Madam, - Steve McDonagh (July 7th) correctly addresses some of the problems facing Irish publishing and the "massive decline in the market for serious books" due in part to growing interest in celebrity and scandal and the general dumbing down of Irish culture.
The major threats and challenges facing Irish publishers and Irish writers are demonstrated in the research paper "Is Literary Publishing in Crisis?" published by CLÉ - the Irish Book Publishers' Association . We are in a climate where 85 per cent of book sales are of British-published books and it is increasingly difficult to get Irish books into bookshops in the first place.
Long-term under-funding of literary publishing and a lack of government supports for the industry have hampered efforts to enable it to compete with the seemingly limitless pockets of our neighbours.
However, CLÉ is working on positive solutions to the problems facing our sector. We have built up a strong working relationship with the Arts Council, Bord na Leabhar Gaeilge, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and Foras na Gaeilge.Alongside strategic networking and lobbying, CLÉ has developed practical projects to bring Irish books and writers direct to the general public. The "Leabhar Power" campaign has demonstrated the diversity in Irish-language publishing, while CLÉ's direct selling and marketing activities, such as at the RDS Christmas Craft Fair, continue successfully to showcase Irish-published books to a large, appreciative audience.
We are rolling out a major "Author/Editor Tour" as part of an experiment funded by the Arts Council and will be hosting 34 events in libraries across the whole island. Next March we plan to host the first International Dublin Book Fair in partnership with Dublin City Council.
Certainly, we face major challenges, but Irish publishers are addressing them creatively on all fronts, for, without a vibrant and diverse publishing sector what would the world think of us and how would we know what we think of the world? - Yours, etc,
SEAN Ó CEARNAIGH, President, ALAN HAYES, Vice-President, CLÉ Teoranta/Irish Book Publishers' Association, Denzille Lane, Dublin 2. www.publishingireland.com