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 the rights to his the story of a young Irish traveller. Eventually Fourth Estate obtained the rights to Gavin’s second novel, the beguiling and innovative This Is The Way.  Such instances of relentless pursuit of a new Irish writer from big UK publishers are rare. However just 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 novel - his gripping 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 was one of the most acclaimed Irish debuts of recent years. Published in the UK and Ireland by Faber & Faber and in the US by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, it was nominated for the 2011 IMPAC literary award, shortlisted for the 2009 Costa Book Awards and the Kerry Group Fiction prize. Ealier this year, Peter's second novel Shall We Gather At The River was published by Faber & Faber to 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 once you've bagged that deal? Well for a start, there are many misconceptions floating around concerning the Holy Grail that is the "big book deal", and here are just some: "You've hit the jackpot buddy! Doors are going open for you and all and sundry will cheer you on as you stride towards the pantheon of literary greatness!" Hyperbole aside, the truth is far removed from this. For sure it affords a writer the access to an audience, the opportunity to develop their work and push themselves to excel at their craft. But writing is a serious business and a book deal is only the start of it - the deal itself pertains to years of work and makes huge demands on the writers. Also, there's a circuit to be worked and the promotion is a whole other skill-set that no one teaches you in advance. And let's not forget, these are unforgiving times for writers, publishers, booksellers et al. and 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 compare experiences to create an overall sense of the challenges facing new writers and climate into which they, and their novels are facing into.

As well as discussing the burning issues, Paul and Gavin will both read from their own work.

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Paul Lynch was born in Limerick in 1977, grew up in Donegal, and is a novelist now living in Dublin. His debut novel Red Sky in Morning is set in Donegal and America in 1832.

In March 2012 in a six-figure, two-book deal, Jon Riley, Editor-in-Chief at Quercus, acquired Red Sky in Morning after an auction in which six leading UK literary publishers were bidders. The deal was for UK and Commonwealth rights. Quercus will publish in spring 2013. In April 2012, Little, Brown USA acquired the novel for publication in North America in November 2013. The novel was also recently acquired in a two-book deal for translation by Albin Michel in France.

Paul Lynch’s achievement in his tragic first novel, Red Sky in Morning, is to forge an epic historical story that thrills and moves his readers even while it is forming a hold on their minds with the power of myth. He writes with sensitivity in a language which is beautiful, dangerous and poetic by turns, of a world in which people face cold indifference in a merciless universe. This marks the beginning of an extraordinary career by a major new novelist. Jon Riley

Paul was the chief film critic of Ireland’s Sunday Tribune newspaper from 2007 to 2011, when the newspaper folded. He had previously served from 2004 as the paper’s deputy chief-sub editor. He has written regularly for The Sunday Times on film and has also written for The Irish Times, The Sunday Business Post, The Irish Daily Mail and Film Ireland.

He has appeared regularly as a film critic on Irish radio and is a member of the Dublin Film Critics Circle. In 2011, The Irish Times called him one of Ireland’s “finest film writers”. He has recently finished a second novel titled KINGDOM. It is set in Donegal in 1945.

Gavin Corbett was born in the west of Ireland and grew u in Dublin, where he studied History at Trinity College. Having lived in New York, Gavin now lives in Dublin. In an impressive feat of imposture Gavin locates the voice of the "other" in his second novel This Is The Way - that of Anthony, a modern day traveller born to a powerful myhtic inheritance. Gavin is the winner of the  Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award 2013 for his second novel, This is the Way.

A troubling, mysterious, demanding and beautiful book, narrated in a voice unlike any I have encountered in fiction. Corbett knows what he's doing: every sentence throbs with power. Emma Donoghue

Honest, funny, brave, unsentimental. Colum McCann

A wonderful new voice. Joseph O’Neill

Peter Murphy is a writer from Enniscorthy in Co. Wexford whose 2009 debut novel John the Revelator was one of the most acclaimed Irish debuts of recent years; hailed as 'an absolutely wonderful novel' by Colm Toibin and 'a brilliant book' by Neil Jordan. Published in the UK and Ireland by Faber & Faber and in the US by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, it was nominated for the 2011 IMPAC literary award, shortlisted for the 2009 Costa Book Awards and the Kerry Group Fiction prize.

Earlier this year, Peter's second novel Shall We Gather At The River was published by Faber & Faber to similarly high acclaim.

As a journalist, Peter's has been published in Rolling Stone, the Irish Times, the Sunday Business Post, and Hot Press magazine. He is also a regular guest on RTE's arts review show The Works. His short stories have been included in the Faber anthology New Irish Short Stories, edited by Joseph O’Connor and the New Island anthology Silver Threads of Hope edited by Sinead Gleeson. He has contributed liner notes to the remastered edition of the Anthology of American Folk Music.

Praise for John The Revelator:

A startling first novel…Murphy has created a cast of characters that will live long in the memory.
Irish Independent

This spook-filled Irish landscape, rendered with gouts of blood-red humour, is entirely his own. Guardian