The publishing business is a hard one. Low profit margins and difficult battles are the general order of business. Mr Steve Mc Donogh has just entered the market with a new company, Mount Eagle. He is a co-founder of the sadly defunct Brandon Books, and his friends have commented on the fact that both publishing houses were named after mountains. "You seem to have moved mountains," said one wag.
The new house has arrived with a certain punch. At Brandon, Mr Mc Donogh was editorial director and edited the first offerings of Gerry Adams and Alice Taylor. As he puts it himself, he is now flying solo - a daunting task - but he is happy to be entering the fray with two good titles.
Alice Taylor's To School Through the Fields struck a chord with the Irish people because its simplicity was infectious.
She will join the new house with A Woman of the House, her first novel, set in the 1950s, depicting the loves and sorrows of people living close to the land.
There was a much darker side to the Gerry Adams story. As the author of Before the Dawn, he will be read again because of his new offering, An Irish Voice: the Quest for Peace, his firsthand account of the peace process and the tortuous road it has travelled.