 Clé Newsletter November 1998 |
Clé Newsletter November 1998 |
| 1. Copyright The government has announced its intention to pass the Copyright Bill as soon as possible, perhaps as early as March 1999.
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| 2. Library Council Orla Martin attended the Library Council Conference, New Departures: Developing a National Policy for Libraries and Information Services. 147 delegates attended this conference from the public, academic and private libraries. Orla also attended the workshop on Supporting Public Policy: The role of Libraries and Information Services in supporting social, cultural and economic development. She raised the issues of Copyright obligations in relation to electronic material and cited the imminent changes of the new Copyright Act as an incentive to provide training and awareness raising of copyright by the librarian community and asked that both be included in any National Policy document. £1000,000 extra for book purchases! The Minister of Trade Enterprise and local Development, Mr. Noel Dempsey T.D announced at the Library Conference that he was making an extra one million pounds available to public libraries for the purchase of extra stock. Orla Martin will be writing to Minister Dempsey to ask him to consider making allocation dependent on a minimum purchase of Irish published books. It would be a great help if member publishers could do the same. There are precedents for this in other countries and any background information or copies of the Clé letter can be obtained from the Clé office. Next year will see the launch of the National Policy, and it could be a propitious time to push this idea. |
| 3. Clé:1998 Survey of the Irish Book Publishing Industry All members will receive a copy of the findings of this survey. The response rate was high and Clé would like to thank everyone who replied. Some noteworthy facts emerged*
(Unless otherwise stated all comparisons relate to figures in Coopers & Lybrand's Report) |
| 4. World Book Day 1999 The first meeting of the Clé / B.A World Book Day Committee was held on October 19th with Tom Owens, Judi Hanna, Michael O'Brien, Peter Thew and Orla Martin attending. It's proposed to include a member from the Northern Ireland B.A on this committee. There are ongoing negotiations with the newspapers to include £1 vouchers for the duration of the promotion. Vouchers will be distributed to schoolchildren and a list of Irish published titles will be offered to booksellers at significant discounts. This list will be selected in consultation with the booksellers on the World Book Day Committee. Clé plans to produce point of sale material, posters, perhaps a brochure and to take out advertising. Participating publishers will fund this. Clé staff will carry out all the administration. In addition to this, Clé will part fund a national PR campaign aimed at raising public awareness of World Book Day. |
| 5. CLE/BA Training Seminar on Euro This seminar was held on November 4th in Arthouse, Curved St. Temple Bar. Eighteen delegates attended from thirteen member companies. The speakers were Dermot O'Dwyer, Gill & Macmillan, Gordon Bolton, BA, Ann Troy, AIB. Feedback from delegates was positive on the whole, with many asking for further information on the countdown to the Euro. The Clé/BA Code of Practice as well as further information from Forfas and AIB is available from the Clé office. The Euro Symbol can be downloaded free of charge from the Microsoft website in three commonly used fonts: Times, New Roman, Courier and Arial. http://www.microsoft.com/typography/fontpack/default.htm Useful websites for further information on the Euro h The website of the Euro Changeover Board of Ireland (ECBI) contains information on Ireland's national changeover plan for the Euro, a "frequent questions section", as well as Euro articles and legislation. See http://www.irlgov.ie/ecbi-euro
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| 6. Frankfurt 1998 The following companies were on the Clé stand at Frankfurt this year: New Island, Lilliput, Mentor, Appletree, Wolfhound, Blackstaff, Mercier/Marino, Brandon/Mount Eagle, Ireland Literature Exchange, Cork University Press/Attic Press, Clo Iar Chonnachta and Four Courts Press. Business was busy but as always with Frankfurt, it's probably too early to tell. The Irish party was very well attended on Friday and kindly sponsored by Colourbooks. All three companies using the Clé unit expressed an interest in returning. Glorybook-Economist Booksellers-Publishers specialise in the field of academic titles on management, marketing, economics, finance and all the other scientific fields. They are interested in receiving catalogues on these subjects from Irish Publishers. Contact: Eleni Giannoulea, Marketing Department, E-mail glorybook@hol.grü |
| 7. ILE French Rights Seminar ILE hosted a rights seminar for Irish publishers interested in selling rights for adult fiction in France on Friday, November 6th. The seminar was addressed by Tony Cartano, Rights Director, Albin Michel and by Jean Mattern, Gallimard, formerly of Actes Sud. These French experts described the current state of publishing in France with a particular emphasis on foreign rights sales and purchases. Some interesting facts emerged: approximately 25% of the overall budget in both houses is spent on translations. In the case of Albin Michel this is generally split equally between literary and commercial fiction, popular fiction. The books, which these publishers are interested in acquiring from Irish authors, are usually in the field of literary fiction, although occasionally Irish interest sells as well. The point was made that much of their dealings was exclusively with agents and that they in fact knew very little of Irish publishers or their lists. If anyone wishes to send catalogues to the Clé office, I will send a joint mailing on Monday 23rd. For further information, please contact the Clé office. |
| 8. IBBY Ireland Clé is to donate £500 as a seed funding to IBBY Ireland. The launch of this new and exciting opportunity for international networking and the showcase of Irish Children's Books will take place in Iveagh House, St. Stephen's Green on November 25th. All Clé members are cordially invited. RSVP Clé office at 01- 6070 642 or e-mail cle@iol.ie At 8.00 p.m. on the same evening, Leena Maissen, Director-General of IBBY, will speak on the IBBY Honour List at the Church of Ireland College of Education. |
| 9. Graph Magazine: Lar Cassidy Memorial Issue Irish Cultural Review. Publication date: 10 November. Price: £5 Politics, pop and poetry; cultural history and criticism; Brazil, Tipperaryand Katmandu - Graph's latest issue reaches far and wide, displaying thisgroundbreaking magazine's characteristic eclecticism. Contributors includeJOHN BANVILLE, SEAMUS DEANE, MICHAEL LONGLEY and FRANK McGUINNESS in a special feature celebrating the enthusiasms of Lar Cassidy, the Arts Council's Literature Officer who died prematurely last year. THEO DORGAN on the 'transcendent' magic of Rory GallagherFRANK McGUINNESS on 'the wonderful and gorgeous' songs of DustySpringfield. RAYMOND DEANE admits 'I was a teenage unionist' in a moving political memoir. FINTAN VALLELY points his purist finger at 'Gucci-Paddy' cultural commercialism in Irish music, from the Afro-Celt Sound System to The Corrs. Available from bookshops and from the Irish Writers' Centre, 19 ParnellSquare, Dublin 1 Tel: (01) 8722014, fax (01) 8726282 email: graphmag@iol.ieSubscriptions:Ireland and UK= £10 |
| 10. Seeking Employment Freelance Editorial Consultant and Writer Junior position in Marketing or Publicity sought Gretchen Fremann seeks entry level post. Previously employed by Macmillan UK. Employment offered The O'Brien Press, one of Ireland's leading book publishers for adults and children require two new members for their successful team. Sales and Marketing Assistant |
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