BookNet Canada

Laura Brady, ebook developer and principal of Brady Type, joins the BookNet podcast to educate us about the benefits and challenges associated with bringing accessible features to ebooks in Canadian publishing. We talk about ableist privilege, InDesign quirks, and if the future of print and digital in harmony includes coding that old book smell.

(Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2016/6/27/podcast-accessible-ebooks-is-the-printebook-debate-a-privileged-one).

After another round of inspiring talks, illuminating research, and innovative ideas at our annual Tech Forum conference on digital developments in the book publishing industry, we're here to share some highlights from the conference.

We've got consumer research on how millennials buy and read books, how and why the industry should work to include more diverse voices, five recommendations for improving your book metadata in today's complex marketplace, and lessons for encouraging grassroots innovation at a legacy publisher.

(Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2016/5/30/podcast-highlights-from-tech-forum-2016).

To see videos of all the Tech Forum presentations in their entirety, visit booknetcanada.ca/tech-forum.

It's been a big year for adult colouring books in Canada: they've dominated the non-fiction bestseller lists, adults are frequenting drinking 'n' colouring nights, and everyone seems to have an opinion about the trend. So are they on the decline, or here to stay?

We investigate by examining sales trends from the past year, talking with consumers and experts on the subject, and surveying adult colouring book buyers to learn more about their buying habits and preferences.

(Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2016/5/2/podcast-the-rise-and-fall-of-adult-colouring-books).

Hungry for more data? Keep an eye on the BookNet Canada Blog in the coming weeks for more results from our research: booknetcanada.ca/blog.

Kaya Thomas, creator of the app We Read Too, joins BookNet on the podcast this month. While still in her undergrad at Dartmouth College, Kaya developed We Read Too—a book resource application that showcases a directory of hundreds of children's and young adult fiction books written by and for people of colour—which contains over 600 books and has over 4,000 downloads. Kaya has held software engineering internships at Time Inc and Intuit working on mobile applications. She was a CODE2040 2015 Fellow and is a technical volunteer mentor for Black Girls Code. For her work in education and technology, Kaya was recently honoured by First Lady Michelle Obama at the 2015 Black Girls Rock Awards. She joins us to talk about her favourite books, breaking into coding, and diversifying the publishing industry.

(Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2016/3/22/podcast-we-read-too).

techforum.booknetcanada.ca

Can quantitative analysis be used to predict bestselling or prize-winning books? We discuss this question and more with Andrew Piper, an associate professor at McGill University where he's also the director of .txtLAB, a digital humanities laboratory focused on applying computational approaches to literature and culture. This month, it's all about how data can be used to better understand books.

(Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2016/2/26/podcast-using-data-to-predict-bestselling-and-prize-winning-books).

To learn more about .txtLAB, check out their blog: http://txtlab.org/

In this month's episode, we ask our Bibliographic Manager, Tom Richardson, to ruminate on how subject metadata can be optimized to better serve the book industry. Strap in for 20 minutes of subject codes, meandering, and lots of telling it like it is.

(Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2016/1/29/podcast-best-practices-for-book-classification).

Looking for the keywords white paper mentioned in the episode? Find it right here: https://www.bisg.org/best-practices-keywords-metadata.

BookNet Canada invites Canadian publishing superstars Allister Thompson, Leonicka Valcius, and Rachel Letofski to discuss the growing trend of adults purchasing Young Adult books for themselves, but misidentifying the target audience for those books as adult.

According to a report put out by BookNet Canada entitled The Canadian Book Buyer 2015, consumers think they're buying 14% juvenile and 50% fiction, though 2014 purchasing trends indicate consumers are buying 38% juvenile and 31% fiction. Does this variance indicate that adults are trending towards juvenile without realizing it?

(Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2015/12/14/podcast-more-adults-are-buying-ya-books-for-their-own-reading-enjoyment-but-do-they-realize-its-ya).

There are three iron laws of information age creativity, freedom, and business, woven deep into the fabric of the Internet's design, the functioning of markets, and the global system of regulation and trade agreements. You can't attain any kind of sustained commercial, creative success without understanding these laws—but more importantly, the future of freedom itself depends on getting them right.

Presented by Cory Doctorow at Tech Forum 2015 / BookNet Canada / March 12, 2015

(Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2015/8/18/podcast-information-doesnt-want-to-be-free).

booknetcanada.ca/technology-forum

This week’s episode is very meta, in that it’s a podcast about podcasting. If your mind is still intact after being so spectularly blown, and if you’re interested in how podcasting can help you build a relationship with your audience, then you should definitely give it a listen.

The talk is from Anshuman Iddamsetty, who up until recently hosted Hazlitt Magazine’s book podcast, The Arcade. (It was retired after more than 50 stirring episodes.) In his Tech Forum talk, he explains the unique power of sound and how it’s the ideal medium for fostering intimacy, trust, and loyalty.

(Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2015/8/11/podcast-how-an-11-minute-podcast-can-change-a-books-life).

Presentation slides are available here: http://www.slideshare.net/booknetcanada/sound-strategy-how-can-11minute-podcast-can-change-a-books-life-tech-forum-2015-anshuman-iddamsetty

Presented by Anshuman Iddamsetty (Hazlitt) at Tech Forum 2015 / BookNet Canada / March 12, 2015

booknetcanada.ca/technology-forum

With the growth of subscription services such as Scribd and Oyster, and sites such as Pottermore, many publishers are starting to think differently about their businesses. The time has come for experimenting with conversion architectures: business models that involve attracting an audience, retaining it in various ways (website visits, email lists, newsletters, etc.) and monetizing it. Brian O'Leary explores how conversion architectures work and how they apply to current—and, more importantly, future—book content models. You'll leave this session ready to strategize new ways of marketing and selling content to your readers.

(Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2015/8/4/podcast-content-marketing-for-book-publishers).

Presented by Brian O'Leary (Magellan Media Consulting) at Tech Forum 2015 / BookNet Canada / March 12, 2015

booknetcanada.ca/technology-forum