable from the story of the official republican movement, a story told here for the first time – from the clash between Catholic nationalist and socialist republicanism in the 1960s and ’70s through the Workers’ Party’s eventual rejection of irredentism.

About The Book
Contains a wealth of savvy information on airlines, tour operators, self-catering hotels, timing and middlemen: essential advice and tips to equip people to deal with the world of travel, which has changed so much over the past decade.

Eason & Son has signed a license with the Dublin Airport Authority to take over all of Hughes & Hughes’ stores in Cork and Dublin airports.

The DAA confirmed this afternoon that Eason will take over the five stores in Dublin Airport and two in Cork Airport.

As part of the deal it is ‘likely’ that 120 Hughes & Hughes staff will be kept on.

Instead of paying a fixed annual rent Eason will pay the DAA a percentage of turnover. Hughes & Hughes operated under a similar arrangement with the Authority.

Hughes and Hughes announced less than a week ago that it was going into receivership and closing all of its 13 stores, however all of its airport-based stores had been kept open by the Receiver trading with existing stock.

Eason said the new license to operate takes effect from tomorrow.

‘These are prestigious retail locations and we decided to take up this opportunity, despite the challenging marketplace at present’, Managing Director of Eason Conor Whelan said.

The new airport outlets increase the number of Eason stores to 54.

Eason said the Dublin and Cork airport bookshop licences were viewed as the ‘most attractive’ part of Hughes & Hughes’ business.

It said more than 20 million passengers passed through Dublin Airport last year, while 2.8 million went through Cork Airport.

Responding to the news, Managing Director of Penguin Ireland Michael McLoughlin said he was pleased that a ‘strong retailer who understands the business has taken over the stores.’

He said it is ‘good for Irish publishers and Irish books’ adding that he is happy to see that the stores would not be closed for any time.

Managing Director of O’Brien Press Ivan O’Brien said he was ‘delighted that the airport shops are staying in Irish ownership and that Irish cultural heritage will be preserved,’ adding that he was pleased that ‘Irish buyers who know Irish habits will be stocking the shops.’

Echoing those sentiments, Co-Founder of Liberties Press Peter O’Connell welcomed the move and the large number of jobs retained. He said it is a good result for Irish publishers.

However, sources within the publishing industry expressed some concern that the seven new outlets give Eason more dominance in the Irish bookselling market and would lead to increased pressure on trading terms.

2010003004DAAStatementOnEasonsAndHughes&Hughes

2010003004Eason&SonStatement

Review: An Irish Voice by Niall O’Dowd
NIall was on Pat Kenny Monday 1st March as well. Sounds like a fine read!
Read more…

Eddie Lenihan documentary on TG4
Eddie Lenihan is an amazing character
Read more…

March 11th: Irish PEN event on non-fiction
Worth going to this methinks!
Read more…

Sports History – Gold, Silver and Green: The Irish Olympic Journey 1896-1924
Fine review by excellent Ger Siggins
Read more…

Bookshops going Bust
Interesting post from Barbara Smith on the Hughes demise!
Read more…

Author storms children’s market
AJ will be speaking at The One Stop Self Publishing Conference in October
Read more…

Introducing The One Stop Self Publishing Conference – 16th October 2010
Read more…

Open Mikes and Places to hear Spoken Word
Interesting list of open mics and spoken word events!
Read more…

Jailhouse graffiti with a story to tell
A review of Liberties’ recent book on the graffiti in Kilmainham Jail.
Read more…

The writer responds
Colm Toibin responds to readers queries at the Irish TImes Book Club!
Read more…

Happy birthday, Mr Murphy
Interesting note on Tom Murphy!
Read more…

Hughes & Hughes: It’s Anything But Simple
Nice round up of some of the difficulties a Bricks and Mortar chain faces (if I do say so myself).
Read more…

Necessary ‘nagging’ in the fight for true equality
The Equality Illusion: The truth about women and men todayBy Kat Banyard Faber and Faber, 285pp, £12.99 Read more…

The Irish publisher whose printed pages keep turning in pace with history
The Captain sure was innovative!
Read More…

Seizing the Means of Production – Part 3
An excellent cap to an amazing series!
Read More

Sean O’Keeffe, Publishing Director, Liberties Press

Liberties Press, Robert Kirby of United Agents and Gerry ‘The Sheriff’ O’Carroll have developed an innovative arrangement for publication of Gerry’s debut novel, crime thriller The Gathering of Souls. Instead of the standard advance-plus-royalty structure, proceeds from bookshop and overseas-rights sales will be shared equally between the author/agent and publisher.

For Liberties Press, this arrangement enables the press to acquire a major title without having to pay a substantial advance. As a result, it can devote significant additional resources to sales and marketing efforts: the book will feature in all the big summer promotions run by the bookshop chains.

The deal also enables Liberties to tap into Robert Kirby’s network of international contacts. For Robert, it presents the opportunity to play a more active role in the publication of the book and to help Liberties, which he describes as an Irish Canongate, make a big initial impact in the fiction market in Ireland and the UK, with a view to selling rights worldwide and developing a successful series.

The Gathering of Souls, which has been endorsed by John Boorman, is a race-against-time serial-killer thriller, set in Ireland, featuring a conflicted detective and a colourful cast of gards, informers and innocent victims. Gerry O’Carroll’s memoir The Sheriff, about his time as a detective on the mean streets of Dublin, sold 20,000 copies in Ireland; everyone involved has high hopes for The Gathering of Souls.

Liberties Press, which was one of only ten organisations nationwide to see an increase in its funding from the Arts Council for 2010, will be publishing six fiction titles, a mixture of literary and commercial projects, in 2010, in addition to twenty non-fiction titles. Recent successes include two top-ten-selling titles: Get Your Tax Back by Aidan Kelly and My Father, The General by Risteárd Mulcahy, which is due out in mass-market paperback after the first two runs in trade paperback sold out.

Given the current unpredictable state of the market, even for big-name authors (witness the recent poor performance of celebrity memoirs in the UK last autumn), such profit-share schemes are likely to become more common as publishers, authors and agents find new ways of doing business in a recessionary environment.

Events On Thursday 25th February 2010

Event:Launch of Alive In Time: The Enduring Drama of Tom Murphy, New Essays edited by Christopher Murray
Venue: Abbey Theatre
Time: 5.30pm
Price: Free

An evening to present your own works or listen to the works of others.

Tickets (including Tea & Coffee) – €5
Please feel free to bring your own refreshments!!

Liberties Press has agreed a profit share contract with author Gerry O’Carroll whose previous title, The Sheriff, a memoir of his time as a detective in the Garda, was a bestseller in Ireland.

Sean O’Keeffe, Publishing Director at Liberties Press, said that the deal was a way to “take the risk away from the publisher” and that without innovative ideas like this, they may not have been able to secure a writer of O’Carroll’s stature.

The deal was agreed six month ago and will see Carroll’s new title published in May 2010. The agent who negotiated the deal was Robert Kirby at United Agents. Both Liberties Press and the Author will benefit from subsequent rights sales.

For more read The Bookseller story here.

Although Twitter (wikipedia entry) has existed since 2006 and despite the fact that many publishers worldwide have begin to use Twitter a s tool for selling, Irish Publishers have been slow to use the communication tool as a sales or promotional platform.

To date the most active publishing tweet stream has been Irish Language publisher Cló Iar-Chonnachta, Cork based Collins Press and Belfast based Blackstaff.

However, Poolbeg Press, having joined in May 2009, started sending out several tweets last week and Liberties Press have also begin to update their twitter stream with more regularity. The History Press, Ireland (the new name for Nonsuch Ireland) also began tweeting last week following the rebranding of their imprint and the launch of their new website.

For a full list of Irish Publishers on Twitter, follow Irish Publishing News’ list on twitter.