Book links roundup: Encyclopaedia Britannica print edition gets axed, Timothy Taylor on self-promotion, and more

• Encyclopaedia Britannica moves to digital only format after 244 years in print
• CBC Bookie Award nominee Timothy Taylor weighs the pros and cons of self-promotion
• Todd Babiak delivers a TED talk on his startup, Story Engine
• Sarah Weinman’s tips for budding publishing reporters
• Smashwords removes PayPal-enforced censorship policy

BookNet bestsellers: Canadian children’s books

Just in time for March Break, this week’s bestsellers list, which looks at Canadian children’s books, illustrates that readers will love Robert Munsch forever.

For the two weeks ending March 4:

1. Love You Forever, Robert Munsch; Sheila McGraw, illus.
(Firefly Books, $5.95 pa, 9781443107648)

2. We Share Everything! Robert Munsch; Michael Martchenko, illus.
(Scholastic Canada, $9.99 bb, 9781443113441)

3. It’s My Room! Robert Munsch; Michael Martchenko, illus.
(Scholastic Canada, $7.99 pa, 9781443113656)

4. Up, Up, Down, Robert Munsch; Michael Martchenko, illus.
(Scholastic Canada, $9.99 bb, 9781443113465)

5. The Paper Bag Princess, Robert Munsch; Michael Martchenko, illus.
(Annick Press, $6.95 pa, 9780920236161)

6. Love You Forever, Robert Munsch; Sheila McGraw, illus.
(Firefly Books, $14.95 cl, 9780920668368)

7. The Gathering, Kelly Armstrong
(Doubleday Canada, $14.95 pa, 9780385668538)

8. Neil Flambé and the Marco Polo Murders, Kevin Sylvester
(Simon & Schuster, $14.99 cl, 9781442446045)

9. Blood Red Road No.1, Moira Young
(Doubleday Canada, $12.95 pa, 9780385671859)

10. Moose! Robert Munsch; Michael Martchenko, illus.
(Scholastic Canada, $7.99 pa, 9781443107181)

11. Thomas’ Snowsuit, Robert Munsch; Michael Martchenko, illus.
(Annick Press, $1.99 pa, 9781554511150)

12. 
I Have to Go! Robert Munsch; Michael Martchenko, illus.
(Annick Press, $1.99 pa, 9780920303511)

13. Sing a Song of Mother Goose, Barbara Reid
(Scholastic Canada, $9.99 bb, 9780545997249)

14.Half Brother, Kenneth Oppel
(HarperCollins Canada, $12.99 pa, 9781554686117)

15. The Paper Bag Princess, Robert Munsch; Michael Martchenko, illus.
(Annick Press, $1.99 pa, 9780920236253)

16.Nighty-Night: A Bedtime Song for Babies, Richard Van Camp
(McKellar & Martin Publishing, $8.95 bb, 9780986576744)

17.I See Me, Margaret Manuel
(Theytus Books, $6.95 cl, 9781894778855)

18. Give Me Back My Dad!, Robert Munsch; Michael Martchenko, illus.
(Scholastic Canada, $7.99 pa, 9781443107648)

19. Smelly Socks, Robert Munsch; Michael Martchenko, illus.
(Scholastic Canada, $7.99 pa, 9780439967075)

20. Zoe’s Year, Barbara Reid
(Scholastic Canada, $9.99 bb, 9781443113724)

Book links roundup: E.L. James’ $1-million book deal, the greatest losers in American literature, and more

• E.L. James’ Fifty Shades of Grey sells for $1 million to Random House
• Jonathan Franzen, John Updike, and Norman Mailer named greatest losers in American literature
• The Globe and Mail on the gender politics of publishing
• Dave Bidini’s search for personal fulfillment and a copy of Eat, Pray, Love
• The Harry Ransom Center is on a buying binge of private documents from contemporary authors

Book links roundup: U.S. threatens Apple and publishers with lawsuit, Audible hires A-list celebrities, and more

• Apple and five U.S. publishing houses may face antitrust lawsuit
• Nicole Kidman, Colin Firth, Dustin Hoffman, and other celebrities record book series for Audible
• Video: Can bookstores maintain the same loyalty as record shops?
• Torontoist reflects on Ernest Hemingway’s time in Toronto
• Gabriel García Márquez celebrates his 84th birthday
• *World’s oldest film of a Charles Dickens’ character discovered

Esi Edugyan, JJ Lee, Charlotte Gill nominated for B.C. Book Prizes

The West Coast Book Prize Society has announced the shortlists for the 28th annual B.C. Book Prizes, and for Esi Edugyan, the competition cuts close to home.

Edugyan, whose novel Half-Blood Blues won the 2011 Scotiabank Giller Prize and this morning was longlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction, is competing against her husband, Steven Price, and his novel, Into That Darkness, for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize. Both books are published by Thomas Allen Publishers.

Charles Taylor Prize for Non-fiction shortlisted authors Charlotte Gill and JJ Lee face off again, this time for the Hubert Evans Non-fiction Prize, alongside 2012 Canada Reads finalist Carmen Aguirre. Gill is also nominated for the Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice Award.

The winners in all seven categories will be announced at the Lieutenant Governor’s B.C. Book Prizes Gala on May 12 in Vancouver.

Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize:

• Michael Christie, The Beggar’s Garden (HarperCollins Canada)
• Esi Edugyan, Half-Blood Blues (Thomas Allen Publishers)
• Frances Greenslade, Shelter (Random House Canada)
• Steven Price, Into That Darkness (Thomas Allen)
• D.W. Wilson, Once You Break a Knuckle (Hamish Hamilton Canada)

Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize:

• Chuck Davis, The Chuck Davis History of Metropolitan Vancouver (Harbour Publishing)
• Fred Herzog, Fred Herzog: Photographs (Douglas & McIntyre)
• Andrew Nikiforuk, Empire of the Beetle: How Human Folly and a Tiny Bug Are Killing North America’s Great Forests (Greystone Books)
• Sheryl Salloum, The Life and Art of Mildred Valley Thornton (Mother Tongue Publishing)
• Scott Watson, Thrown: British Columbia’s Apprentices of Bernard Leach and Their Contemporaries (Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery)

Hubert Evans Non-fiction Prize:

• Carmen Aguirre, Something Fierce: Memoirs of a Revolutionary Daughter (Douglas & McIntyre)
• Gary Geddes, Drink the Bitter Root: A Writer’s Search for Justice and Redemption in Africa (Douglas & McIntyre)
• Charlotte Gill, Eating Dirt: Deep Forests, Big Timber, and Life with the Tree-planting Tribe (Greystone Books)
• Theresa Kishkan, Mnemonic: A Book of Trees (Goose Lane Editions)
• JJ Lee, The Measure of a Man: The Story of a Father, a Son, and a Suit (M&S)

Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize:

• Patrick Lane, The Collected Poems of Patrick Lane (Harbour)
• Susan McCaslin, Demeter Goes Skydiving (University of Alberta Press)
• Garry Thomas Morse, Discovery Passages (Talonbooks)
• John Pass, crawlspace (Harbour)
• Sharon Thesen, Oyama Pink Shale (House of Anansi Press)

Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s Literature Prize:

• Dan Bar-el and Rae Maté, Pussycat, Pussycat, Where Have You Been? (Simply Read Books)
• Nicola I. Campbell and Kim La Fave, Grandpa’s Girls (Groundwood Books)
• Mike Deas, Dalen & Gole: Scandal in Port Angus (Orca Book Publishers)
• Robert Heidbreder and Marc Mongeau, Shake-Awakes (Tradewind Books)
• Sara O’Leary and Julie Morstad, When I Was Small (Simply Read)

Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize:

• Glen Huser, The Runaway (Tradewind)
• Pamela Porter, I’ll Be Watching (Groundwood)
• Karen Rivers, What is Real (Orca)
• Caitlyn Vernon, Nowhere Else on Earth: Standing Tall for the Great Bear Rainforest (Orca)
• Moira Young, Blood Red Road (Doubleday Canada)

Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice Award:

• Chuck Davis, The Chuck Davis History of Metropolitan Vancouver (Harbour)
• Charlotte Gill, Eating Dirt (Greystone)
• Fred Herzog, Fred Herzog: Photographs (Douglas & McIntyre Editions)
• Gary Hynes, Island Wineries of British Columbia (TouchWood)
• Robert J. Wiersema, Walk Like a Man: Coming of Age with the Music of Bruce Springsteen (Greystone)

Book links roundup: the Kindle Single sweet spot, Margaret Atwood’s new digital short story, and more

• Does the Kindle Single occupy a sweet spot between magazine-length articles and hardcover books?
• Margaret Atwood releases new short story, “I’m Starved For You”
• Listen to a Jane Eyre-inspired literary mixtape
• A Massachusetts public library is raising money for its tiny book haven with a cute video
• Justin Bieber’s mom to publish a tell-all memoir

Q&A with art star and kidlit up-and-comer Cybèle Young

Cybèle Young may have seemed like an overnight kidlit success when her most recent picture book, Ten Birds (Kids Can Press), won a Governor General’s Literary Award last fall, but the Toronto-based artist actually began working on it more than 15 years ago. Young first made her name in the art world, where her miniature paper sculptures have attracted galleries and collectors in Vancouver, London, and New York, and landed her a recent residency in Paris. In the March 2012 issue of Q&Q, she discusses how her art informs her literary work, the transporting power of story, and what readers can expect next.

It might surprise some to learn that you trained as a sculptor. How did you get into publishing?
From a very young age, there was no question in my mind that I was an artist. At the Ontario College of Art, I did all sculpture courses. But in my final year of school, when I was pregnant with my daughter, everything shifted. I took a book-arts class and discovered that books were sculptural, too, on a private yet accessible level. I found myself going to kids’ book sections a lot more than I would go to galleries. And I still do.

You started Ten Birds in 1996. How did it finally come to fruition?
I drew most of the pictures for Ten Birds right after my daughter was born. I went to Groundwood Books with it 15 years ago because co-publisher Patsy Aldana is a friend’s mother. Then I illustrated a bit for Groundwood while focusing mainly on art – I felt I could only have one focus in addition to parenting.

Three years ago, after Groundwood had agreed to publish another picture book of mine, A Few Blocks (2011), I thought, “Well, I already showed this to Patsy, and we’re working together on something else,” so I showed it to Kids Can publisher Karen Boersma, whom I’d met at Groundwood. It clicked. We added one or two pages at the beginning and one or two at the end, but other than that, we used only the original drawings.

Some of your illustrations look like your sculptures. How does your art affect your books, and vice versa?
They definitely inform each other – I’m really half a person without one or the other. I had to find my voice in art first, but one of the things I love about books is being able to reach a wide audience. My sculptures imply stories, and in my books there are definitely themes I explore in my art, like my interest in small day-to-day experiences. Another thing I learned in sculpture that I apply to everything else: if I don’t enjoy it, it’s going to suck.

Has being a mom affected your publishing career?
Certainly I fell in love with children’s books when I was pregnant. And as a parent, there’s nothing more heavenly than knowing your kid, who could be climbing the walls, will sit happily in your lap if you offer them a book, and you can both be transported to another world.

Click on the thumbnails to see examples of Young’s fine art and illustration work.

BookNet bestsellers: nature

This week’s bestsellers list, which looks at the nature category, includes two titles from the 2012 Charles Taylor Prize shortlist. Andrew Westoll’s The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary (#20) might have been the big winner at today’s Charles Taylor Prize announcement, but it’s Charlotte Gill’s Eating Dirt that takes the top spot on this list.

For the two weeks ending Feb. 26:

1. Eating Dirt, Charlotte Gill (D&M Publishers, $29.95 cl, 9781553659778)

2. Unlikely Friendships, Jennifer Holland (Workman Publishing, $16.95 pa, 9780761159131)

3. The Wave, Susan Casey (Anchor Canada, $21 pa, 9780385666688)

4. Edible and Medicinal Plants of Canada, Amanda Karst (Lone Pine Publishing, $29.95 pa, 9781551055725)

5. The Sacred Headwaters, Wade Davis (Douglas & McIntyre, $50 cl, 9781553658801)

6. Horse Breeds of North America, Judith Dutson (Storey Publishing, $12.95 pa, 9781580176507)

7. The Book of Deadly Animals, Gordon Grice (Penguin, $16 pa, 9780143120742)

8. Compact Guide to Ontario Birds, Andy Bezener (Lone Pine, $14.95 pa, 9781551054674)

9. Tar Sands, Andrew Nikiforuk (Greystone Books, $20 pa, 9781553655558)

10. Birds of Ontario, Andy Bezener (Lone Pine, $26.95 pa, 9781551052366)

11. National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, Jon L. Dunn, (National Geographic, $32 pa, 9781426208287)

12. Plants of Coastal British Columbia, Andy MacKinnon (Lone Pine, $28.95 pa, 9781551055329)

13. Silent Spring, Rachel Carson (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt/Thomas Allen & Sons, $18.95 pa, 9780618249060)

14. The Rescue of Belle and Sundance, Birgit Stutz with Lawrence Scanlan (HarperCollins Canada, $14.99 pa, 9781554686209)

15. Edible Wild Plants, James Kavanagh (Waterford Press, $6.95 pr, 9781583551271)

16. Animal Tracks, James Kavanagh (Waterford Press, $6.95 pr, 9781583550724)

17. Trees (Waterford Press, $6.95 pr, 9781583551783)

18. Animal Tracks of Ontario, Ian Sheldon (Lone Pine, $9.95 pa, 9781551051093)

19. Animal (Dorling Kindersley, $55 cl, 9780756686772)

20. The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary, Andrew Westoll (HarperCollins Canada, $29.99 cl, 9781554686490)

Book links roundup: Toronto Public Library’s advertising plans, Jackie Collins self-publishes, and more

• Toronto Public Library goes ahead with advertising sales plans
• Jackie Collins ditches her publisher for self-publishing
• Do video book trailers help sell more books?
• Apple refuses to sell books linked to Amazon
• The Boston Globe reports on the merge of libraries and bookstores

Book links roundup: is U.S. publishing born from piracy, visually impaired Canadians address copyright committee, and more

• Is the U.S. publishing industry built on piracy?
• Visually impaired Canadians address accessibility of print materials at Bill C-11 hearings
• Stephen Colbert rants about The Lorax’s many product tie-ins
• Hole guitarist Eric Erlandson writes a book on the loss of grunge-icon Kurt Cobain
• Yann Martel, Emma Donoghue, and Margaret Atwood make the cut for best opening lines from books