• Penguin
  
• Hatchette Books
  
• Poolbeg
  
• New Island
  
• O'Brien Press
  
• Gill & Macmillan
  
• Pillar Press
  
• Transworld Press

• Sarah Franklin
  
• Alison Walsh 

Patricia Deevy

Penguin Ireland - Patricia Deevy

Patricia Deevy joined Penguin Ireland as Senior Editor after 14 years in journalism - chiefly with the Sunday Independent where she was a feature interviewer. She has also worked with the Sunday Times, the Sunday Tribune, Image Magazine, the Dublin Tribune and the Farmers' Journal. She is a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin and Dublin City University.

Patricia has a wide-ranging commissioning brief looking for potential bestsellers in fiction and non-fiction.

Ciara Considine

Hachette Books - Ciara Considine

Ciara Considine has worked in publishing for fifteen years, and has been publisher at Hachette Books Ireland (formerly Hodder Headline Ireland) since the division was set up in 2002. Throughout her career, she has worked with many of Ireland's foremost authors, in both fiction and non-fiction.

She was editorial manager at New Island for five years, and worked also with Oak Tree Press and Wolfhound Press.

She is interested in fiction across genres, particularly women's and general non-fiction.

Fiction authors include

Paula Campbell

 Poolbeg - Paula Campbell

Poolbeg, founded in 1976, has become one of Ireland's leading book publishers with bestselling novels in the fiction, children's books, romantic fiction, non-fiction and literary fiction genres.

As Ireland's premier popular fiction publishing company, Poolbeg is synonymous with discovering and nurturing new exciting writing talent and bestselling authors such as Maeve Binchy, Patricia Scanlan, Marian Keyes, Cathy Kelly, Sheila O'Flanagan, Colette Caddle and Melissa Hill who are all part of that huge Irish success story.

Paula Campbell is now the busy mother of triplets and is always looking for the next Irish sensation.

 New Island

New Island are happy to accept unsolicited manuscripts for consideration.

However, due to the high volume of submissions they receive it can take up to three months to respond, and unfortunately they are not able to comment individually on every submission.

Please keep in mind that they publish very few fiction, poetry and drama titles per year

If you wish to submit a manuscript post the first three chapters and a synopsis to:

They prefer to receive manuscripts on hard copy.

However, submissions can also be emailed.

Please note: New Island unable to return manuscripts unless they are accompanied by sufficient return postage in Irish stamps.

New Island’s long and prestigious list of authors include:

• Dermot Bolger
• Anthony Cronin
• Roddy Doyle
• Nick Hornby
• Cecelia Ahern
• Kate Thompson
• Aidan Higgins
• Joseph O’Connor
• Tom Mac Intyre
• Deirdre Purcell
• Christine Dwyer Hickey
• Maeve Binchy
• Mary Kenny
• Richard Downes
• Stephen Price
• Adi Roche
• Rose Doyle
• Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill
• Paul Durcan
• Philip Casey
• Maeve Brennan
• Noel Whelan
• Myles Dungan
• Glenn Patterson
• Sebastian Barry
• Brian Lynch
• Nuala O'Faolain
• Karen Ardiff
• Alice Chambers

The O'Brien Press

The O'Brien Press was established in 1974, evolving out of a family-run printing and type house, and over the past 34 years has established a reputation for quality and excellence in publishing for adults and children.

The O'Brien Press launched its first publication in November 1974. ‘Me Jewel and Darlin' Dublin’ written by Eamonn Mac Thomais, was published while the author was still in jail and was an immediate success. It has been reprinted many times, and has become a minor classic. Since then, The O'Brien Press has published over 850 books.

From the very beginning, The O'Brien Press has been committed to quality in writing, editing, design and illustration. This commitment has been recognised by numerous awards throughout the years including the Children's Books Ireland Bisto Book of the Year Award, the Dublin Airport Authority Irish Children's Book of the Year (Junior Category), awards from the Reading Association of Ireland and many others. This has also extended to awards from abroad -- The O'Brien Press is the only Irish publisher to have received the prestigious International Reading Association Award.

Today, The O'Brien Press is Ireland's leading independent publisher, with a diverse publishing programme covering many different areas including fiction, architecture, travel, humour, environmental issues, history, biography, classic literature, autobiography, business, folklore, travel & tourism, art, photography, poetry, sport, music, politics, true crime, reference books and much more.

Children's books, covering the complete age range from toddlers to teens, form a major part of the publication list at O'Brien. O'Brien children's books have garnered many awards, and continue to head the Irish Children's Bestseller List. One of the most popular books for young readers has been ‘Under the Hawthorn Tree’ by Marita Conlon-McKenna, published in 1990, winner of two international awards and No. 1 on the Bestseller list for two years. It has now been printed twenty-one times, including a Classic Edition hardback published in 2002, and has been made into a film. The other two books in the trilogy, ‘Wildflower Girl’ and ‘Fields of Home’, have also had great success.

The O'Brien Press accepts unsolicited manuscripts but please do not send them any original work, illustrations etc. Unfortunately, due to time constraints, they are not in a position to offer critiques of any unsolicited manuscripts they receive. For full submission guidelines see their website www.obrien.ie or contact them at

                                    12 Terenure Road East
                                    Rathgar
                                    Dublin 6
                                    Ireland

                                    Phone: +353-1-4923333

                                    Fax: +353-1-4922777

                                    General e-Mail ... books@obrien.ie

Gill & Macmillan - Fergal Tobin

Gill & Macmillan publishes a range of general interest fiction and non-fiction titles including many educational books. As well as handling its own published titles, Gill & Macmillan also handles the warehousing and distribution for a number of Irish-based publishers, including O'Brien Press.

Their publishing director Fergal Tobin was born in Dublin and educated at UCD, where he graduated in History and English. He is Publishing Director of Gill & Macmillan and President of CLÉ, the Irish Book Publishers' Association. His publishing career has been focused on non-fiction and has featured ground-breaking titles such as Yeates & Flynn, Smack: the criminal drugs racket in Ireland (1985) and Frank McDonald's The Destruction of Dublin (1985), one of the most influential books of its time. Among other major titles have been John Horgan's biographies of Sean Lemass (1997) and Noel Browne (2000), The Irish Times Book of the Century (1999) and The Encyclopaedia of Ireland (2003).

Pillar Press

Pillar Press, one of Ireland's newest independent publishers is run by husband and wife team Stephen Buck and Marian O'Neill and regards itself as a publisher of literary fiction, interested in authors who may not have immediate commercial success. Giving authors overall editorial control of their work, Pillar Press reads manuscripts with care and assesses them under a range of literary, not commercial criteria, producing a range of books with distinctive plain royal blue covers.

Marian is the author of two books ‘Miss Harrie Elliot’ and ‘Daddy's Girl’ (Townhouse 1999, 2002) and ‘Seeforge’ (Pillar Press 2005). Stephen has written several radio plays and is currently having a stage play produced by Red Kettle

Brian Langan

Previously Non- Fiction Editor with Poolbeg Press, Brian Langan joined Transworld Ireland as Assistant Editor effective in March 2010. He joins Eoin McHugh who has headed up the Irish operation of Transworld since its creation in 2007.

Brian previously worked as Senior Editor at The Liffey Press for six years. While at The Liffey Press he was Managing Editor of The Irish Book Review.

Eoin McHugh, Publisher of Transworld Ireland said “I am delighted that Brian will be joining us at Transworld Ireland. Brian’s considerable editorial experience and knowledge of the market will be a great addition to our efforts to grow and develop the company over the coming years.”

Transworld Ireland has published around 40 titles in its nearly three years of publishing.

 Sarah Franklin - Editorial Consultant

Sarah Franklin has been working in publishing for a decade, first in London,as part of the Pearson Group (which includes Penguin and the Financial Times), then in Seattle and now in Dublin, where she heads up the sales, marketing and PR function for Blackhall Publishing.

Sarah has covered sales, marketing and promotion across several continents and for all sorts of books, within big corporations and with smaller independent publishers.

Along the way she has also worked as a pre-editor for a literary agent (getting the manuscripts into submission-ready states), had her personal essays published in anthologies and newspapers, written a few features for some parenting sites and gone through the whole "author experience" from the other side by proposing and then compiling an anthology of her own.

She has run creative writing workshops in the US and has been asked to chair a panel in February 2009 at the annual CLE conference for Irish publishers.

  Alison Walsh - Editorial Consultant

Alison Walsh has been an editor of fiction and non fiction for twenty years. She has worked as a commissioning editor at HarperCollins, Orion and Gill and Macmillan Publishers, specialising in popular women's fiction.

Alison is currently an editorial consultant, working with a number of publishers and agents, helping authors and well-known personalities to develop their work. She has contributed to the Maeve Binchy Writer's Club and Mum's the Word anthologies and is a regular contributor to the books page of the Sunday Independent.