An Emerging Opportunity

Selling into the US

For many years, an important concern for publishers in the Great Britain and Ireland has been that US editions of books (usually cheaper) not make their way into the domestic market. But in the ebook era, the shoe might be on the other foot as the opportunity has now arisen to get significant penetration of the US market without dealing with the costs and challenges of physical inventory.

This opportunity might well be more significant for independent publishers, often less likely to buy from agents and have territorially-restricted rights, and for agents who have reverted rights on backlist or control US rights that were never sold.

In fact, the opportunity might be greatest of all for Irish publishers, who not only often control global rights, but also publish on subjects of Irish interest that might find a substantial market among the US’s robust Irish diaspora, many of whom retain strong cultural and sentimental ties to the country of their ancestors.

Moderator

Eoin Purcell
Founder and Principal, Green Lamp Media

Eoin Purcell lives and works in Dublin, Ireland. He is a publishing industry analyst and commentator. He edits Irish Publishing News and runs Green Lamp Media a publishing consultancy for authors and publishers.

Panelists

Charlie Campbell
Agent, Ed Victor Ltd.

Charlie Campbell has worked at Ed Victor Ltd for six and a half years, both as a literary agent and handling film, TV and serial rights for the agency’s authors. He is a partner in the speakers bureau there and is also involved in the new publishing imprint, Bedford Square Books. Previously, he worked at Johnson & Alcock, and before that he was deputy editor at Literary Review. He is the author of Scapegoat: A History of Blaming Other People, which Duckworth will publish in September and Overlook next year in the US.

Jean Harrington
Managing Director, Maverick House Publishers and President, Publishing Ireland

Jean Harrington founded Maverick House Publishers in 2002, publishing non-fiction trade books for an Irish and international audience. Maverick opened an office in Bangkok, Thailand in 2006 to great success. It is the only Irish publisher to have taken this international approach.

She is the president of Publishing Ireland, the trade association for Irish publishers, and is also the Irish representative to the Federation of European Publishers.

Helen Kogan
Managing Director, Kogan Page

Helen is Managing Director of Kogan Page, one of Europe’s leading independent business and management book publishers. She is a member of the Publisher’s Association Council and the London Book Fair Executive Committee. Kogan Page publishers over 120 titles a year and has offices in Philadelphia and New Delhi.

François von Hurter
Founder, Bitter Lemon Press

Founder and partner of Bitter Lemon Press, London based, founded 2004. Independent publisher specialised in translated fiction, mostly crime novels. MA Theology King’s College-London, MBA Wharton-Philadelphia, LLB-Fribourg. Swiss National, London resident, one wife, four children.