The white invitation simply announced that "You are invited to The Penguin Roadshow," along with details of time and place. Only the little Penguin logo, familiar from a million paperback spines, indicated that this event had to do with books - rather than antique birds, travelling nuns, or a Victorian-type circus. The next day, another invitation arrived, heralding the forthcoming Transworld Roadshow: roadshow season had evidently come to town.
So what are these roadshows? They serve a number of purposes. The majority of those invited are booksellers, to whom the publishers show their forthcoming leading titles for the rest of the year. Reps - who represent the different publishers throughout the year - generally only show a month's titles at a time when they visit bookshops. Also, they are showing to buyers, so many of those who work in bookshops wouldn't actually come in contact with them at all.
That's the work bit. The other elements of the roadshow are just as important: the PR end of things. It's also a social occasion, with food and drink being supplied as a gesture of appreciation, and it's an opportunity for booksellers to meet not only each other, but publishers and some of the writers they publish.
This year, there were only two roadshows in town; Penguin and Transworld. While Transworld have been coming to Ireland for some 20 years now, this is only the third year that Penguin have pitched camp here. Penguin held theirs first, in the Shelbourne. About 100 booksellers turned up for drinks, and to have the opportunity to meet authors Jamie Oliver, Zadie Smith, Lisa Jewell, Arabella Weir, Marianne Elliott, and Marian Keyes.
Walking into the room was like arriving at a party, and there was a definite sense of giddiness to the gathering. "It's almost like the social season," Eoin McHugh of Hannas joked. "So I suppose you could describe us as It People!" giggled Esther Ebbs, of the Dublin Bookshop.
"The Penguin Roadshow is always well attended. They're well known for spending money on booze," remarked Merlin Haslam of the Dublin Bookshop sagely.
At the beginning of the 45-minute audiovisual presentation in an adjoining room, all the authors were invited to stand up as they were formally introduced. Then the lights went down and the medley began. Medley it was: as the lead titles for the rest of the year flashed up on the screen, along with a snappy voice-over description, we heard all kinds of music, ranging from the theme from Star Wars, to Santa Claus Is Coming to Town and Bare Neccessities. It was a bit like watching old-fashioned ads on the cinema. There was a lot of giggling at various points, but people certainly seemed to be listening intently.
Back in the main room, where everyone once again made a beeline to the bar and helped themselves to the trays of sandwiches which were circulating the room, the organisers were trying to assess the success of the presentation. "Ireland represents 10 per cent of our market," said Joanna Prior, publicity director for Penguin, who had already been to a couple of roadshows in Britain earlier in the month, in Leeds Manchester. "Bookselling seems to have more status here. People stay in the job. They're always moving on in Britain. So we can really build up contacts with sellers here."
Lisa Jewell, author of the bestselling romantic novel, Ralph's Party, agreed with this, having been on some other roadshows in Britain for Penguin. "Dublin seems to have more career booksellers. In Manchester, for instance, booksellers all seem to be beautiful young people, just swanning along in the job for a while and then moving on. There was a much more transient feeling there. It definitely feels different here."
A few days later, Transworld held their roadshow at the Davenport. If the Penguin set-up had felt like a giddy party, the atmosphere at
Transworld was like a jolly family wedding. Men in suits held up the free bar. Several round tables were formally laid with candelabras, and flowers. Women teetered around in high heels, and a smell of cooking lurked behind the partition wall. I found myself looking round for a band: there was a sense that the evening would end with booksellers dancing cheek to cheek.
Transworld chose to use a live presentation. Slides of book covers were projected onto a screen and two people took it in turns to talk about a selection of forthcoming titles. While a more intimate approach than Penguin, almost every book was described as "stunning" or "real gems", or "expertly crafted". When not gems or expertly crafted, they were either "a real treat" or "brilliantly written," which had the unfortunate result of making them all sound exactly the same. Colm Toibin was rechristened Colm Toybin: a small mistake of pronunciation, but a careless one, given the audience.
Afterwards, everyone sat down to a fine meal, which featured Parma Ham, and a Greek Lamb dish. An author was allocated to each table. Among the writers there were Glenn Patterson, Gemma O'Connor, Patricia Scanlan, Kate Thompson, and Mo Hayder.
"It's expensive to do this, but expense doesn't really come into it," explained Garry Prior, sales and marketing director. "This is our opportunity to excite booksellers about key forthcoming titles, and to entertain them and thank them for their support."
So what do booksellers think of it? Eimear Hegarty, Mary Knight, and Rob Kelly all work at Hughes & Hughes. "It makes you feel more involved. We do appreciate being asked to come," offered Knight. "To be honest, I've never seen a rep. I wouldn't deal with ordering," said Kelly, "so it's great to hear about all these new titles and know what'll be coming in." There is a staff library in the bookshop, and they all say this is invaluable for keeping in touch with the titles customers are looking for.
Writer Glenn Patterson used to work in a bookshop himself, and has been at roadshows both as bookseller and writer. "The crucial thing is for the publishers to meet the booksellers, rather than the other way round," is his belief. "It keeps them in touch with the book-buying public."
And at the end of the evening, in true party style, as with Penguin, everyone was given a goodie bag to bring home, which contained several proof copies of major new titles.
