The Real Story: The Challenges Facing New Authors and the Myths Surrounding Book Deals
Paul Lynch, Gavin Corbett & Peter Murphy offer their Perspectives

For many years Gavin Corbett and Paul Lynch worked in The Sunday Tribune, both struggling through multiple rejections as they sought to get agents; until suddenly they found themselves in big London auctions that resulted in “big” deals with top literary houses.

It was in late 2011 when Gavin Corbett sparked a four-way bidding war, with a number of UK publishers vying for his second novel, This Is The Way. Such pursuing from big UK publishers are rare. However mere months later, Gavin’s colleague at the Tribune, Paul Lynch similarly found himself in a similar position, with UK publishers clambering to acquire his debut Red Sky in Morning. To much fanfare, both authors signed what might be considered "lucrative" deals.

Peter Murphy's 2009 debut novel John the Revelator (Faber & Faber) was one of the most acclaimed Irish debuts of recent years. It was nominated for the 2011 IMPAC literary award, and shortlisted for both the 2009 Costa Book Awards and the Kerry Group Fiction prize. Ealier this year, Peter's second novel Shall We Gather At The River (Faber & Faber) was greeted with similarly high acclaim. As a regular contributor to RTE's The Works, and a journalist whose work has appeared in in Rolling Stone, the Irish Times, the Sunday Business Post, and Hot Press magazine, Peter is well placed to comment on the media's role in promoting new work.

So what happens after signing the "big deal" given that success for a new writer is increasingly elusive. All too often new books are launched only to sink without a trace. Why is this? Are writers expectations unrealistic? Does the mainstream media do enough for emerging writers? And what about readers and their attitudes?

On the night, Gavin, Paul and Peter will read and compare experiences to tease out the challenges facing new writers and a sense of the climate into which they, and their novels are facing into.

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Doire Press launch of Galway Stories featuring readings by Mary Costello, Alan McMonagle
and Nuala Ní Chonchúir

By touching the pulse of some of the highways and byways of the city and county, the authors of these twenty stories bring into sharp relief Galway's human heart and soul in all its joy and sorrow, in all its aspirations and disappointments, in all its victories and defeats. It is, in effect, the alternate guide to this beloved city and county of ours, filling in all the gaps left out by the official guides, giving a real sense of what makes it the magical place it is to live in. Des Kenny

Galway Stories, featuring many of Ireland's best contemporary writers, takes the reader on an intimate tour of the city and county of Galway.The launch will feature readings three authors in the anthology: Mary Costello, author of 'Sleeping with a Stranger' (also featured in her collection The China Factory, Stinging Fly, 2012); Alan McMonagle, author of 'Women Drivers on Taylor's Hill (also featured in his collection, Psychotic Episodes, Arlen House, 2013); and Nuala Ní Chonchúir, author of 'Cri de Coeur' (also featured in her collection Mother America, New Island, 2012).

The collection includes stories byAileen Armstrong, Celeste Auge, Kevin Barry, Edward Boyne, Ger Burke, Mary Costello, Susan Millar DuMars, Lisa Frank, Julian Gough, James Martyn Joyce, Hugo Kelly, Mike McCormack, Alan McMonagle, Geraldine Mills, Conor Montague, Jim Mullarkey, Nuala Ní Chonchúir, Moya Roddy, Olaf Tyaransen and John Walsh.

Who am I, and more important, where am I and why? 'This Never Was My Town' is a series of prose and poetry readings that tries to evaluate the question of how much your identity is linked with the place you live in. Is a city adding to your personality, or does location have no influence whatsoever in our globalised and interlinked world any more? A group of expat writers from Dublin and other cities in Europe (patched in via screen) will read from their works and reflect on placelore, identity and if it's really possible to make a place 'yours'.

Presented by German Dubliner Marcel Krueger together with the Irish Writers' Centre and Storymap Dublin, each reading will feature a curated story from storymap.ie with added commentary by story/filmmakers Tom and Andy, and readings from both authors at the Irish Writers' Centre on Parnell Square and authors and poets patched in via Skype from all over Europe.

With Kit Fryatt (Aberdeen), Marcel Krueger (Dublin/Berlin), Christodoulos Makris (Dublin/Nicosia), Anna Byrne (Cork/Berlin), Nuala Ní Chonchúir (Galway/Dublin), Stu Anderson (Edinburgh) and Au Ngog Dunc (Dublin), more tba.

Who am I, and more important, where am I and why? 'This Never Was My Town' is a series of prose and poetry readings that tries to evaluate the question of how much your identity is linked with the place you live in. Is a city adding to your personality, or does location have no influence whatsoever in our globalised and interlinked world any more? A group of expat writers from Dublin and other cities in Europe (patched in via screen) will read from their works and reflect on placelore, identity and if it's really possible to make a place 'yours'.

Presented by German Dubliner Marcel Krueger together with the Irish Writers' Centre and Storymap Dublin, each reading will feature a curated story from storymap.ie with added commentary by story/filmmakers Tom and Andy, and readings from both authors at the Irish Writers' Centre on Parnell Square and authors and poets patched in via Skype from all over Europe.

With Kit Fryatt (Aberdeen), Marcel Krueger (Dublin/Berlin), Christodoulos Makris (Dublin/Nicosia), Anna Byrne (Cork/Berlin), Nuala Ní Chonchúir (Galway/Dublin), Stu Anderson (Edinburgh) and Au Ngog Dunc (Dublin), more tba.

Who am I, and more important, where am I and why? 'This Never Was My Town' is a series of prose and poetry readings that tries to evaluate the question of how much your identity is linked with the place you live in. Is a city adding to your personality, or does location have no influence whatsoever in our globalised and interlinked world any more? A group of expat writers from Dublin and other cities in Europe (patched in via screen) will read from their works and reflect on placelore, identity and if it's really possible to make a place 'yours'.

Presented by German Dubliner Marcel Krueger together with the Irish Writers' Centre and Storymap Dublin, each reading will feature a curated story from storymap.ie with added commentary by story/filmmakers Tom and Andy, and readings from both authors at the Irish Writers' Centre on Parnell Square and authors and poets patched in via Skype from all over Europe.

With Kit Fryatt (Aberdeen), Marcel Krueger (Dublin/Berlin), Christodoulos Makris (Dublin/Nicosia), Anna Byrne (Cork/Berlin), Nuala Ní Chonchúir (Galway/Dublin), Stu Anderson (Edinburgh) and Au Ngog Dunc (Dublin), more tba.

Who am I, and more important, where am I and why? 'This Never Was My Town' is a series of prose and poetry readings that tries to evaluate the question of how much your identity is linked with the place you live in. Is a city adding to your personality, or does location have no influence whatsoever in our globalised and interlinked world any more? A group of expat writers from Dublin and other cities in Europe (patched in via screen) will read from their works and reflect on placelore, identity and if it's really possible to make a place 'yours'.

Presented by German Dubliner Marcel Krueger together with the Irish Writers' Centre and Storymap Dublin, each reading will feature a curated story from storymap.ie with added commentary by story/filmmakers Tom and Andy, and readings from both authors at the Irish Writers' Centre on Parnell Square and authors and poets patched in via Skype from all over Europe.

With Kit Fryatt (Aberdeen), Marcel Krueger (Dublin/Berlin), Christodoulos Makris (Dublin/Nicosia), Anna Byrne (Cork/Berlin), Nuala Ní Chonchúir (Galway/Dublin), Stu Anderson (Edinburgh) and Au Ngog Dunc (Dublin), more tba.