"Ireland! It's sounding like a great place!" you're saying to yourself. "I think I'll jump on a plane, revise my C.V. along the way to reflect how well I've applied my smarts in the domestic publishing industry, show how well that's worked out, and pick right up over in Dublin!" I've gotten a couple of e-mails from gullible bastards thinking along these lines. It's the plan I had coming over, too.
Ireland has a solid and growing industry, sure enough, but there are some facts that must be considered before you go investing real-life reliance in your dream. For starters, of the estimated 50 to 70 thousand books published a year in the UK and Ireland, only about 700 of these are from Irish publishers. The very largest houses in Ireland produce about 100 books a year, from a 1996 estimate. Compare, say, Harcourt Brace & Co. back in the States. I don't even recall how many thousands of titles we produced every year there. Irish sales, marketwide, in 1985 were £56.4 million. UK Publishers accounted for £38 million of that, with schoolbooks weighing in at £14.3 and trade books (what people think of as books-- Bibles, cookbooks, novels and so on) a measly £6.1 million (The Market for Books in the Republic of Ireland, Dr. F. Fishwick, 1985). US and UK publishers are able to offer sums higher than that £6.1 million to best-selling authors for a single work. These considerations make Ireland an inherently different ballpark.
It's impressive to note that each of these small Dublin publishing houses accomplishes everything they do with pretty much single-digit staffs. Filtering slush, pursuing notable figures, acquiring talent, editing, selecting a printer for cover and text, marketing, distribution, finances--- There's some quote about the industry being characterized by overwork and crap pay. I recently purchased a domestically-produced book called Ganglands by Paul Williams, a true-crime anthology by crime correspondent Paul Williams tailing hot on the heels of his earlier The General which John Borman made into a film starring Brendan Gleeson and Jon Voight. True, there were typos in Ganglands and a few other areas for improvement were noticeable, but on the whole the book was of completely acceptable quality and was (I understand) quite successful for O'Brien Press. Poolbeg produced one my girlfriend liked called She's The One, by Cathy Kelly. Once again, in content, presentation, and general quality the book equals with its Irish origins anything produced by an English or US publisher with entire departments to devote to every aspect. An important "for instance": a kid can walk into any Eason's and become engrossed in well-written and wonderfully illustrated children's books all about Irish legends, paperbacks on their local sports heroes, and adventures in familar settings.
This is very impressive, looking back and seeing how things used to be. Thirty years ago there were only a handful of titles being produced domestically, and those were generally religious titles or overreprinted Irish literary classics clapped between bland covers. In the 60's and 70's Gill & Macmillan and others gradually began to produce works popularly appealing, and an infant industry to put the Irish accent in print began to struggle for survival. The industry fluctuates every year, nurtured by Clé, the Irish Book Publishers' Association, and documented by the excellent Books Ireland magazine. The authors have their own professional body, too, the Irish Writers Union, and weekly bestsellers lists are compiled by the Irish Book Marketing Group. Though unable to match the megabucks which the US and British publishers offer to the best local talent like Roddy Doyle or Maeve Binchy, and almost certainly unable to offer any unconnected outsiders a position, the Republic here has its circle who provide well for its growing market. You've got to hand it to them, and pick yourself up a good read.
- Added to the DFA Guide, March 1998.
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