BookNet Canada

Our PubFight game came to an end at the beginning of January, so we wanted to interview our All-Star players to find out what strategies they employed, whether they were successful or not, what they learned, and apparently most importantly, how they felt about the trash talk.

(Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2019/1/29/podcast-pubfight-all-stars-game-end-wrap-up)

Further reading:

The road to the All-Stars finale: All the blog posts about this league: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/?tag=all-stars

More information and how to sign up for PubFight: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/pubfight/

For our last episode of 2018, we share the bestselling Fiction, Non-Fiction, and Juvenile/YA books of the year, discuss some of the major award winners, give a rundown of the top 10 Loan Stars picks for the year, and look ahead to our projects for 2019.

(Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2018/12/17/bestselling-books-of-2018-and-year-end-wrap-up)

Further reading:

Bestselling books of 2018: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2018/12/11/2018-bestsellers

Literary awards season: Canadian awareness of and interest in literary awards: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2018/10/8/literary-awards-season-canadian-awareness-of-and-interest-in-literary-awards

Loan Stars Best of the Brightest 2018: https://bnccatalist.ca/viewcatalogue.aspx?id=32907

AmReading research series: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/amreading-research-series

Readers Are Listening: Audiobook Use in Canada 2018: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/readers-are-listening

LibraryData: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/library-data

Loan Stars Jr. is on the way!: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2018/11/5/loan-stars-jr-is-on-the-way

Tech Forum & ebookcraft 2019: https://techforum.booknetcanada.ca/

Sign up for eNews: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/newsletter-sign-up/

Answer our customer satisfaction survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/5SWJGJQ

Talk to anyone in the book industry and they'll tell you, the winter holidays are the best but busiest time of year for book sales. We bring you the stats you need to know for the season and we talk to Rebecca Andoff of Type Books in Toronto for the retailer perspective.

(Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2018/11/27/podcast-holiday-bookselling)

Resources mentioned in the podcast:

When does holiday shopping begin: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2017/12/19/when-does-holiday-shopping-begin

Think with Google: https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/intl/en-ca/consumer-insights/want-win-holiday-season-get-know-these-four-types-canadian-shoppers/

How and when to reach the 2018 holiday shopper: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2018/10/15/how-and-when-to-reach-the-2018-holiday-shopper

Perennial holiday bestsellers: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/?tag=perennial+bestsellers

RCC Holiday Shopping Survey 2018: https://www.retailcouncil.org/research/holiday-shopping-in-canada-survey-2018/

Canada Post 2018 Holiday Success Guide: https://www.retailcouncil.org/research/canada-post-2018-holiday-success-guide-e-commerce-operations/

It's been two eventful years since we published our last study on audiobook listening in Canada, so we're back with updated stats on consumer habits and preferences for 2018. We're also discussing recent work being done to support the expansion of audiobook production in Canada, including a new initiative between Audible and Ryerson University.

You can read our study, Readers Are Listening: Audiobook Use in Canada 2018, for free in its entirety here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/readers-are-listening

(Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2018/10/30/podcast-the-growth-of-audiobook-listening-and-production-in-2018)

Other resources:

- Livres Canada Books' The Global Audiobook Market report: https://livrescanadabooks.com/en/reports/digital-publishing/the-global-audiobook-market/

- Details on the partnership between Audible and Ryerson: https://business.financialpost.com/pmn/press-releases-pmn/business-wire-news-releases-pmn/audible-and-ryerson-university-announce-a-collaboration-to-develop-new-facilities-and-programming-in-audio-entertainment

- eBOUND Canada: https://www.eboundcanada.org

This month we're talking about book clubs. But not the kind where you pretend to read the books and just drink wine – real book clubs. We're bringing you some stats on Canadian book clubs: who's in them, how they find their books, and more. We also take a look at the popularity of celebrity book clubs. And lastly we talk to Randy Chan, senior marketing manager at Harlequin, who talks to us about the importance of book clubs to publishers and how they find and reach out to them.

To see the transcript of the episode and links to further reading see our blog post: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2018/9/28/the-first-rule-of-book-club-is-tell-us-all-about-your-book-club

From drag queens to Netflix to registered therapy dogs to power tools, Canada's libraries offer patrons more than just books.

In this month's episode, Athena McQueen tells us about her involvement with Drag Queen Story Time, and OLA's Michelle Arbuckle talks about the importance of libraries and community outreach programs. Plus Elizabeth Barker and Monique Mongeon share a little bit about BookNet's various library projects.

(Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2018/8/27/podcast-more-than-just-books-why-libraries-should-not-be-overlooked).

To find out more about Athena McQueen's upcoming events, visit her Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/theathenamcqueen/

The Drag Queen Storytime article that we mentioned, featuring Michelle and her daughter Simone, can be found here: https://torontolife.com/culture/books/inside-drag-queen-storytime-toronto-librarys-fiercest-kids-reading-series/

Finally, don't forget to check out OLA's Library Land Loves podcast: http://librarylandloves.libsyn.com/

Loan Stars: https://www.loanstars.ca/

SalesData for Libraries: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/salesdata-for-libraries

As part of his mission to make sure artists are financially supported, Toronto-based fundraising consultant Rahim Ladha has taken it upon himself to fund and award three new cash prizes for underrepresented writers in Canada, ranging from BIPOC writing poetry to non-binary illustrators working in SFF. In this month's episode, we talk to Rahim about his intentions for the monthly/quarterly awards, how it's going so far, and his plans for growing the program.

(Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2018/7/30/podcast-shoot-for-the-moon-awards-for-underrepresented-writers).

Full details on the Spark, Nova, and Echo awards, including eligibility and how to get in touch with Rahim, can be found at https://shootforthemoon.art. The 'racism in CanLit' article that Rahim mentions in the episode can be found at http://yilinwang.com/racism-in-canlit.

In our latest research study, we asked publishers about their digital publishing programs, from audio production to use of EPUB 3. We're sharing some highlights from the report in this month's episode. We also expand on recent trends in digital audiobooks and stress the importance of providing accessible content for libraries.

(Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2018/6/28/podcast-audiobooks-enhancements-and-accessibility-digital-publishing-in-2017).

Here are the links that we mention in the episode:

The State of Digital Publishing in Canada 2017: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/state-of-digital-publishing

BISG's Quick Start Guide to Accessible Publishing: https://bisg.org/store/ViewProduct.aspx?id=6972996

Loan Stars: https://www.loanstars.ca

Let's Sell Some Books TinyLetter: https://tinyletter.com/BookNet_Canada

PubFight: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/pubfight

How big is the book piracy issue, who's pirating them, and why? We answer these questions, offer other (legal!) ways of getting free books, and talk with Canadian publisher ECW about how the industry is (or isn't) fighting back against book theft. Visit our blog for all the show notes, including sources and further reading: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2018/5/28/podcast-batten-down-the-hatches-how-were-combatting-book-piracy

(Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2018/5/28/podcast-batten-down-the-hatches-how-were-combatting-book-piracy).

This month we're looking back at our biggest book-publishing-meets-technology conference ever. From March 21-23, 2018, hundreds of professionals from across the industry, from ebook developers to librarians, converged in Toronto for Tech Forum and ebookcraft to share, learn, and debate the future of the industry.

We've put together a highlight reel from some of our favourite talks (though they were all amazing), with insights on topics like metadata for ebooks, how retailers are bridging the digital divide, some great moments from our women in publishing panel, and lots more.

(Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2018/4/20/podcast-highlights-from-tech-forum-ebookcraft-2018).

Talks highlighted:

1:00 - Dave Cramer (Hachette), "Jiminy and Dave's Excellent CSS Adventure"

2:30 - Rose Donohoo (OverDrive), "Oh the Places Ebooks Go! An ebook's journey from creation to circulation"

3:30 - Noah Genner (BookNet Canada), "How We Read Digitally: ebookcraft 2018 research study"

4:25 - Monique Mongeon (BookNet Canada), "How We Read Digitally: ebookcraft 2018 research study"

5:12 - Ellen Ullman (Life in Code), "Ellen Ullman in Conversation"

7:38 - Scaachi Koul (Buzzfeed), "Women in Publishing Panel"

10:52 - Bhavna Chauhan (Penguin Random House Canada), "Women in Publishing Panel"

12:50 - Joshua Tallent (Firebrand Technologies), "Backlist Keywords"

14:30 - Jennifer Haines (The Dragon), "Retailers Bridging the Digital Divide"

15:08 - Serah-Marie McMahon (TYPE Books), "Retailers Bridging the Digital Divide"

15:49 - Noah Genner (BookNet Canada), "State of the Publishing Nation 2018"

16:22: - Jon Fleming (Audible), Reka Rubin (Harlequin), Nastaran Bisheban (Kobo), "Audio-First Publishing Panel"

18:35 - Jessamyn C. West (Randolph Technical Career Center), "Libraries Bridging the Digital Divide"

Watch the talks on BookNet Canada's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/BookNetCanadaVideos

Join the Tech Forum & ebookcraft mailing list: http://eepurl.com/Z8aIL

Tech Forum is presented by BookNet Canada. ebookcraft is presented by BookNet Canada and eBOUND Canada.

techforum.booknetcanada.ca