May – Finding Common Ground and Independent Publishing

I just finished helping a friend with the publication of Bergin's Quest by J. M. Harpur. I highly recommend this Irish and European historical thriller.

I covered the Royal Dublin Society’s second Finding Common Ground Festival. This brought together university lecturers, students, farmers, foresters, artists, film producers, horse lovers, builders and environmentalists and more. Two Awards lunches were featured to celebrate the most sustainable enterprises and communities.

One talk I attended featured innovations in design and construction, and re-use of materials such as timber, farm waste and brewers grains.
Noting the contents, my comment was:
“I used to have horses. A few years ago I saw a programme on District Heating, set in Denmark. This showed them shoving a beautiful, big, golden, round bale of straw into the maw of a giant furnace.
I’m thinking, my horses would love that straw. This was a cold and wet year in Ireland, so you can imagine the price of straw, and cattle would use it too. On brewers’ grains – that’s all we have left to feed, now the beet pulp has gone. We used to have sugar beet pulp, but there’s no sugar beet anymore, so all we have is brewers’ grains. Whatever you are burning, or you are digesting, you are making life harder and more expensive for somebody else. Can we burn plastic, as waste to energy? We have too much plastic, we don’t want it, can we burn it?”

I got one answer that yes, very little on farms was actually waste, so I was right, and another that the Ringsend WTE plant would burn plastic mixed with other material, and had been piped ready for DH when that would be approved and installed. The professor who had developed a way to make biscuits out of brewers’ grains didn’t reply.

I also attended a talk about film and arts generally as to environmental issues. There is a rating called ALBERT which assesses the carbon cost of transport of people and equipment to film locations (so hiring when you arrive is better) and the green or dirty energy used to make the film, the food eaten on set, etc.

Hearing a mention of hidden artists and how we might give them prominence, I asked a question.
“On hidden artists - I’m an independent publisher. I’ve nineteen books out. How this works is, I write the book, I edit it, I make the cover, I publish on Kindle, I set the price, Amazon gives me 70%, I do the marketing. But I can’t enter book awards, because you have to have a dinosaur publisher and a wholesaler. Can your colleges hold an award that independent publishers can enter? It needn’t be for money. A prize could be two nights B&B in the Burren or on the island, and give a talk to a class to pass on your skills. I would love that prize, I would enter that in a heartbeat. There is great prestige attached to book awards, and kudos even from being a runner up in an award. So you can you do this?” The lecturers were interested and one of them later invited me to view her college’s exhibition which would be on display through the summer.

With better weather, May brought more events, and I’ll report on those next time. I have also continued to assist other independent publishers to get started.

Amazon’s paperback pricing had to rise recently due to the increased cost of paper. I sell only a few paperbacks but I know they are often given as Christmas presents, usually to children, so I keep the cost as low as possible. Here is a Kindle giveaway, and don’t forget you can read using a free Kindle app on a PC or Android phone.
A Dog For Lockdown will be free, 29th May – 2nd June.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08H2C4K46

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08H2C4K46

If you need another store’s link, ask below in the comments box. If you enjoy a book, please consider leaving a rating or review to help other readers.

You can follow me on Linked In to see some of my photography. Catch up with my news, events and Young Adult Page on my website. You can also sign up for my seasonal newsletter. I have a page devoted to helping writers publish independently.
www.clareobeara.ie