TPL union names winners of lunch with Atwood contest

The Toronto Public Library Workers Union has announced the winners of its “Why My Library Matters to Me” personal essay contest. Each of the 44 winners will have lunch and tour a local literary landmark with a participating author — Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje, Linwood Barclay, Joy Fielding, Judy Fong-Bates, Sylvia Fraser, Vincent Lam, Robert Rotenberg, Susan Swan, Anna Porter, or Jeremy Tankard.

The contest is part of the union’s Project Rescue campaign to prevent library funding cuts as proposed by the municipal government. (Q&Q has previously reported on the contest and Project Rescue.)

In an e-mail to Project Rescue supporters, TPLWU/CUPE Local 4948 president Maureen O’Reilly says more than 500 submissions were received in a span of two weeks. The winning entries are now posted at the contest website, including this homage to Charlie Chaplin.

Toronto set to drown in Joy Fielding novels

This weekend, Doubleday Canada will be mounting one of the most elaborate – and crazy? – sounding book promotions we’ve ever heard of. According to a press release the company sent out today, it has partnered with the National Post to give away 10,000 copies of Joy Fielding’s new-to-mass-market 2008 thriller, Charley’s Web, by bundling it into subscriber copies of the paper in the Greater Toronto Area. The giveaway is intended to promote Fielding’s new novel, Still Life, which was released in hardcover earlier this week. From the press release:

“Our hope is to use this direct-to-consumer marketing campaign to encourage existing fans to read her latest work and revisit Fielding’s extensive backlist, while also building an even broader fan base for this wonderful author,” says Randy Chan, Director of Marketing at Random House of Canada.

We’re not sure what to think about this. Free books are swell and all, but 10,000 copies?! Who’ll be left to actually buy one in a bookstore? And not to get all finger-wagging, but think of the paper wastage! How many of those National Post subscribers will actually read the book? One in 10, at best?

And finally, what of the backs of all those poor newsboys?