Happy Friday the thirteenth, everybody. We’re busy in the office today working on an exciting project for which we need new and talented writers. So if you have a manuscript that’s looking for a good home, send it our way. (See ‘Submissions and Services’ for guidelines.)
Here’s a few links we enjoyed this week to start off the weekend:
Theatre of books: Have a look at this amazing bookshop in Buenos Aires. Swoon!
Deadwords: This website resurrects archaic English words with lovely hand illustrations, complete with definitions. My favourite is ‘woolbird’, meaning ‘sheep’.
Why Man Creates: Here’s a cool little video from 1968 about man’s impetus to create.
Strong Words: An interesting blog post discussing choosing the right words and tightening up your writing. (Don’t let the image put you off.)
Edit Where Edit’s Due: In case you missed it, here’s our article from earlier in the month on Catherine Caffeinated.
We’re off for the weekend to host a very exclusive and glamorous dinner party. We’re thinking of serving this for the main course. No? Enjoy the weekend.
The Importance of Being Edited: A Saltwater Guest Post for Catherine, Caffeinated
By Maeve | April 3, 2012
Catherine Ryan Howard is a self-published author from Cork who has become something of a self-publishing guru in Ireland, and so we were delighted when she asked us to write an article for her website, ‘Catherine, Caffeinated’, about the importance of having your work professionally edited.
It has always been a major part of our business’s ethos that self-published books deserve (and increasingly need) to be developed to the same standards as those that go through the traditional trade publishing route, so we were delighted to get involved.
To read Stephanie’s article, click on the link below:
I’m sure Stephanie wouldn’t mind me saying (I hope!) that it is a terrific read that explains why the editor is friend, not foe.
Catherineryanhoward.com is really worth exploring if you’re interested in writing and self-publishing. She has a wealth of experience in the field and some very interesting ideas about selling your book, and it’s great that she’s promoting the fact that after writing your work, it’s a false economy to scrimp on having it edited and making it the best book it can be.
If you’d like more information on editing, feel free to email us at info@saltwater.ie
Jack Kiernan’s book Is It Me? The Strange Case of Joseph Heffernan and Murder in Mullingar has received an overwhelming response and we’ve had a large number of people asking where they can get a copy of the book. Unfortunately, the book is not available in bookshops as the author is selling the books himself. However, if you email us (info@saltwater.ie) with your name and address we would be happy to put the author in touch with you.
Yesterday, we were delighted to read Joe Duffy’s glowing review of Jack Kiernan’s new book, Is It Me? The Strange Case of Joseph Heffernan and Murder in Mullingar, in the Mail on Sunday:
Joe Duffy: Mail on Sunday, 19 February 2012
‘A cold case that will intrigue and excite’
Every now and then a book comes along on a topic you have never heard of but turns out to be a riveting page-turner. This week I read a marvellous new work of Irish social and criminal history as Jack Kiernan investigates a forgotten miscarriage of justice. Just over a century ago, Mullingar man Joseph Heffernan was hanged for the murder of Mary Walker.
Kiernan has meticulously gone through the police investigation, witness statements and the court case and has found major flaws in the investigation. By the end of this beautifully produced book, the reader is left in no doubt that beautiful young Mary Walker was the victim of a heinous crime but that the crime claimed another life the day Joe Heffernan fell to the hangman’s rope.
Is It Me? The Strange Case of Joseph Heffernan and Murder in Mullingar by Jack Kiernan is published by Saltwater Publishing.
We’re very pleased to have worked with Jack on his first self-publishing venture and in producing a publication that does justice to all his rigorous research. With reviews like this, it is sure to be a roaring success.
Is It Me? will be launched this Thursday, 23 February, in the Greville Arms Hotel, Mullingar, at 8p.m. All are welcome, so if you’re in the area, do drop by to lend your support to this impressive and important book.
We’re delighted to announce the publication of another new title:
Is It Me? The Strange Case of Joseph Heffernan and Murder in Mullingar
by Jack Kiernan
On 4 January 1910, Joseph Heffernan was executed in Kilmainham Gaol for murdering Mary Walker in Mullingar. Since that date, there have been whispers that Heffernan had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time and that an innocent man was hanged as a result.
When Jack Kiernan decided to look through the statements and court transcripts from the trial, he discovered a number of strange inconsistencies and anomalies that led him to believe that there may have been some foundation to these rumours.
In Is it me? the author unpicks the evidence that sent Joseph Heffernan to his death and speculates whether his conviction was the result of a sinister plot to disguise the identity of the real murderer. He carefully retraces the events preceding the tragic and brutal murder of Mary Walker and suggests a shocking alternative version of events.
For more information, email info@saltwater.ie
Another new title … a bit of a pet project this time!
There’s a huge interest these days in family trees and genealogy in general, but when an individual or a family group gets all the information together (a seemingly never-ending process) it can be difficult to find a way to share it with everyone.
In recent times, my father and a number of other relations have taken an interest in our family’s history. As I listened to my father talk about all the generations of family and neighbours, all the connections and nicknames (Rector? It’s a long story…), and as I watched him accumulate lots of dusty, creased photographs, it occurred to me that it would be a terrible shame if this information went to waste or was lost forever.
And so I nagged and cajoled him to do something with it all.
The result is The Rectors: The Converys of Ranaghan.
The book is 68 pages long, with text, family trees and lots of photographs of Converys, from the early 1900s right through to the current generation of children. Our designers gave it a trade-standard cover and internal design, and the final product really does justice to the work that was put into gathering the information.
I am so proud of the final book, and it was such a joy showing it to the rest of the family at Christmas, who had no idea (most of them, at least) that it was happening.
Should the family decide to expand upon the book in the future, that will be very simple to do and they can order as many or as few copies as they like.
In any event, it is something that I will treasure forever.
If you’d like further information and prices for publishing your family history, email info@saltwater.ie
We’re compiling our Christmas wish list here, to help you all with the presents you’re planning on buying us. Here are a few gems we’re hoping to find in our stockings…
I, Partridge. We Need to Talk about Alan 
The blurb alone made me, in the words of Alan Partridge, quite literally laugh like a drain.
The Marriage Plot
We’ve been waiting ten long years since Middlesex for Jeffrey Eugenides’ next offering and, from what we’ve heard, it’s been worth the wait.
Dublin 1911
Catriona Crowe brings us the experience of Dublin in the year of the census through reports, illustrations and reports.
100 Facts about Sharks
If its anything like 100 facts about Pandas which brought us such ridiculousness as, ‘The panda smells through its ears and hears through its nose, technically making its nose it ears, and its ears its nose’, we’re all over this one.
President McAleese: Building Bridges
A nice way to mark the end of an era and the handiest present we can think of for your Mammies, Daddies, Grannies and so on. Foreword by Seamus Heaney.
This is …
This gorgeous series of books, illustrated by Miroslav Sasek, date from the late fifties and early sixties. A lovely gift for the young’uns that they will be happy to have when they’re older.
The ’80 Kid 
Hardbook, full-colour, and a steal at €20. Andrew Murray’s book is the perfect last-minute or Chris Kindle present. (Disclaimer: shameless self promotion.)
What are you hoping for?
A short while ago we did some work with the very talented Arlene Hunt on her new novel, The Chosen, which is out now. It was our first time editing fiction and it was a fantastic learning experience for us. Arlene bravely decided to publish the book herself, under an imprint called Portnoy Publishing and the finished product looks fantastic – what a cover!
Set in the USA, the book tells the story of a teacher who stops a shooting in her school and then catches the eye of a ‘hunter’ serial killer who decides that she would make excellent prey.
It’s a fast-paced and gripping read, and Arlene’s rigorous research is evident on every page. We’ve no doubt that it’s going to be a huge success.
Here’s Arlene speaking about it on TV3.
In other news, we recently carried out some transcription work for the Belfast-based Community Arts Forum, helping them to create a publication to celebrate their work, and that of New Belfast arts group, before the two amalgamated – now Community Arts Partnership. Entitled, A Coming of Age, it has since been published, and the design, by the very talented Ryan O’Reilly, is wonderful.
The ’80s Kid launch has been and gone and it was a great night. It’s in the bookshops now, and although we daren’t use the C-word so early in November, it really is an ideal Christmas present for friends and family who were born in the seventies and eighties.
Here’s one of our favourite pages to whet your appetite…
The ’80s Kid by Andrew Murray has arrived. Available in bookshops from early next week and from The ’80s Kid website.
The launch is being held at 7.45, Friday 28 October in Club Nassau. So after you’ve pencilled it into your filofax, get your ’80s gear on, backcomb your hair and come along. Be warned; there will be power ballads.
There are only 3 days left to vote for your favourite Irish Bookshop, as part of the 2011 Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards.
Although times are undeniably tough, it’s heartening to look at the nominees and see how many bookshops are still operating around the country.
Everyone has their own ideas about what they want from a bookshop. Personally I like the staff to be friendly and passionate, but I hate to feel watched. As Terry Pratchet has said, ‘A good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read.’ I love to spend time in the bookshops in art galleries, but if I’m looking for fiction, I like low lighting and quiet carpets.
We were talking about our favourite bookshops, and although we’re currently based in Dublin, we naturally began by thinking about those closer to home. We quickly settled on our two favourites:
Charlie Byrne’s in Galway. Labyrinthine to say the least, it is just what you expect from a bookshop, and holds readings and events throughout the year.
The Bookstore on North Street, Belfast. More trench-like, it has a remarkable system for the display – and indeed pricing – of its second-hand titles, and I’ve never come out empty handed.
Here in Dublin, of course, we are spoilt for choice, but if we were forced to choose, we’d go for:
Alan Hanna’s Bookshop in Rathmines, which seems to have one of everything and some of outstanding art and gift books;
Ravenbooks in Blackrock, where there is always a lovely atmosphere and a palpable love for literature;
… and last, but not least, Hodges Figgis, the grand dame of bookshops in Dublin, where it is so easy to disappear for the day.
I won’t bother your with a lecture on supporting your local independent bookshops (…you know that you should… we’ve got our eye on you…). But everyone has such a romantic idea of working in a bookshop and few understand what hard work it is, so it’s great to see them being recognised.
What’s your favourite bookshop? What do you want to experience – or hope to avoid – when you’re browsing for books?
You should take a few minutes to vote and you may even win €1,000 worth of electricity – win-win!
Paris bookseller, 1920
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