BooksNI

According to an article on CultureNI BooksNI.COM is finally  being launched this evening. Back in March I'd blogged @ YeWhat.Biz

I'd been asked to speak at a networking event for book publishers in Northern Ireland,which I didn't do. I'm that shy and retiring and feel comfortable hiding behind a big blog-wall. I'd also noticed more and more press releases and invites to numerous events in my inbox from book publishers. To add to this it seemed to me there was a gap that wasn't being filled, interesting information about books and authors from N.I. that could be shared. So I started http://www.BooksNI.Biz

At the time when I chose the domain name BooksNI.BIZ I noticed that the domain name BooksNI.COM directed me to  The Colourpoint Group's website I then set up BooksNI.BIZ  I've since discovered that the Colourpoint Group also own booksni.org, books-ni.org, books-ni.com and booksni.co.uk. BooksNI.NET  however has  been registered by another Northern Irish publisher. I was in discussions with the team from Colourpoint to see if we could merge this blog BooksNI.BIZ with their site and was made an offer to write

One article 300-500 words a month, topic TBD

One column of review shorts (five or six pars each of four to six books – bni to provide the review copies)

One column of literary news briefs (two to three pars each, as many as you deem appropriate)

I had to refuse this as I didn't have the time to do it and I believe that blogging about books is more of a natural process and not that regimented as suggested.I also refused to work for Colourpoint/BooksNI.COM because as a book buyer I would find it hard to buy any books from a site that when you search for one of the top Northern Irish authors there aren't any books written by that author. When I met the team about a month ago I pointed out to them that if you search for Colin Bateman on their site the results come up include a book by Ivan Martin entitled David Healy: The Story So Far. A month on they haven't corrected this. There were other 'site problems' that'd make me hesitant to buy from the site I'd noticed and told them about then, which I haven't had time to check to see if they've fixed yet. I'm sure there are even more booksni domain names available and would love to see more people buying them up and using them to promote books written by people from Northern Ireland, published in Northern Ireland or books that are about Northern Irish topics.

To add to the intrigue the Arts Council have recently pointed out on their website...

Books NI, a company comprising four Arts Council-funded organisations (Blackstaff Press, Guildhall Press, Lagan Press, Verbal Arts Centre), is in the process of developing a ‘book space’ and common branding initiative for NI-published books, with the help of a grant from the Creative Industries Innovation Fund. Further information can be obtained from James.Kerr@verbalartscentre.co.uk.