LOOSE LEAVES

Vote for your favourite books of the year THE SHORTLISTS for the third Irish Book Awards were announced this week, writes Shane Hegarty .

The controversy around The High Society, about Ireland's cocaine culture by Justine Delaney-Wilson (above) did not prevent it making the Irish Non-Fiction Book of the Year shortlist. The hopefully uncontroversial awards take place in  Dublin's Mansion House on April 24th.

Digital downloads boost for Brock

As publishers continue to grapple with the potential of the internet, Random House this week announced that it was "thrilled" by an experiment in which one of its novels was made available as a free download for 72 hours. Beautiful Children, by first-time novelist Charles Brock, had already been described as "beautiful" and "compelling" by the New York Times, so the decision to give it away wasn't a case of throwing it on the digital remainders pile. Almost 15,000 copies were downloaded from the Random House site, with further downloads from Amazon, Powells and Barnes & Noble. The publisher's reasons were couched in jargon. "We're willing to sacrifice a few sales in the expectation that a wider sampling opportunity will build consumer awareness and more business for our booksellers and our authors," said a spokesperson. Brock's motivation was a little more straightforward. "I want people to read the book."

Catch a reading in the city

The inaugural Dublin Book Festival kicked off yesterday, and continues throughout the weekend in Dublin's City Hall on Dame Street. So there might still be time to catch readings from, among others, Patricia Scanlon, Kevin Barry, James Ryan, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill and Gabriel Rosenstock. Details are at www.dublinbookfestival.com.

Book sales up in a challenging market

The Irish Booksellers' Association Conference was held last weekend in Salthill, Co Galway, where Nielsen Bookscan figures showing an Irish sales rise of 16 per cent in the past year were greeted with surprise. John McNamee, president of the Irish Booksellers' Association wonders if it's due to increased retail space, because, he says, costs are greater than ever while margins continue to decline. Sellers he spoke to saw either rises or falls of 3 per cent last year. However, he says, the business sessions gave good advice on facing a challenging future. "Bookshops need to be destination shops. We need to wake up and realise that we're in a leisure industry."

McNamee believes that, following a weak Christmas list, the spring lists are "the strongest for years" and that there is still a "voracious appetite for biographies and current affairs", while sales of children's books are rising. The challenges for independent booksellers are as big as ever. "Independent booksellers have bibliographic skills just not available elsewhere."

© 2008 The Irish Times

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times