And so ends Q&Q’s up-to-the-minute coverage of BookExpo Canada 2007. This was our first time blogging the show, so we are very interested to hear what we got right, what we got wrong, where we needed to be, and where we should have minded our own damn business.

Don’t forget to check out the literally hundreds of photos taken at BOOKED! events, the parties, and on the trade show floor itself. (Clicking the link opens a full-screen slideshow – we suggest you watch it at the fastest speed.)

Former prime minister Jean Chretien appeared at BookExpo Canada as the guest of honour at a Random House of Canada reception on Sunday afternoon, promoting his upcoming memoir, A Passion for Politics. On Monday morning, he talked with Q&Q about the book, which will be published by Knopf Canada in October. Chretien was careful not to give too much away. “I am not at liberty to reveal the book. We have to maintain the drama,” he said. But here are some hints about what to expect – in vintage Chretien style.

When did you start writing the book?

About two years ago. I started in the summer and I dictated about 1,600 pages. The guy who worked with me doing the editing and so on, helping me on research … is Ron Graham, and Daniel Poliquin is doing the same type of work on the French side. They worked together because I wanted the book to be published the same day in English and in French. The publisher in French will be [Les Éditions du] Boréal. To reduce 1,600 pages to 400, it’s a lot of work. So we worked together and we reduced it and we redictated. That’s why we are working since two years [ago].

Mulroney’s memoir [to be published by McClelland & Stewart in September] is more than 1,000 pages.

That’s not my business, it is his. This is my second book. I wrote one before in 1985 and all my personal life and my upbringing was talked about in the first book. This one is from the day I became Prime Minister until the day I resigned as prime minister – the 25th of October 1993 to the 12th of December 2003.

Will you be touring with the book?

I did that last time, and I expect to do some of it again.

How did you decide to have Knopf publish this one?

Because I chose them. There was a special relation because my son-in-law … had family who had investments with Bertelsman. And Anna Porter, who did my first book, had quit at that time, so the choice was made for me basically, and I’m very happy.

Is the new book as personal in its style as Straight From the Heart?

I’m not a good judge for myself … but apparently it’s very much a Chretien-type of book…. I formulate my phrases à la Chretien. You know, I could not speak a word of English before I was 30. I never studied English in my life, a little bit at college, but for me, I was from French Canada, rural Quebec, [studying] to be a lawyer, working in French, so I was not exposed at all to English until I came to Parliament. I don’t know. I dictated the book and they say it is very lively. But I am not a good judge. It’s my style, so it will be very much in the same style as Straight from the Heart.

You and Mr. Mulroney will have books out in the same season.

So there will be two books.

Will it be like old times, sharing the headlines again?

(More after the jump.)

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As the BookExpo Canada trade show wound up on Monday afternoon, Scott Temple, the show’s managing director, said that the BOOKED! consumer fest would definitely return in 2008 – but that it would incorporate lessons learned from the mixed results of this year’s show.

It was feast or famine at the inaugural BOOKED fest, with some marquee events – such as the Stephen King Libris presentation on Friday night – drawing strong crowds while others lured only single-digit attendance. As Temple says, the show “was a success in certain areas and was overextended in others.” As a result, next year’s lineup will likely include fewer events with a wider distribution of name authors – “top-notch events promoted properly,” as Temple said. (This year’s BOOKED included around 20 individual event, several of which were cancelled at late notice after planned school-group audiences fell through.)

As for the trade show, publishers had a mixed response throughout Sunday and Monday – some observed that crowds seemed lighter than last year, while others were pleased enough with the turnout at their booths. Official attendance figures have not yet been released, but Temple said he expects bookseller numbers to be comparable to last year’s (which were about 2,500).

As is often the case, some noted that while booksellers gladly lined up for galleys, there was little actual business done or meaningful back and forth – a concern Temple acknowledged. “People come out and get caught up in author signings,” he said, noting that next year show management would encourage both publishers and booksellers to set up show appointments well in advance. At the same time, he noted, “The business and the industry have changed…. The days of writing all your orders here at the show are gone.”

Throughout Monday, exhibitors were lining up their spaces for next year’s show, which is scheduled to run on June 14 and 15. Though there were anecdotal reports of publishers cutting back on their space for next year (and some, including Random House of Canada, Simon & Schuster Canada, and the Literary Press Group, had already cut back this year), Temple downplayed that, saying, “I can think of only two instances where space was reduced.”

As before, show owner Reed Exhibitions has struck an advisory panel composed of representatives from various sectors to plan next year’s show. “We’re looking for a whole new level of co-operation up here,” said Temple, who moved to Toronto from the U.S. last August to take over management of the show. The committee will likely meet for the first time in August, said Temple. He added that he hopes to explore more online promotion opportunities with the 2008 show, such as book blogs and podcasting.

BookExpo Canada would appear, on the surface, to be primarily about books – the publishing, marketing, selling, and occasionally writing thereof – but most BEC-goers know that being on the trade floor is all about eating, drinking, and getting free things.

Among the most useful things to get for free are cloth and canvas bags, which are very handy for stuffing with the various ARCs, books, posters, postcards, T-shirts, mugs, toys, stationery, stickers, candy, and assorted unclassifiables that get nabbed by grazing conventioneers.

This year, the swag-and-bag highlights ranged from very classy 40th anniversary T-shirts from Anansi to a heavy metal colouring book (complete with red and black crayons) in the ECW booth and a reported Will Ferguson-branded aphrodisiac over at Penguin Canada. Candy bowls were ubiquitous. Booze was plentiful, though honourable mention must go to the Canada Council for the mimosas being handed out on Sunday morning to celebrate its 50th year – a welcome “hair of the dog” concoction for many trade show participants bleary-eyed from various parties the night before. The spring rolls, spanakopita, and asparagus at the Chrétien reception were also a nice change from the standard hummus and wine served up at most booths.

Click here for a look at just some of the treats and giveaways spotted at this year’s show.

Employing utterly and unapologetically unscientific methodology, Q&Q has picked Coach House’s “hockey office” (our name) as booth of the year. Yes, other booths were splashier, with poker tables or 3-D Simpsons families, some were slicker, with cover images everywhere and thick carpeting on the floor, and certainly some were creepier (we’re thinking of the world’s tallest man at the Guinness World Records booth) or more touchy-feely (such as the man giving out hugs, or the massage booth), but Coach House’s booth was infused with a sense of low-budget fun, while keeping the focus on its upcoming titles.

The hockey table and fake hockey tickets were a charming touch, as was the contest to name the live goldfish swimming in a bowl on the mock-office table. (Not quite a return to the days of Jack Stoddart’s BookExpo elephant, but cute nonetheless.) We also liked the Monday addition of Coach House’s Libris award to the hockey table, as if players were contending for the glass statuette.

Honourable mention must go to the Wiley Canada booth, which – perhaps taking a cue from IKEA – was constructed as a functioning kitchen and living room, complete with a Wii video game console. (See below.) Out front were a yard and a patio table.

Fashionistas at this year’s BookExpo Canada were quick to notice an emerging trend: the grey-haired ponytail. Several men wore this signature look with a casual grace. It’s a bold statement that we’d like to coin as “The McNally.” Can you tell these gentlemen apart? Indeed, which is the “real” Ben McNally?

Answers after the jump.

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To view pics from the second day of the trade show, click here.

“Will Carol Shields be signing today?” – An Indigo staffer at the Goose Lane booth.

“Four hundred pages, a few jokes…. We take ourselves too seriously.” – Jean Chrétien hard-sells his book to the crowd on the show floor.

Spectator: “Who’s that with the big crowd?”
Fellow spectator: “Oh, it’s Jean Chrétien.”
First spectator: “Who is that? Some famous author?”

“Did he have the guys with the things in their ears?” – A showgoer asks about Chrétien’s security detail.
“Even better, he had Louise Dennys.” – Showgoer #2.

Booksellers cemented their love affair with The Birth House author Ami McKay at Sunday night’s Libris Awards ceremony. Not only did McKay win Author of the Year and Fiction Book of the Year, she also won an autographed Gideon Bible from emcee Bill Richardson, who stole it from his hotel room in order to award it to the best acceptance speech of the evening.

Accepting her first award – for fiction book of the year – McKay was flushed and giddy, and she charmed everyone in the room by recounting a nice little story about her hometown bookstore. Even before she began writing The Birth House (Knopf Canada), Mckay explained, she would go to the Box of Delights Bookshop in Wolfville, N.S., and she would stare at the shelf where novels by fellow Maritimers Ann-Marie MacDonald and Alistair MacLeod sat flush against one another. “The owner, Mitzi DeWolf, would see me there staring, day after day,” explained McKay, “until finally she asked me, ‘What are you doing?’ I told her I was looking at the place where my first novel was going to be, and for some reason she believed me.” Every time McKay went into the shop thereafter, DeWolf would inquire how the novel was going and would offer words of encouragement. “That encouragement, from a bookseller, really helped me a lot,” said McKay.

In any other year, fellow nominee and boffo-selling author Vincent Lam would have been a shoo-in for Fiction Book of the Year (for Doubleday Canada’s Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures) or Author of the Year, but the love just kept coming for McKay. When she stepped up to accept the Author of the Year prize, she seemed overwhelmed. “Two years ago, I would not have imagined this for myself,” she said.

Another big winner of the evening was House of Anansi Press, which won not only publisher of the year, but also editor of the year, for Lynn Henry. When president Sarah MacLachlan stepped up to accept publisher of the year, she revealed the answer to a trivia question she had posed in June’s Q&Q, in a House of Anansi 40th anniversary ad: “Which famous Canadian publisher predicted in 1967 that Anansi would last only 18 months?” The answer, MacLachlan revealed, was Jack McClelland. Holding aloft the award, she beamed and said, “Well, here’s your 18 months!”

Other winners last night were David Suzuki, whose self-titled autobiography from Douglas & McIntyre won Non-fiction Book of the Year; Douglas & McIntyre itself for its Suzuki marketing campaign; Barbara Reid, who went home with awards for both Children’s Author of the Year and Children’s Illustrator of the Year; Coach House Books for Small Press Publisher of the Year; North 49 Books, which broke Raincoast Books/Book Express’s three-year stranglehold on the Distributor of the Year category; Victoria’s Bolen Books for Bookseller of the Year; Dartmouth, N.S.’s Tattletales Books for Specialty Bookseller of the Year; UBC Bookstore for Campus Bookseller of the Year (although no one showed up to claim the award, leaving a long, awkward pause in the proceedings); Genevieve Loughlin, of Hornblower Books, for Sales Rep of the Year; and finally, yes, one last win for The Birth House, with Random House of Canada designer Kelly Hill winning Book Design of the Year.

One part of the evening that raised some eyebrows came when Scott Temple, vice-president and managing director of Reed Exhibitions, which runs the trade show’s owner, stepped to the podium to hand an award to … Reed director of marketing Dahlia de Rushe, for her work in co-ordinating the event. De Rushe then stepped up and gave a long acceptance speech.

To view our Libris photo gallery, complete with every presenter and award winner, click here.

To view more pics from the Sunday trade show, click here.

Exhibitors were cautiously optimistic on the first day of the BookExpo Canada trade show. Though the crowds seemed lighter than in past years, there were still long lineups throughout the day for just about every author signing. And the fact that some major exhibitors seemed to have reduced their space lent the day a cozy feel. Probably the highlight was Jean Chretien’s appearance at the Random House of Canada booth at the end of the day on Monday, drawing a huge crowd. Chretien spoke and then mingled for a good half hour, pressing the flesh and posing for photos. Even before that, the former PM wandered the trade show floor for a good hour, visiting booths and chatting with conventioneers.

It’s a big show for BookNet Canada, which announced several new projects on the eve of this year’s BookExpo.

One of those is a study of the way returns affect the Canadian book market. “Nobody knows the individual cost of returns,” said BookNet CEO Michael Tamblyn at the trade show on Sunday. “Each individual publisher [wonders], are they getting hurt more or less than the others. Are there particular things we could be doing? Is there a certain level [of returns] that would be optimal?”

So throughout the summer, BookNet will speak to people in various industry sectors, seeking “even anecdotal opinions,” says Tamblyn. The plan then calls for more formal large-scale industry meetings in early autumn, to hammer out the proper methodology for the study, and then hard research will commence after the Christmas rush.

BookNet has also prepared a report on the impact of various broadcast media on book sales. Over April and May of 2006, the agency tracked media appearances promoting about 200 different titles, across 20 different media outlets, and then watched for sales spikes of 10% to 20%. The full results will be released only to BookNet subscribers (since they contain actual sales figures, which BookNet does not release publicly). In general, Tamblyn says, TV shows like CTV’s Canada AM and Citytv’s Breakfast Television appear to give big boosts to service-oriented titles, while CBC Radio shows like Sounds Like Canada also provide “definite sales impact.”

Finally, on Saturday, The Globe and Mail’s books section began running bestsellers listings derived, for the first time, from BookNet Canada; the Globe is now only the second publication in Canada (after Q&Q) to run the agency’s rankings, though Tamblyn says he still hopes to sign up more. The Globe’s listings cover weekly sales for fiction and non-fiction in both hardcover and paperback formats, though Tamblyn notes that the paper generally omits more service-oriented titles from the non-fiction categories. “There are different ways you can slice bestsellers,” says Tamblyn. “We do leave that to the discretion of individual publishers – we just want to make sure the rankings are accurate within those criteria.”

Ed Carson, who stepped down from his position as president of Penguin Group Canada in May, is starting a new job as chief business and associate director at the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies. His department has been charged with the task of doubling enrollment, and Carson will be “running the business and professional portfolio and looking at the overall business model,” he said.

Attending BEC as a guest of Penguin, Carson told Q&Q the job is in some ways bringing his career full circle, because he began his work-life studying at the University of Toronto to be a professor of English literature. But he said it is not such a dramatic step away from publishing – respectively comparing lectures, books, and students in his new role to authors, books, and audiences in his former one. It is, in a way, “a branding exercise,” he said, noting that the university wants students to consider U of T for the kind of after-degree training they might often look for in a school like Ryerson.

The final BOOKED! event was an interview and Q&A with the immensely popular U.S. thriller author James Patterson, held at Harbourfront on Sunday afternoon.  The crowd wasn’t particularly large – about 60 – but they were vocal in their fandom. But the event’s host, bookseller Ben McNally, seemed rather uneffusive in his introductory remarks, and a later exchange suggested that he and Patterson are unlikely to share a friendly beer in the future.

Patterson completed his initial talk by saying how much he loved the writing life, and he told the crowd that every morning you should “wake up singing.” (Patterson delivered several examples of this sort of observation.) Then McNally returned to the stage to introduce Globe and Mail books editor Martin Levin, who was there to interview Patterson. McNally referred to Levin as a “bon vivant,” to which Levin replied, “Most days I’d be happy just to be a vivant.” Heading offstage, McNally shot back, “Well, as long as you go to work singing, that’s all that matters….”

Patterson looked nonplussed, and he shouted after McNally: “You misunderstand me. I didn’t say that you should go to work singing, I said you should wake up singing.” Then he trailed off and turned his attention back to an uncomfortable-looking Levin.

Things went better after that, and to Patterson’s credit, he was an often witty speaker who seemed to have a healthy understanding of his limitations as a writer. At one point, a member of the audience claimed that he had “graduated to Patterson’s books” after reading Le Carre’s Smiley series, to which Patterson replied, “I wouldn’t call that graduating…. that’s more like flunking out.”

Sunday’s other BOOKED event, a joint reading at Harbourfront featuring debut novelist Gil Adamson and British author Clare Clark, drew a total of 14 people – another indication of the overall up-and-down attendance at the consumer fest.

One of the attractions at this year’s Canadian Booksellers Association booth is an advance display copy of The Canadian Bookselling Primer, a manual put together by CBA staff that will be available shortly for both members and non-members on a print-on-demand basis. (The list price for members is $19.99 and for non-members a steeper $49.99.). Other recent CBA initiatives include its first ABACUS survey, in which participating booksellers can measure their own financial performance against benchmarks created by averaging the results. “We have to get smarter,” says incoming CBA president Eleanor LeFave, owner of the Toronto children’s store Mabel’s Fables. LeFave says that during her term as president she’d also like to focus on support for marketing initiatives.

The CBA’s annual general meeting this year was by all accounts a quiet affair ocncerned mostly with housekeeping issues. At a members’ forum on Saturday, the principal concern was book prices in light of the ever-rising Canadian dollar. But LeFave says CBA boardmembers recently met with the Canadian Publishers’ Council (which represents foreign-owned companies with Canadian subsidiaries) and were pleased with the results. “It’s not a blame game – it’s about getting prices down,” said LeFave. “They’re really showing that they care.” Outgoing CBA president Steve Budnarchuk, owner of Edmonton’s Audreys Books, says list prices have dropped an average of 5% over the past year.

Many BookExpo attendees were sorry to hear that Canadian Manda Group would not be hosting a Sunday night party this year. When asked about it, vice-president Carey Low noted that the annual event typically bears a price tag of $25,000 and that this year, “We asked a few other publishers if they were interested in helping with it, but we didn’t get much response, so we decided to take a year off.”

However, Low added that showgoers have said they’ll miss the party and that it will likely be “back by popular demand” next year. And lately the company has had some offers for help. “More than the money, we want more companies involved, so that they will bring more people, and it will be a better party,” Low said.

“I don’t think my book is on top of the Times bestseller list because of my blue eyes and sexual charisma, even though that is why you are all here tonight.” – Author Christopher Hitchens, addressing the crowd at Saturday night’s BOOKED! event.

“I just received galleys of my new book today, and there’s a typo in it where [Christopher Hitchens] refers to me as an ‘award-whining’ author.” – Naomi Klein, following Hitchens at the same event.

“Don’t let the vultures see….” - A publicist on the trade show floor, unwrapping some precious swag.

“I’d love to see a picture of Michael Winter next to that.” - A conventioneer looks up at the statue of the world’s tallest man in the Guinness World Records space, having some fun with the Q&Q July/August cover boy’s impressive height.

“What happens in Toronto stays in Toronto.” – A tired BEC attendee who explored the city’s nightlife until 5 a.m. (and clearly missed Quillblog’s BEC survival tips).

“See you next year? Maybe not.” – A sales rep looks at a poster for BookExpo Canada 2008.

“It has cute guys and fast cars and disgusting body bits.” – Author kc dyer hard-sells her new book, Mrs. Zephyr’s Notebook.

Many audience members going into Saturday night’s Booked! event with Christopher Hitchens, Naomi Klein, and Linda McQuaig, were probably expecting some healthy – possibly even vitriolic – debate among the three political authors. But each author on the bill spoke and read separately; at no time did any of them share the stage. All three acquitted themselves nicely and engaged the audience, but it felt like a missed opportunity. Why put three such opinionated writers together and then keep them apart all evening?

In any case, it seemed that all the real drama was backstage. When the evening began, it was announced that the speaking order had been rearranged, so that Hitchens would go second-last and Klein would finish up the evening, rather than the other way around. “I wasn’t quite prepared to go on so soon, so you’ll have to forgive me if I’m a bit scattered,” Hitchens told the crowd. And when Klein appeared, she revealed that she had requested the change, and implied that she wanted a chance to rebut any unpleasant comments that Hitchens might make about her or her politcial viewpoints.

As it happened, Hitchens delivered his entire speech without mentioning her name at all. But Klein mentioned Hitchens several times, most notably when she took issue with his statement that democrats “don’t want to fight for civilization” and that North American society is “superior” to that of Islamic society. “I’m not against fighting for civilization and all that,” Klein said, “It’s just that I’m still not sure where ‘civilization’ is… I’m still looking.”

Incidentally, the speaker who appeared to be the most well-received of the evening was a fourth participant, Daniel Levitin, author of This Is Your Brain on Music. His speech, about why the human brain responds to and needs music, was a nice respite from the political stuff and set off a good buzz among the audience.

To view more pics from the Sunday trade show, click here. Still more will be added later on Sunday evening.

A crowd of well-wishers came to congratulate HarperCollins Canada editor Phyllis Bruce on the 15th anniversary of her imprint at a party held at Coupe Space in Toronto’s east end on Saturday afternoon. HarperCollins Canada president David Kent, despite a nagging illness, showed up to toast Bruce and make a speech. A number of Bruce’s authors were present, including Ken McGoogan, Frances Itani, Richard B. Wright, Helen Humphreys, and Lewis DeSoto.

To view photos from the party, click here.

The Canadian Children’s Book Centre held its annual Children’s Gala at Montana in downtown Toronto on Saturday afternoon. The gala is always one of the most highly anticipated and best-attended parties held during BookExpo, and this year was no exception – the room was packed.

To view photos from this event, click here.

Photographer Stephanie Fysh added a number of excellent photos from Friday’s Devices & Desires forums to our Flickr pool.

To view the complete set of images, click here.

(Don’t forget to send us your BEC snapshots for our Flickr pool, by e-mailing them. Your subject line will be the photo’s title, and the text of your message will be its caption.)

The inaugural BOOKED! fest is now less than a day from completion, and results have been mixed. The flagship Stephen King event went off well, and some readings drew solid numbers, including Kenneth Oppel’s on Saturday afternoon and Susan Juby’s on Friday.

Elsewhere, though, some events have been spotty. Most of Friday’s children’s programming was cancelled on late notice, after planned school-group visits fell through. And Saturday morning’s lineup of kids’ authors at the CBC Atrium began inauspiciously, with only two children in attendance – one of them the son of a publishing exec. (Said nine-year-old soon distinguished himself as the hero of the morning with his energy and enthusiasm, as did the authors – Ruth Ohi, Heather Collins, Bill Richardson, Linda Granfield, and Evan Solomon.) Over the next two hours, the crowd grew to six kids, who enjoyed very up-close-and-personal readings. (Author Kevin Sylvester cancelled.)

Throughout most of Saturday afternoon’s “History of War” group reading at Fort York, featuring three military history authors, there were half a dozen audience members on-site – fewer than the number of people present connected with the event.

Among the events still to come as of this writing are the Ami McKay-led event to be held late Saturday afternoon, Saturday night’s panel featuring Naomi Klein and Christopher Hitchens, and Sunday’s James Patterson event.

Take a tour of the trade show floor on Saturday, as exhibitors were busy setting up their booths. For all the photos, click here.

A Saturday morning seminar about the art of handselling got off to a really shaky start when it was revealed that the primary speaker – Avin Mark Domnitz, CEO of the American Booksellers Association – was a no-show. But bookseller Trish Petrie, of Vancouver’s Black Bond Books, stepped in to pinch-hit at the last minute, much to the relief of the BEC co-ordinators.

Rather than do all of the talking herself, Petrie turned the seminar into a free-flowing group discussion in which all of the attending booksellers exchanged handselling tricks of the trade, and before long things got pretty interesting. Who knew mild-mannered booksellers could be so sneaky in their selling strategies?

Samantha Holmes of Victoria’s Bolen Books revealed that one of her favourite techniques for selling kids books to parents and grandparents is to clutch the book to her chest and say: “I love this book, but it’s really for gifted children.” She explained to her fellow booksellers, “Everybody buys it after that!” Then Petrie chimed in: “Yeah, grandparents are suckers!”

Another bookseller said that she always makes a point of asking parents the name of their child, then she dispatches a co-worker to search for a picture book with a protagonist of the same name. “They always buy it!” she said.

According to Petrie, another good technique for selling kids’ picture books is to let staff spend a half-hour each day reading them. “We started doing that in our store, and the effect on sales was enormous, because the staff had so many more recommendations,” she explained.

Another bookseller said he always greets customers by saying “Good morning,” even if it’s the afternoon or evening. “Because then they say, ‘It’s not morning,’ and then you’ve got them in a conversation.”

Other suggestions tossed about were:

• Don’t ask customers, “Can I help you with anything?” Ask them open-ended questions that they can’t simply say no to, like, “What are you looking for today?”
• Create new store bookmarks on a regular basis with up-to-date staff recommendations printed on them.
• When ringing in a customer purchase, tell them that if they like the book they’re buying, they’ll probably also like “X,” and then write the name of “X” right on the bag.
• Encourage employees to track store sales of the books they recommend, so that they can see if their recommendations actually work.
• Don’t just train your staff in the art of handselling by pretending to be a customer yourself – get them to practice on real customers.

“People coming into the store said, ‘It’s so spacious and calm. It’s like walking into Canada.’” – Bookseller Sarah McNally recalling customers’ first impressions of her Manhattan McNally Robinson store.

“It’s kind of like going to someone else’s cottage without a book and learning to live with what’s there.” – BookNet Canada CEO Michael Tamblyn on the poor state of e-book selection.

“If BNC [weekly data] is the firehose, how do we give everyone a drink without getting their lips blown off?” – Tamblyn puts in a strong showing in the Metaphor of the Show sweepstakes.

“There’s no reason not to be a platform slut. You want to be everywhere.” – Wayne MacPhail recommends Internet promiscuity in the quest for better promotion.

“Who’s that I just waved at and said ’see you soon’ to?” – Author.
“That’s someone from your publisher.” – Friend of author.

“My son told me I was the only black man in North America with a combover.” – A balding Christopher Paul Curtis explains why he dropped his dreadlocks and got his hair cropped short.

“It’s so nice to see so many of you here.” – Bill Richardson, before gamely reading and singing The Aunts Come Marching to five kids Saturday morning in the CBC Atrium.

“We seem to be ahead of time, so I think I’ll read you some of my poems.” - Nick Pashley, wrapping up the author lunch featuring Richard Wright, Elizabeth Hay, and Rona Maynard. (He didn’t.)

BookNet Canada CEO Michael Tamblyn spoke at a Saturday morning seminar on “Digitization and the Future of Canadian Bookselling,” which focused on e-readers. In order to assess the viability of the medium, Tamblyn himself tried a 30-day no-paper diet in mid-April.

He found that while the software posed problems and the Sony Reader he used was initially hard to hold, he soon succumbed to the e-charms. He could carry about 80 books with him at once, the Reader wasn’t hard on the eyes because he could increase the font size, and the machine’s battery life was excellent. “There were lots of things I liked about the e-book experience … and all of the annoyances are solvable by engineering,” Tamblyn concluded, reminding the 40-odd attendees, “these are first-generation devices.”

But Tamblyn said he still sees a future for bookstores. He advised celebrating the books themselves, using the physical environment and face-to-face communications and recommendations offered in bookstores. “It’s about taking the role not of a stock-keeper, but a curator,” he said.

Tamblyn also sparked a minor controversy among the attendees when he suggested abandoning the practice of ordering books for individual customers. To that, one bookseller said he caters to a readership of women 35 and over who want to special-order because they don’t want to use the Internet; other members of the audience reacted with incredulity, saying that women ages 35 to 65 are the group most likely to shop online.

(On another note, someone else is apparently trying out the Sony Reader this weekend. Marketing research consultant Dan Aronchick passed his around in a seminar he conducted on Friday, and one of the attendees managed to walk off with it.)

… gleaned from the conference programming.

Encourage bloggers and readers to post excerpts from their books, covers, etc. “What if they actually start displaying this? They become the funniest free advertisers you’ve ever seen,” said social networking consultant danah boyd.

Adding marketing or ad-style content to comment boards is a bad move. “Don’t alienate people,” said Internet consultant Allen Zuk.

Mix up the message. “All book ads look the same,” said advertiser Terry O’Reilly, referring to the standard cover-plus-blurbs format. “All of your work looks identical to me.”

Know your platform. “You can’t put up web page-style content in a social networking site. You have to network,” said Youthography’s Mike D’Abramo.

On Saturday morning, the Canadian Crime Writers’ Association put together a group of notable mystery authors to chat about “What’s Hot and What’s Not in Mystery” in the Speigeltent, next to Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre, as part of the BOOKED! event. Participating were authors Linwood Barclay, Lyn Hamilton, Maureen Jennings, José Latour, and Louise Penny. Author Rick Blechta acted as moderator.

Rick Blechta, encouraging audience participation in the discussion: “Obviously, we don’t have all the answers, or else we’d be selling as much as J.K. Rowling.”

Linwood Barclay, on what distinguishes Canadian mystery writers from their international brethren: “Lower sales.”

Louise Penny, on what comes first when starting a new novel, plot or setting: “The chicken…. I was chicken for many years!”

José Latour, on the publishing industry’s Achilles Heel (and perhaps thinking of the Stephen King event the night before): “We are, unfortunately, part of an industry in which publicity is in its infancy. Most of the publicity dollars go to authors who sell in the millions – the ones who don’t need it. It’s a contradiction.”

Louise Penny, on the resistance to Canadian-set novels: “The only people I have ever got that from are Canadian publishers.”

Penny, on whether she would agree to set her books elsewhere, given enough financial incentive: “I would like to say I would stand firm…. [but] for a gazillion dollars I would set it on the moon.

For more photos from the event, click here or on the photo above.

At a Friday seminar, Kris Abel, CTV’s resident tech expert, looked at some of the electronic-reading platforms currently on the market and forthcoming. He pointed to:

• Manybooks.net, which offers e-books in almost any format for greater consumer ease; most formats are variations of XML or PDF, with the latter the most common so far.
• Mobipocket.com, an online store that offers free software to allow readers to transfer e-book text to their computers, cellphones, Palm, and Blackberry devices.
• The Iliad, which uses “electronic ink” technology to mimic the texture and feel of paper. However, the electronic ink technology means a high price (about $700) and makes the device unsuitable for other uses like watching movies.
• Amazon.com’s rumoured “Amazonkindle” reader, which was to have wireless capablility; Abel speculated that its release was delayed or scuttled by Apple’s announcement of the iPhone.
• The iPhone itself doesn’t have e-book capabilities yet, but Abel said that’s a likely development and labelled it as “the device to watch,” with a “deliciously high-resolution screen” and touch screens instead of a keyboard. The phone comes with four or eight gigabytes of memory.
• At the moment, the Sony Reader, sold for about $350, is a leader among the gadgets. Although it is not available in Canada yet, it is being sold at stores such as Borders in the U.S. as well as in Sony stores. It has a six-inch screen and supports Sony files but can also read PDF files.

It was a lovefest at the showcase BOOKED! event, the Stephen King tribute on Friday evening. The 1,300-seat John Bassett Theatre looked to be at least two-thirds full, and the crowd response started at “wild” and went from there. The first of many standing ovations came when King was spotted simply taking his pre-show seat in the front row.

Once the presentation got under way, authors Margaret Atwood and Clive Barker each spoke briefly about King’s influence; Barker essentially credited his own career to an early King review of his work. Susan Moldow, King’s publisher at Simon & Schuster imprint Scribner over the past 10 years, also spoke briefly.

The main event was an onstage interview with Chuck Klosterman, pop-culture commentator and King’s fellow Simon & Schuster author. Among other things, Klosterman asked King why people like to be scared; whether King considers himself a literary version of the band AC/DC; how fast he could write a novel at the height of his powers (”could you write one here, right now?”); and whether King thinks about his literary legacy now that he’s, ah, getting on. (To be fair to Klosterman, all of it came off better at the time than it probably sounds here.)

King was genial, relaxed, and funny, and took the chance to praise a few Canadian books, mainly Robertson Davies’ Deptford Trilogy but also Atwood’s Oryx and Crake, Alistair MacLeod’s Island, and the work of Robert Charles Wilson and Andrew Pyper. “I’ve been reading Canadian fiction all my life – I understand the sensibility and devotion to story. I love story,” said King, decrying the “look at me dance” approach. “I have very little use for novelists who turn their books into discotheques of the mind.”

Canadian Booksellers Association president Steve Budnarchuk presented King with this year’s Lifetime Achievement Libris Award. King is the first non-Canadian to get the prize, which was launched in 2001. Past winners include booksellers Charles Burchell and Judith Mappin and authors Pierre Berton, Carol Shields, and Timothy Findley.

In return, King injected the fledgling BOOKED! fest with some valuable star power. Friday’s event – billed as King’s first public appearance in Canada – was well covered in advance and was filmed by Book Television (one measure of King’s celebrity was the fact that even before he took the stage, a camera was trained on him at all times to catch reaction shots). And although advance notices about the show explicitly stated that there would be no signing, a handful of book-wavers pressed (vainly) toward the front row anyway as King exited.

“I feel like the representative of the accounting firm at the Academy Awards.” – CBA president Steve Budnarchuk after taking the stage at the King event.

“It’s like being dead and going to your own funeral.” – Stephen King feels the love in the room.

“Thank you for contributing to world literacy. It is thanks to you that many men, now fully grown, will never spell scream with two e’s.” – Margaret Atwood addresses King.

“I don’t respect him. I don’t like his books because, to me, every one is the same as the last one.” – King on his fellow BOOKED! author James Patterson.

“If you try to write for the ages, you write shit.” – King on the question of literary legacy.

It was a familiar pattern on Friday morning at the “Devices & Desires” conference: some very broad-brush warnings about the need to keep up with the way the Internet is changing everything, followed by some reflexive skepticism from publishing types.

Keynote speaker Alexander Manu discussed the way the self-publishing site Lulu.com, blogs, YouTube, and social networking sites are allowing more creators to find audiences, and argued that publishers need to come to terms with and adapt to “Web 2.0.” As to how they could do that specifically, that was largely left to later speakers; in general, Manu mainly urged attendees to break out of their familiar practices and innovate.

It was an argument publishers had heard before, and their counter-arguments were likely ones that Manu has heard before. Broadcaster Mary Lou Finlay responded to Manu’s speech by reaffirming the “gatekeeper” function of the publishing industry – “I want you to make the selections for me,” she said to the crowd – and decried “the underlying narcissism” of the explosion of user-generated online content. And during question period, Gavin Will, president of Newfoundland’s Boulder Publications, said, “It’s getting a little tiresome, hearing about our imminent demise if we don’t jump on whatever train you think we should jump on board…. I don’t even get your presentation.”

Not everyone sided against Manu, though. Another questioner did remind the crowd that whether they approve of Web 2.0 or not, it’s out there and it’s having an effect. “On one level the discussion is irrelevant, but we have these people [in control] operating from habit and arguing.”

There was some more last-minute revising at the children’s BOOKED! events on Friday. Author Frieda Wishinsky was scheduled to read to kids in Grades 2 and 3 at Fort York on Friday morning, but was told just before going on that the school had pulled out (on Tuesday) and that she would be reading instead to kids in Grade 7 and 8 – perhaps not the ideal audience for a book aimed at early readers. “I’m a little disappointed,” Wishinsky said simply to the BOOKED organizer. But she proceeded with a talk nonetheless, though she wisely opted not to read from her book. “I can talk to anybody, even a dog,” she said afterward.

Another reading on Friday morning, featuring Martha Brooks, Deborah Ellis, and Susan Juby, was attended by about 75 kids in Grades 7 and 8 and included lively question periods after each reading. Juby got a lot of laughs with a reading from her upcoming fall novel Another Kind of Cowboy.

***

Audience member: How come there are so many different ideas in your book [Mistik Lake]?

Martha Brooks: Because it’s about life and that’s what life’s like.

***

Audience member: What do you think is the greatest comical book of all time?

Susan Juby: Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons. Also the Adrian Mole books.

Author Michael Winter, getting stuck while describing Jack Award winner Richard Bachmann’s A Different Drummer bookstore: “Is there still a cat?”

Richard Bachmann, on receiving the award, a hefty, metal jack: “Where’s the ball?”

On being this year’s winner: “This is very gratifying, though I can’t feel entirely humble about it.”

On why he opens his store up to so many authors and events: “I get to spend a lot of time with very smart people.”

On his old bookselling philosophy: “If we know what works, we do it again.”

On his new one: “Nothing works, but everything does help.”

On the relative gentleness of his acceptance speech: “I’m only giving you one barrel tonight.”

A small family reunion would make the second floor of Toronto’s Czehoski restaurant on Queen Street West feel a little cramped. With dozens of bookselling and publishing industry friends and well-wishers present to see A Different Drummer’s Richard Bachmann receive this year’s Jack Award, the place felt like a bizarre, adult game of Twister.

Bachmann, an outspoken figure on the Canadian publishing and bookselling scene for many years, received the award – a bowling ball-sized metal jack, appropriately enough – from author Michael Winter, whose 2004 novel The Big Why won the Drummer General’s Award, a prize Bachmann set up to recognize worthy books that were overlooked by the major awards.

In his acceptance speech, Bachmann admitted that A Different Drummer could just as easily be a “small bookstore on a side street in Burlington,” but that he and his staff have always wanted it to be more, a place that engages both author and readers, something he said was being lost amid shrinking serious book coverage and a culture more obsessed with technology than reading.

Bachmann made a point of thanking Hamilton bookseller Bryan Prince, with whom he often collaborates on events and promotions. At the end of his speech, Bachmann proposed a toast, not only to his friends and fellow booksellers, but to readers.

The Jack Award, presented by the Book Promoters Association of Canada, has been awarded each year since 1993 to “an individual within the Canadian publishing industry or media, who has made a significant contribution to the promotion of Canadian authors and books.” The award is named after Jack McClelland, who was its first recipient.

Before the presentation of the Jack Awards, outgoing BPAC president Doug Blair presented the Award for Promotional Excellence to HarperCollins Canada’s publicity team, for their campaign for Tim Flannery’s The Weather Makers. Miranda Snyder of HarperCollins accepted the award on behalf of the rest of the team. Honourable mentions went to Penguin Canada, for its campaign for Craig Davidson’s The Fighter, and HarperCollins again, for the campaign for Londonstani.

Among those in attendance were author Elizabeth Hay, The Globe and Mail’s Martin Levin, McClelland & Stewart’s Ruta Liormonas and Ellen Seligman, McGill-Queen’s University Press’s Jacqueline Davis, freelance publicist Debby de Groot, McArthur & Company’s Kim McArthur, Penguin Canada’s Yvonne Hunter and Stephen Myers, incoming BPAC president David Leonard, and many more.

To view photos from the event, click here.

Some of the traits of “the 21st century book,” as projected by Wikinomics co-author Anthony Williams in his Devices & Desires presentation.

• Digital and accessible via many devices.
• Searchable by words, images, sounds, etc.
• Multimedia that “engages the five senses.”
• Connected to other texts through hyperlinks and tags.
• Allows readers to add their own links and tags.
• “Lego” design that’s customizable — can be broken down into components and then reassembled and combined.

Environics senior researcher Amy Langstaff pre-polled a sample of conference attendees and presented some of her findings on Friday afternoon.

Percentage of attendees who read blogs regularly: 33%.

Percentage who have blogs of their own: 19%.

“When I Googled the title [of the conference], I found another book whose title was Devices and Desires: A History of Contraceptives in America.” – Keynote speaker Alexander Manu

“Michael was pleased when he found some coverage of this in The Economist, but it turned out to be an article about online pornography.” – Environics researcher Amy Langstaff on the fruits of her boss Michael Adams’ research into “Devices and Desires.”

“When I told everyone I was going to be at the ‘Devices & Desires’ conference, everyone was like, ‘Really?’ And I had to say, ‘No, it’s about books. Honestly.’” – Youthography’s Mike D’Abramo.

“I walked into a bookstore in Toronto – a small chain, which will remain nameless – and offered to sign my books, and I was asked to show ID.” – Author Antanas Sileika on the challenges of guerilla marketing.

“Do you find that new technology has a laissez faire capitalist model and the other model of publishing in Canada has socialist roots as a subsidy-funded model?” – A Humber College publishing student goes for the A+ during question period.

“I wasn’t quite sure what he said, but I was different after I left the room.” – Speaker Dan Aronchick on Manu’s keynote address.

“You aren’t in the book business, you are in the ‘transport me on a wonderful journey’ business.” – Speaker Terry O’Reilly, apparently confusing publishing with the hallucinogenics business.

“I’m tired of being called a dinosaur.” – An attendee in the lunch line after the morning session.

There was a new award handed out at the 24th annual Arthur Ellis Awards ceremony in Toronto last night, and you couldn’t have asked for a more appreciative recipient than author Phyllis Smallman. The award, unofficially known as the Unhanged Arthur, honours the best unpublished first crime novel, and the heretofore unknown Smallman was obviously deeply moved by the win. “This is just about the best moment of my life,” said Smallman, her voice shaking. Her manuscript, Margarita Nights, was chosen from among 96 submissions, with the hope that the award may help her land a publisher.

One of the other big winners last night was Ottawa mystery writer Barbara Fradkin, who earned her second Best Novel Arthur for her Honour Among Men, which was published by RendezVous Press. (Fradkin won the award just two years ago for Fifth Son, also published by RendezVous.) When accepting the award, Fradkin apologized for not having read all of her fellow nominees’ books, explaining that she had had trouble tracking several of them down in the big chain stores. Marian Misters, the proprietor of Toronto’s Sleuth of Baker Street mystery bookstore, was onstage at the time and chimed in: “We have all five of them, and we’re open at 10 a.m. tomorrow!”

Other winners were:

• Best First Novel: Sign of the Cross, by Anne Emery (ECW Press)
• Best Non-Fiction: High: Confessions of a Pot Smuggler, by Brian O’Dea (Random House Canada)
• Best Juvenile: Hamish X and the Cheese Pirates, by Sean Cullen (Penguin Canada)
• Best Short Story: “Fuzzy Wuzzy,” by Dennis Richard Murphy (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, August 2006)

(The award for Best Crime Writing in French was not given out this year due to the low number of submissions.)