Canada's magazine of book news and reviews | Saturday, August 30, 2008
It’s always a challenge to stand out at BookExpo Canada’s trade show, so this year McGraw-Hill Ryerson decided to go big – literally – by featuring large blow-ups of some recent and upcoming titles at their booth. (Photo courtesy of McGraw-Hill Ryerson.)
From left: McGraw-Hill Ryerson’s Eastern Canada sales representative Sandra Jamieson, publicity manager Doug Blair, and director of marketing Claudia Hawkins.
An idea that’s been tossed around for the past couple of years got another push today, as BookExpo Canada owner Reed Exhibition Companies unveiled a proposal to move the convention and trade show to the fall.
At a morning meeting with exhibitors and association representatives, Reed management suggested several changes to the trade show: that it run in early September, that the program include public events with high-profile authors, and that the trade show be devoted to the public for one designated day. Reed plans to consult with the industry over the next month and a half before making any firm decisions, but if the mixed reaction on the trade show floor Monday was any indication, consensus will be a longshot.
In any case, the proposal does reflect a dissatisfaction with the current state of BookExpo Canada, on the part of Reed as well as exhibitors. BookExpo managing director Scott Temple says this year’s show has shrunk by 8% in terms of floor space, and that if the show shrinks another 10% to 15%, it will be a money-loser for the firm.
The proposal raises a huge number of questions, both philosophical and logistical; watch Q&Q Omni’s news page this week for a full report, with more details and reaction.
In the meantime, we want to hear from publishers and booksellers in the comments section of this post. Is a September show a good idea? What needs to change about BookExpo – or not? What do you get out of the show, and what do you want that you’re not getting? What would make the show more useful to you?
A Monday morning panel discussion at BookExpo Canada, dubbed “View from the Top,” drew more than 60 attentive spectators. Moderated by Globe and Mail arts writer James Adams, the panel included four Canadian publishing execs – Random House of Canada president and CEO Brad Martin, Simon & Schuster Canada president Kevin Hanson, House of Anansi Press president Sarah MacLachlan, and McClelland & Stewart VP and associate publisher Susan Renouf. The conversation touched on several big themes, from environmental concerns to pricing to e-books. Some highlights appear below.
On the supply chain
“If the consumers really understood the amount of energy involved in shipping all that stuff, they would be appalled.” – Sarah MacLachlan
“That’s the biggest waste in our business…. That’s one of the first things we have to tackle.” – Brad Martin (on mass-market paperbacks, which are destroyed if unsold)
On book pricing
“One of the things we’ve really failed at as an industry is selling the value of what we all collectively do…. We’ve done such a good job [over the past several decades] of selling the democracy of reading, and that it should be accessible to everyone, that we’ve kind of bottomed ourselves out of our own market. We have failed to market ourselves as something that is valuable.” – Susan Renouf
“The model that we use to sell books is sort of ridiculous…. We have to think about a new way of selling new books.” – Sarah MacLachlan (on the list-price practice)
“For the most part, we are a price taker.” – Kevin Hanson (on the Canadian market’s pressure to compete with the U.S.)
On e-books
“I think we’re getting closer to the tipping point where e-books become a much more powerful force in the market…. I don’t believe there will be a single platform. I believe there will be a number of competing platforms in the immediate future.” – Brad Martin
“I find if I work late on my computer at night and try to go to sleep, I can’t. Whereas if I read a book I go to sleep in two minutes.” – Sarah MacLachlan
“The challenge for all of us is that it means we all have to run parallel business models.” – Susan Renouf (on e-books complementing print books)
On the market
“I think there are more readers out there. We have to be optimistic about that.” – Kevin Hanson
“Diversity is supposedly a great thing, both in nature and in book publishing, so I’m not going to say there are too many books being published.” – Brad Martin
One of the highlights of Monday afternoon was a Prince-themed dance party at the Thomas Allen & Son Simon & Schuster Canada booth, complete with DJ and purple-shirted staff. Also below: Nino “Dreamboat” Ricci, Tina Burke, George Elliott Clarke, Emily Giffin, Adrienne Kress, Sam Hiyate, Martin Levin, the impossibility of throwing popcorn into a colleague’s mouth, and more.
One of the stranger booth offerings was a liquid tomato salad, served in a test tube, courtesy of chef Olaf Mertens and John Wiley & Sons Canada. Erin Kelly is in the kitchen lending a hand. Also in this set: Stan Sanderson, Ruth Ohi, Jay Ingram, interior design gurus Colin & Justin, Kathy Kacer, Matt Dunigan, and more.
Our Q&Q camera crew were on the BookExpo Canada show floor again on Monday. In this set: Giles Blunt, Jean Little, Lesley Choyce, Linda Holeman, the Lonely Planet free-for-all, Dorothy Hearst, Marc Côté, Tosca Reno, Frieda Wishinsky, and Rick Blechta.
In our final blast of Sunday photos, you’ll find: Libris nominee Jeremy Tankard, Jeffrey Alford, Anne Collins, the massive line for Giller-winner Elizabeth Hay (and a smiling Hay, too), one attendee’s four bags of loot, Mary Swan, champagne at the M&S booth, Sean Cullen, and more.
Sunday, we learned ten ways to creatively sign a book. In this set: Eric Zweig, CoraMarie Clark, mimosas galore at the Penguin booth, Stephen L. Carter, Liz Tuccillo, Linda Granfield, Austin Clarke, Jim Allen, Patrick Crean, Louise Penny, and more.
More photos from Sunday afternoon at the show. In this set: Michael Rose, the BookShorts touchscreen terminals, Edeet Ravel, Donna Morrissey, Rebecca Eckler (who rivaled Elizabeth Hay for the longest lineup at BookExpo Canada), John McFetridge, Robert J. Sawyer, and more.
Below, a selection of scenes from BookExpo Canada on Sunday. In this set: Rawi Hage, Jon Scieszka, Nadia G, Peter Robinson, Howard Shrier, Lee Henderson, Martin Levin, and more.
Quillblog reader – and regular Flickr pool contributor – Stephanie Fysh has posted a number of excellent photos from this year’s Book Summit.
To view all of her images, click here.
Booksellers must have been in a share-the-wealth mood when they voted on this year’s Libris Awards, as all three nominees for Author of the Year went home with a prize. It was Lawrence Hill who actually won Author of the Year, for The Book of Negroes (HarperCollins Canada), while Elizabeth Hay took home Fiction Book of the Year for Late Nights on Air (McClelland & Stewart), and Naomi Klein won Non-fiction Book of the Year for The Shock Doctrine (Knopf Canada).
When Lawrence Hill stepped to the podium, he made sure not only to thank his editor, Iris Tupholme, and the rest of the staff at HarperCollins Canada, but also Sarah MacLachlan and Lynn Henry of House of Anansi, which published his other 2007 release, the non-fiction work The Deserter’s Tale (co-written with Joshua Key). When accepting her award, Elizabeth Hay made a special thank-you to independent booksellers, reminiscing about approaching them to stock her work early in her career. “[You were all] very sweet to me as you declined to put it on your shelves,” she said, laughing. (Naomi Klein, wasn’t present for the awards, so Knopf publisher Louise Dennys accepted on her behalf.)
The Small Press Publisher of the Year award went, for the first time, to Cormorant Books, which won out over NeWest Press and Arsenal Pulp Press. It was the third nomination for the Toronto-based house, and publisher Marc Côté took the opportunity to make a point. “Larry Hill published his first novel with Turnstone Press, Michael Ondaatje with Coach House and House of Anansi, Liz Hay with New Star, Cormorant, and Porcupine’s Quill, and Joseph Boyden published his first collection of short stories with Cormorant. We are the presses who bring you the writers of tomorrow,” he said, to cheers from the majority of the room. “Pay attention to all of them.”
The award for Publisher of the Year also went to a first-time winner, Penguin Canada, which won out over Random House of Canada, HarperCollins Canada, and McClelland & Stewart. Company president David Davidar accepted the award with very little speechifying, simply thanking booksellers for the recognition and thanking his staff for all their hard work over the past few years.
Peter Waldock, who took the podium for the second year in a row to accept Distributor of the Year for his company North 49, was the only honoree of the evening to openly address the touchy subject of pricing. “I think we’re going to have a good fall,” Waldock said, after acknowledging the difficulties of the past year. “Hopefully publishers will get their prices in line, hopefully there’ll be a strong Canadian list, and hopefully we’ll all sell a hell of a lot of books.”
The evening’s only double winner was Scaredy Squirrel author Mélanie Watt, who took home prizes for Children’s Author of the Year and Children’s Illustrator of the Year. Watt was at home in Montreal last night, so award presenter (and comedian and author) Sean Cullen filled the gap by riffing for a bit. “BookExpo has the distinction of having the most expensive drink tickets anywhere. What a great combination: expensive drink tickets and an industry of alcoholics,” he said. Then he pointed to the floor and added, “And where can I get this carpet of bean pods and geometric squares?”
The evening’s other winners were children’s bookseller Mabel’s Fables for Specialty Bookseller of the Year; The Bookstore at Western for Campus Bookseller of the Year; CS Richardson for Book Design of the Year for The Frozen Thames (McClelland & Stewart); Dot Middlemass of Kate Walker & Associates for Sales Rep of the Year; Anne Collins of Random House Canada for Editor of the Year; House of Anansi Press for Marketing Achievement of the Year for their “Want a Bag With That?” promotion; and Victoria, B.C.’s Munro’s Books for Bookseller of the Year.
The Libris Awards for this year were handed out on Sunday evening. The Canadian Booksellers Association event was, like last year, hosted by CBC personality Bill Richardson. Our full report on the winners will be posted on Quillblog later this evening. Meanwhile, the photos below should provide a few tantalizing clues…
The BookExpo Canada trade show kicked off on Sunday with the usual glimmer of promise: a long line of attendees at the foot of the escalators, awaiting the (metaphorical) opening bell. Once those attendees got upstairs, though, they must surely have been struck by how … compact it all was.
The actual floor space devoted to the show is the smallest it’s been in years; publishers like HarperCollins Canada and Douglas & McIntyre were once nestled within the heart of the show floor, but are now close to its edge. And several individual exhibitors –including Simon & Schuster Canada, the Literary Press Group, and Random House of Canada – have noticably, sometimes dramatically, reduced their booth size since last year.
The closer confines no doubt contributed to a more crowded feeling in the show’s first couple hours (as did high temperatures within the Metro Toronto Convention Centre). As the day wore on, though, impressions were decidedly mixed. Many bemoaned the scant, bookseller-light crowds, and the general feeling seemed to be that the show was flat. Some, though, professed to be pleased enough with BookExpo’s energy, making the best of the chance to connect with frontline Indigo employees, some teachers and librarians, and a few indie stalwarts, among them Bryan Prince, A Different Drummer’s Richard Bachmann, and contingents from McNally Robinson Booksellers and Book City.
One effect of this year’s contraction has been to highlight more than ever the difference a free-food offering or author signing makes. Authors like Louise Penny (McArthur & Company), Elizabeth Hay (McClelland & Stewart), Rawi Hage (House of Anansi Press), Lawrence Hill (HarperCollins Canada), and Harlan Coben (Penguin Canada), drew huge lines, while lesser-known authors drew crowds, too. But that left many publishers struggling to generate in-booth activity between signings, especially since most of them now seem to be more … selective than ever when handing out advance galleys. (Even tchotchkes were in shorter supply this year, though that’s clearly a sensible trend.)
Traditionally, first-day BookExpo crowds are larger, so some awaited the Monday installment with trepidation. Also set for Monday was a meeting between exhibitors and show management to discuss the future of BookExpo – a subject everyone in attendance will undoubtedly have an opinion on.
Quill & Quire’s cameras roamed the trade show floor of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre on Sunday afternoon. Here are a few of the things we found on our travels.
Paupers Pub in Toronto’s Annex neighbourhood was host to the annual Raincoast/Publishers Group Canada shindig on Saturday evening. Huge platters of nachos and chicken wings circulated the room.
The Canadian Children’s Book Centre held its annual Gala at Montana Restaurant & Bar in downtown Toronto on Saturday evening. As with previous years, the vast space was packed wall-to-wall with all facets of the book industry.
Given the doldrums of the current bookselling market, Saturday morning’s BEC panel on creative ways to increase bookstore traffic proved timely. The owners of three successful independent bookstores – Doug Minett of Guelph, Ontario’s the Book Shelf, Joanne Saul from Toronto mini-chain Type Books, and Christopher Smith from Ottawa’s Collected Works – discussed the ways they have managed to broaden the role of their stores in their communities and increase sales by generating increased traffic.
Minett, whose store has been an innovator in the industry for 35 years, talked about how the Book Shelf has evolved over the years. “We opened in an area where there were no big-box stores or shopping malls at the time,” he noted. “But now we’re in an era of competition.” Early on in the store’s development, Minett envisioned the Book Shelf as a “hybrid” of bookshop and community hub, and the store has grown over the years to include a cinema, bar/café, and small art gallery space. An adjacent restaurant that once brought in $1-million a year in revenue was recently sold off to a private owner, though Minett now expresses some regret about that decision.
Expanding the store to include these other attractions and hosting high-profile events (such as a recent reading with novelist Salman Rushdie at a local church that drew a sold-out crowd of 700) helps draw additional traffic and sets the Book Shelf apart from its competitors, Minett said. “Right now, we’re in an industry that is declining… Maybe the way to halt the decline is to go back to those very fundamental ideas of excitement and engagement – not just [focusing on] the blockbuster [titles] or the big technology,” he told Q&Q following the talk.
Type Books’ Joanne Saul also stressed the need for adding value to a bookstore, noting that showcasing local artists at Type’s original Queen St. West location has proved popular with both area residents and other visitors dropping by the store. The art installations have also created an opportunity to drum up some press, which is crucial in spreading the word about new independent stores, Saul pointed out. “It gives us the chance for a press release and a launch,” she said, noting that Type has been featured on local and national radio, television, and newspapers regularly since it opened its first store two years ago. “The media coverage has been invaluable – the onus doesn’t fall on us [to advertise or promote the store]… Who’s kidding who? We can’t do it. Do we make money from the gallery? Not much. It’s not a highly profitable venture… but it raises our profile in the media and the community.”
Originally, at their Queen West location, Type had hoped to run children’s programming, but it didn’t seem to fit well with the neighbourhood, Saul said. Instead, Type will now carry that idea over to their new location on the Danforth (an extremely family-friendly neighbourhood).
Christopher Smith of Ottawa’s Collected Works discussed his store’s two key innovations – a move toward “virtual” author appearances and the creation of a coffee bar. He noted that it’s an increasing challenge for smaller independent stores to score high-profile author appearances, given that the big chains or literary festivals often scoop up the big names – and even then, many publishers are cutting back on author tours these days. So Collected Works decided if they couldn’t bring the authors to them, they’d bring the authors to their customers, via online technology.
Using the free video-conferencing software Skype, the bookstore held two events with Random House authors Julian Barnes and Peter Carey where the writers appeared via webcam from their respective homes in London and New York and were projected onto a screen in the store. Customers who purchased the authors’ new books at the events received copies with customized signed bookplates. While the turnout, about 50 people for each event, was “on the disappointing side,” the events did attract a noticeably younger crowd than the usual middle-aged customers who normally attend readings, Smith pointed out.
“You tell an author, ‘You can appear in a bookstore, and you don’t have to travel to go there,’ and they’re all for it,” Smith said. “Except for them being physically present, it’s exactly like any other event. And it’s pretty low-tech – no Margaret Atwood LongPen. Someone who’s about eight years old could set up the technology.” Aside from a computer, all a bookstore needs to set up such an event is a webcam, projector, and screen – an investment of about $500, Smith said.
Far more expensive is adding a coffee bar to a small bookstore, which only works if there’s no competition in the vicinity, Smith said. “If you have a Starbucks around the corner, it’s probably not such a great idea.” Set-up costs can be high – automated espresso machines cost in the range of $20,000 – so bookstore owners have to consider whether a coffee bar or similar café is going to add to their bottom line. Smith noted that the enterprise is working well for Collected Works, bringing in 13% of the store’s gross revenue annually.
“It’s a way to engage regular customers,” Smith said. “You’re like a barman, in some ways. And in our area, that’s made for an amazing sense of community… How often are you going to have customers coming in two, three times a day? We turn these coffee drinkers into book buyers.”
As bookselling becomes an increasingly difficult venture, finding new ways to survive becomes imperative, all three booksellers told the seminar’s packed crowd of booksellers and publishers.
“[When we started], we hoped that we could just sell books and be a happy camper,” the Book Shelf’s Minett said, laughing. “But these days, we have to not only keep traffic building or try to simply maintain it, but also try to fend off competition from all sorts of digital media. So independents are probably going to have try some unique things that haven’t been done before.”
There was an international theme to this year’s BookExpo Canada Friday conference, dubbed “Another Country: Creative Borders, Globalism and the Age of Collaboration.” The morning panel featured publishers from Ireland and the Netherlands, as well as American writer and consultant Ben Vershlow. But while the passports may have been different, the worries expressed were familiar: overpowering international competition and dwindling demand for books in the digital age.
For Irish publisher Tony Farmar, the problem is the struggle against the influx of Britsh product. “Our problem now is to move [Irish publishers’ market share] from 15% to 50%,” he said, conceding almost immediately that reaching that goal is unlikely. Competition for authors is another key battleground — for Irish publishers, matching the clout and prestige of their British counterparts is a tall order (which will sound familiar to Canadian presses competing with domestic offices of multinational firms). Jacqueline Smit, the former publisher with Dutch firm Uitgeverij Sirene, has similar worries, with the added wrinkle of language issues. Smit told the crowd that 70% of books in the Dutch market are translated from other languages, and 80% of those are translated from English. “Globalism is a very English-language concept.”
Afternoon workshop sessions focused on familiar subjects, from youth marketing to social networking to a breakdown of the opportunities posed by print-on-demand technology. Overall, Friday’s programming was mild in tone, with little of the debate that marked last year’s “Devices and Desires” conference. (It started with a speech by author and “creative class” guru Richard Florida, which was billed in advance as offering “strategies for finding, communicating and selling to this growing segment of potential readers,” but turned out to be a genial recap of Florida’s academic and publishing career.)
However, like last year’s conference, this one also heralded a transforming technical change – and not necessarily in reassuring terms. “It does not look like a very viable business or profession,” said Ben Vershlow. “And I’m sorry to say that, because I love books.”
Vehicule Press author Jaspreet Singh, whose latest novel is Chef, was scheduled to appear both at Luminato and BookExpo Canada this weekend. But Singh, who currently lives in Calgary, has been unnerved by his recent air-travel experiences, and believes authorities have him confused with a potential risk. As the Véhicule Press press release says:
This situation first arose when Jaspreet Singh, on an author tour, flew from Calgary to Ottawa on April 26, 2008 and on his return trip, Montreal to Calgary. In each case he was unable to access the electronic check-in facilities and had to contact Air Canada staff.
“I was subjected to a lengthy and detailed questioning in which my ability to travel by air was put into question … Air Canada employees informed me that I was on a ‘list’” but refused to give me particulars … On the return flight [from Montreal] Air Canada staff made the preposterous suggestion that I change my name…”
On his way to Toronto for this weekend, Singh was again unable to check in electronically and went no further, instead turning around and going home. “He feels unsafe traveling with his name on the list and the experience is causing him tremendous anxiety,” says the Véhicule release.
Expect Bill C-61, the proposed amendment to the Canadian Copyright Act, to be a big conversation topic at this year’s show. The bill was tabled on Thursday, and groups like the Association of Canadian Publishers and the Writers’ Union of Canada immediately set about wading through its various provisos. In the meantime, see news coverage here and here.
Most of the discussion, predictably, has focused on digital music and video, since that’s where most digital use falls. But at Friday’s “Another Country” BookExpo Canada conference, copyright lawyer Grace Westcott broke down for the audience what the bill could mean for books. The bill allows individuals to make one digital copy of a book or magazine for another device, for private use only. There are a number of caveats: the person copying the file must own the original and must have acquired it legally; no rights management blocks can be circumvented; the copy cannot be given away; and if the original is given away, the digital copies must be destroyed.
As has been widely reported, the bill also sets a maximum penalty of $500 per action for personal illegal downloading, though the penalty for uploading, and for downloading by breaking through a digital lock, can be up to $20,000.
Creators’ groups are, not surprisingly, pleased that the long-delayed legislation has been tabled. “We should welcome this bill,” said Westcott. “It has something for everyone.” Canadian copyright guru and users’ rights advocate Michael Geist disagrees, but that’s no surprise, either. Also dissenting was another Friday panelist, writer and consultant Ben Vershbow; he told an afternoon seminar audience that the bill appears to represent “an economic model that can only be sustained through surveillance” and is “clearly out of touch with the way media works now.”
Even supporters concede that the bill’s effectiveness is debatable. Said Westcott: “It’s a valiant attempt to keep these copies contained – and it’s virtually impossible to enforce.”
“If you want to talk about destroying natural writing skills, go do a social studies PhD. I completely unlearned how to write.” – Academic and author Richard Florida.
“I was with you all the way, until you started talking about your new book.” – Newfoundland publisher Gavin Will tells Florida what every author wants to hear.
“I will have to disappoint you immediately, because I was asked to speak about exciting new initiatives in the Netherlands.” – Dutch publisher Jacqueline Smit lowers the crowd’s expectations.
Librarian #1: “Do you know what Web 2.0 means?”
Librarian #2: “Yeah. It means we’re going to have to start spending a whole lot more time and money.”
“All publishers should get closer to readers and less close to booksellers.” – Irish publisher Tony Farmar, not exactly playing to the crowd.
“It’s not as sexy as Sex and the City, but I’d argue that without consciousness, sex isn’t all that fun, anyway.” – Mark Kingwell on the title of his latest tome, Concrete Reveries: Consciousness and the City.
“That was interesting and all, but did you notice he didn’t actually say a word about books?” – An audience member reviews Kingwell’s Saturday speech.
“This is not the salvation for publishing. This is a very fixed idea of what the book is. It’s very limited.” – Panelist Ben Vershlow comes down on the Kindle.
It was all boxes, tape, forklifts, and elbow grease on Saturday morning and afternoon as the booths got put together in preparation for the trade show. And there’s a notable promotion going on at the Georgetown Publications booth….
Penguin Canada held a BEC preview event on Friday afternoon at their Toronto office. It was a chance to share a drink with a few of their featured fall authors, including Edeet Ravel, Joseph Boyden, Donna Morrissey, and Lee Henderson.
Douglas & McIntyre hosted a small get-together last night at the Victory Café in Toronto – technically the first party of BEC 2008.
(Note: due to the sheer volume of photos we will be posting from BEC, we will not be adding captions to the individual photos. But you know who y’all are…)
This year’s Libris Awards, run by the Canadian Booksellers Association, will be given out on Sunday evening, immediately following the closing of the BookExpo Canada trade show for the day. So herewith is the latest installment of a Q&Q tradition: our predictions for the Libris winners. Note that our past efforts have ranged in success from middling to abysmal; govern yourselves accordingly.
Fiction Book of the Year
Elizabeth Hay’s Late Nights on Air and Michael Ondaatje’s Divisadero (both McClelland & Stewart) battled it out for the Giller, and Hay won, joining Ondaatje in the ranks of Canada’s top-selling novelists. But it was Lawrence Hill’s The Book of Negroes (HarperCollins Canada) that seemed to have the slow-burning word-of-mouth, which should make it a sentimental favourite here.
Non-fiction Book of the Year
Most authors can only dream of having the kind of impact Naomi Klein enjoys. Her most recent book, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism (Knopf Canada) is no exception, and has a clear edge over Richard Gwyn’s John A: The Man Who Made Us (Random House Canada) and Ian McAllister’s The Last Wild Wolves: Ghosts of the Rain Forest (Douglas & McIntyre).
Author of the Year
A tight race, and we’ve already picked Lawrence Hill and Naomi Klein to be rewarded in the above categories. But most would agree that Elizabeth Hay’s Scotiabank Giller win couldn’t happen to a nicer author, so we’re betting that voters will share the wealth.
Children’s Author of the Year and Children’s Illustrator of the Year
This has been Mélanie Watt’s breakout year, making her a shoo-in for the illustrator prize (over Wallace Edwards and Jeremy Tankard). She’s also up for the author prize, but we have a feeling voters might go with a more text-heavy author there, and we’ll pick Deborah Ellis to squeak by over Martha Brooks.
Publisher of the Year
It’s a multinational-heavy slugfest, with HarperCollins Canada, McClelland & Stewart, Penguin Group Canada, and Random House of Canada all in the ring. We have a feeling that enough eyes are on Penguin to leave them the last one standing in this category.
Small Press Publisher of the Year
Arsenal Pulp Press han’t actually had a BookExpo Canada booth for a couple years, but they did have great success last fall with a first novel, David Chariandy’s Soucouyant, which should put them ahead of Cormorant Books and NeWest Press. (Though they promptly lost Chariandy to a larger house, McClelland & Stewart. So it goes.)
Editor of the Year
We’ll link this one to the Author of the Year prize and bet that HarperCollins Canada’s Iris Tupholme, Lawrence Hill’s editor, will take it, beating out Cormorant’s Marc Côté and Random House Canada’s Anne Collins.
Book Design of the Year
To the extent that we feel confident in any of our predictions, we feel confident in this one: Kelly Hill’s work on her boss CS Richardson’s novel The End of the Alphabet (Doubleday Canada) will result in her second design Libris in a row. (She won last year for The Birth House.) Also in the running are the aforementioned Richardson, for The Frozen Thames (McClelland & Stewart), and the team of Mary Opper, Paul Hodgson, and Christine Gambin, for At the Sharp End (Viking Canada).
Bookseller of the Year (presented in memory of Roy Britnell)
Expanding in the year of parity? That has to be bold enough to secure a win for the two-year-old Toronto mini-chain TYPE Books, over Audreys Books in Edmonton and Munro’s Books in Victoria.
Marketing Achievement of the Year
We’re guessing book-specific promotions have a bit of an edge in this category, so Raincoast’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows campaign might trump HarperCollins Canada’s HarperPerennial campaign and House of Anansi Press’s “Want a Bag With That?” anniversary promotion. And hey, Raincoast got through a Harry Potter pre-release without suing anyone, so that should count for something.
Nominees in the remaining four categories – which we won’t even attempt guesses at – are listed below. Predictions, corrections, heckling, etc., are welcome in the comments section.
Distributor of the Year
Campus Bookseller of the Year
Specialty Bookseller of the Year
Sales Representative of the Year (B.C., presented in memory of Gordon S. Garner)
While there will be no Q&Q booth at the BookExpo Canada trade show this year, our staffers will be roaming the floor throughout the event. And the brand-new July/August 2008 issue will be available at the booths of several Friends of Q&Q: Books for Everybody (booth 519), McArthur & Company (510), Georgetown Publications (319/325), and House of Anansi/Groundwood Books (908).
Our July/August issue is hot off the presses, and will be available for a sneak peek at BookExpo Canada this weekend. It includes a cover profile of Rawi Hage, a survey of rising graphic-novel stars, and our regular Fall Previews, spotlighting the hottest books of the upcoming season. All this plus reviews of upcoming fall books by David Bergen, Andrew Pyper, Kenneth J. Harvey, Marthe Jocelyn, and many more. The full contents appear after the jump. (more…)
One of the mainstay offsite parties of the BookExpo Canada weekend is missing this year. Typically the Book Promoters Association of Canada gives out its Jack Award on the Friday evening of the show weekend, but BPAC boardmember Stephen Myers says the group’s activities are currently on hiatus. The plan is to revive operations in July and announce new programming then. (The Jack, named for Jack McClelland, goes to someone who’s made “a significant contribution to the promotion of Canadian authors and books.” Last year’s winner was bookseller Richard Bachmann.)
This is also the second BookExpo in a row with no Canadian Manda Group party, which was the Sunday night event of choice for many years. Not that there’s no partying to be done. The Canadian Booksellers Association is hosting a booksellers-only get-together on Friday evening. And while Raincoast Books and its subsidiary Publishers Group Canada may be firmly in retrenchment mode, they’re still coming through with a Saturday night shindig, this year at Pauper’s Pub on Bloor. We salute them. Also on Saturday, the annual Children’s Gala is proceeding as usual in the early evening at the downtown nightspot Montana.
(Q&Q’s BookExpo preview, from the June 2008 issue. Written by Jacob Sheen.)
Last year’s BookExpo Canada will be remembered as the first to feature an ambitious companion festival for the public – and, most likely, the last. Following dismal attendance at several BOOKED! events last year, there were some early rumblings about putting a smaller public program together for 2008. This year, though, the national trade show is sticking to, well, the trade. As usual, BookExpo will run over four days, with the conference starting on June 13 and the trade show taking place June 15 and 16.
“It was just too difficult,” says McArthur & Company president Kim McArthur, who was on the BOOKED task force. “I think it was a worthy effort, but I think it was trying too hard to prove to some of the publishers that they were getting value for money by attending BookExpo.”
For publishers and booksellers, the back-to-basics approach is probably just as well, after a year of bad publicity over book pricing and several bookstore closings. “Of course the mood of the show will be affected by the rough year,” says David Glover, Thomas Allen & Son’s marketing manager. “Independent booksellers had a pretty hard Christmas, and when the booksellers have a hard Christmas, then the publishers have a hard Christmas. I don’t think that this has been easy for anyone.” The question is, will this year’s trade show overcome the double whammy of hard times and ongoing exhibitor unease with the event?
For the second year in a row, Q&Q will be covering the BookExpo Canada convention and trade show online. Our entire editorial staff will be on the trade show floor as well as at the seminars, the panels, the parties, etc. Bookmark this page and watch it over the next week for regular updates, event recaps, and party pics. (Speaking of which, feel free to e-mail us any photos of your own, and we’ll endeavour to get those up as well.)
For now, here’s a trip through our coverage of last year’s BookExpo, as well as the Q&Q preview of BookExpo 2008, from our June issue.
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