BookNet Canada

This month, we interviewed Serah-Marie McMahon, a graphic novel editor at Annick Press. We talked about editing, comics and graphic novels, accessibility, and everything in between. Is the rise of comics and graphic novels just a trend? Find out what we think in this episode.

(Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2022/9/27/podcast-behind-the-scenes-of-childrens-graphic-novels)

Further reading:

- Tech Forum to-go: Emerging trends: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2022/5/20/tech-forum-to-go-emerging-trends

- Subject spotlight: Comics & Graphic Novels: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/research/2022/5/9/subject-spotlight-comics-amp-graphic-novels

This month, we’re talking all about movies and TV shows. Specifically the ones based on books. Our newest research report, out today, Must-Watch, Must-Read: Book-to-Screen Adaptations in the Canadian Book Market 2022 gives you all the information we’ve been asked for and that you’ve been looking for about the impact that TV and movie adaptations have had on book sales and library circulation!

(Find the script here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2022/6/28/podcast-books-on-screen)

Further reading:

- Must-Watch, Must-Read: Book-to-Screen Adaptations in the Canadian Book Market 2022: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/must-watch-must-read-book-to-screen-adapatations-2022

- Book to screen adaptation blog series: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog?tag=book%20adaptations

- The Rise of Must-Read TV: https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2021/07/tv-adaptations-fiction/619442/

- Media Tie-In blog post: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/research/2022/6/28/must-watch-must-read-and-more-about-media-tie-ins

Looking for a quick roundup of our most recent research? Look no further. In this podcast episode we’ll share a list of quick takeaways from our most recent studies including our Canadian Leisure & Reading Study 2021, The Canadian Book Market 2021, and the Canadian Book Consumer Study 2021.

(Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2022/5/30/podcast-booknet-research-roundup-what-you-need-to-know)

Further reading/listening

- Canadian Leisure & Reading Study 2021: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/canadian-leisure-and-reading-study-2021

- Canadian Book Consumer Study 2021: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/canadian-book-consumer-2021

- The Canadian Book Market 2021: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/canadian-book-market

- Book to screen adaptations blog series: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog?tag=book+adaptations

- Subject spotlight blog series: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog?tag=subject+spotlight

- Backlist titles blog series: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog?tag=backlist

- Bestselling books blog series: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog?tag=bestsellers

- Are people over puzzles? blog post: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/research/2022/2/7/are-people-over-puzzles

- Look who's turning 20: Insight into the sales performance of books published in 2002 blog post: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/research/2022/4/4/look-whos-turning-20-insight-into-the-sales-performance-of-books-published-in-2002

Just how many books are written by Canadian authors, anyway? In this episode we take look at why identifying Canadian contributors in book metadata matters for the industry — the work it involves, the impact it has across the supply chain, and how we can measure that change.

(Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2022/4/26/podcast-why-identifying-canadian-contributors-still-matters)

Further reading/listening:

- The Canadian Book Market 2021:https://www.booknetcanada.ca/canadian-book-market

- Canadian authors: The whys and hows of identifying them in your data: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2020/5/26/canadian-authors-the-whys-and-hows-of-identifying-them-in-your-data

- Identifying Canadian Authorship: https://booknetcanada.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/UserDocs/pages/1378508/Identifying+Canadian+Authorship

- Easier with BookNet: Calculating your store's Canadian contributor sales: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2022/4/5/easier-with-booknet-calculating-your-stores-canadian-contributor-sales

- Promoting Canadian books: An interview with 49th Shelf: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2021/11/29/podcast-promoting-canadian-books-an-interview-with-49th-shelf

In this podcast episode we’re bringing you a small taste of a Tech Forum presentation given by Jennifer Chen and Nikoo Sarraf from McGill University’s .txtlab. They took a deep dive into the differences between queer fanfiction and mainstream published works and shared some insights about what publishing can learn from their work.

(Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2022/3/29/podcast-the-importance-of-queer-fanfiction)

What does BookNet Canada know about independent bookstores? A lot. In this podcast episode, BookNet Canada’s Marketing Associates Nataly Alarcón and Aline Zara share highlights from the study The State of Independent Bookselling in Canada 2020, talk about what the last five years of independent bookselling have looked like in Canada in terms of book sales and the pandemic, and share a clip from a recent Tech Forum session.

(Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2022/2/22/podcast-shoplocal-what-we-know-about-the-health-of-canadian-indie-bookstores)

Further reading/listening:

-The State of Independent Bookselling in Canada 2020: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/the-state-of-independent-bookselling-in-canada-2020

-What’s in Store: The State of Independent Bookselling in Canada: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/whats-in-store

-Beyond #BookTok: When social media and publishing collide: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2021/7/27/podcast-beyond-booktok-when-social-media-and-publishing-collide

-The State of Social Media in Canada 2020: https://socialmedialab.ca/2020/07/13/the-state-of-social-media-in-canada-2020-a-new-survey-report-from-the-ryerson-social-media-lab/

-I opened a bookstore in the pandemic!: https://youtu.be/6Y_IAUWtwDo

-Tech Forum’s upcoming sessions: https://techforum.booknetcanada.ca/registration/

-BookNet Canada YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/BookNetCanadaVideos/featured

-Subscribe to start receiving our monthly research newsletter: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/newsletter-sign-up#research

January 4 was World Braille Day and to celebrate we sat down to talk with Kerry Kijewski and Marcia Yale, two of the five authors of the study Improving Braille Availability in Canadian Public Libraries to learn more about the study and what the book industry can do to improve braille accessibility in Canada.

(Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2022/1/24/podcast-improving-access-to-braille-in-canada)

Further reading/listening:

-Improving Braille Availability in Canadian Public Libraries: https://nnels.ca/braillestudy

-How to improve braille accessibility in Canada: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2022/1/4/how-to-improve-braille-accessibility-in-canada

The BookNet staff recaps 2021 in terms of book sales in the Canadian market, BookNet staff reading habits, and all the other book news fit to share.

(Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2021/12/21/podcast-2021-in-the-rear-view-window)

Further reading/listening:

- See this as a webinar on YouTube: https://youtu.be/j5Ef4vImS2o

- Subject spotlight blog series: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog?tag=subject+spotlight

- Backlist blog posts: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog?tag=backlist

- Canadian Book Consumer survey blog posts: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog?tag=canadian+book+consumer+survey

- BookNet reading: Stats and staff picks 2021: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2021/12/13/booknet-reading-stats-and-staff-picks

We sat down with Kiley Turner, 49th Shelf’s Managing Editor, to have a conversation about the work she and her colleagues do to promote Canadian books, the role metadata plays in discoverability and marketing, the ways publishing and non-publishing people can use 49th Shelf, and much more.

(Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2021/11/29/podcast-promoting-canadian-books-an-interview-with-49th-shelf)

Further reading:

-49th Shelf website: https://49thshelf.com/

-49th Kids website: https://kids.49thshelf.com/

-Identifying Canadian Authorship user document: https://booknetcanada.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/UserDocs/pages/1378508/Identifying+Canadian+Authorship

-Canadian authors: The whys and hows of identifying them in your data: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2020/5/26/canadian-authors-the-whys-and-hows-of-identifying-them-in-your-data

-Easier with BookNet: Sending interior images to supply chain partners via BiblioShare: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2021/11/16/easier-with-booknet-sending-interior-images-to-supply-chain-partners-via-biblioshare

-Kiley’s article, “The one thing that can double your book sales”: https://www.readerbound.com/Blog/The-One-Thing-that-Can-Double-Your-Book-Sales

A conversation with Fazeela Jiwa from Fernwood Publishing about sensitivity readers — what that term means, the shortcomings of using them, Fernwood’s approach, and what the future might have in store for sensitivity reading.

(Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2021/10/26/podcast-beyond-sensitivity-readers)

Further reading:

- Fernwood Publishing: https://fernwoodpublishing.ca/

- Authenticy reading. Part 1: What editors need to know: https://blog.ciep.uk/authenticity-1/

- Authenticity reading. Part 2: Becoming an authenticity reader: https://blog.ciep.uk/authenticity-2/

- A dog named Lavender by Vivek Shraya: https://www.madisonpubliclibrary.org/poetry/dog-named-lavender