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Message from the Executive Director
The second Alberta Book Day took place on Wednesday, November 6 in the concourse of the Federal Building. 18 publishers were on hand that day, displaying a wide array of their books. We distributed 900 tickets to attendees which were redeemed for free books. There were lively discussions with members of the government and public and our publishers. Minister Aheer delivered a heart-felt message about the importance of books and our industry, and referenced some of our members’ books which she is currently reading. The Proclamation of “Alberta Book Day” was followed by an introduction of publishers in the Legislature by the Speaker. Our thanks to Natalie Ozipko with the Cultural Industries Branch for her work in making the event go as smoothly as it did.

We are developing a plan for a project through the new “Accessible Digital Books” fund, hoping to secure funding to convert our members’ titles into accessible formats. This project would take place over two years, with all content converted and ready for distribution by the end of March 2021. More information will be coming out in the next couple of weeks.

With Frankfurt 2019 behind us, we’re focussing on plans for the 2020 fair. We’re working on securing funding for members to travel to Frankfurt for the big Guest of Honour year, and for the BPAA to have a booth again at the fair. The availability of the booth to publishers for their meetings was invaluable this year, as meeting space is at a premium. 

We are hoping to get more clarity this week regarding the impact of the Alberta budget on funding for our association and publishers. I will be in touch with our members as soon as more information is available.

With best regards,


Kieran Leblanc
Association News
The holidays are approaching, and we’d like to invite you to join us and your fellow members in celebrating. We’ve organized two BPAA member holiday gatherings, one in Edmonton on December 3, and one in Calgary on December 10. Please follow the attached links to the Eventbrite pages for further details and to reserve your ticket.

The Alberta Magazine Publishers Association and the Book Publishers Association of Alberta, with the support of the Alberta Cultural Industries Association, are pleased to present a workshop on fostering inclusive and respectful workplaces. Tickets are $45/person, and registration is open through November 15 for the Edmonton (November 19) and Calgary (November 20) sessions.

Full BPAA Members are able to apply for the 2019-20 subsidy program. Updated forms and further details are available on our website.

The Indigenous Mentorship Program has re-opened for ongoing applications, with an open deadline. See our website for the full details and application instructions.
Industry News

BookNet Canada's report What's in Store: The State of Independent Bookselling in Canada is the first of its kind in Canada, providing a comprehensive overview of the current condition of indie bookselling in the country.

Livre Canada Books is holding a webinar on December 11, 2019, on Global Social Media Strategies for Canadian publishers. The webinar, hosted by marketing expert, Monique Sherret, provides insights into developing and carrying out social media strategies for a global audience.

The Canada Council for the Arts has released new and simplified guidelines for their German translation program. More information is available here.

Submissions are now open for the Manitoba Book Awards/Les Prix du livre du Manitoba! November 18, 2019, is this year’s submission deadline (post-marked). Guidelines can be found here. All entries must be submitted through the online entry form. The 32nd annual Manitoba Book Awards will be held on the evening of Friday, May 8, 2020, at the Winnipeg Art Gallery.


FAVA, the Film and Visual Arts Association, will be holding information sessions on the AMS - an “Integrated Digital Arts Management System” designed specifically for artist-run centres - in Edmonton and Calgary on November 26 and 27. More details and registration links are available here.

The Shevchenko Foundation is currently holding a short prose competition for emerging writers. The competition awards a $1,500 prize to a Canadian writer for the best piece of unpublished prose of up to 1,500 words in the English language on a topic with a tangible connection to the Ukrainian Canadian experience. $1,000 will also be provided toward publication of the winning entry in a Canadian newspaper, magazine, or recognized digital distributor. Submissions are currently being accepted through December 2, 2019, and more information is available here.

The Writers’ Guild of Alberta (WGA) is now accepting submissions for the 2020 Alberta Literary Awards. Writers from across Alberta and their publishers are invited to check out and submit to this year’s award categories. The deadline for submissions is December 31, 2019, and full submission guidelines and instructions are available here. 

Tech Forum 2020 registration is now open, and the event will take place from March 23-25, 2020, in Toronto, Ontario.

PubWest 501 is currently running an educational series, offering a choice of two courses covering Distribution and the Title Profit & Loss Statement. See here for more information and registration details.

Canadian arts and culture organizations will soon be required to commit in writing to providing a workplace free of harassment and sexual misconduct in order to receive federal funding. Respectful Workplaces in the Arts is the gateway to CHRC’s national anti-harassment initiatives and resources such as “Workplace Harassment and Violence” and the CHRC’s comprehensive HR Management Toolkit.

The Cultural Human Resources Council (CHRC) and The Conference Board of Canada (CBoC) are pleased to announce the launch of a national survey of the Canadian cultural sector labour force - the first of its kind since 2010 and the only current national research on the sector’s employers and workers. Click here for more information and to fill out the survey.
Copyright
The BPAA, along with 43 other Canadian organizations, have come together to create a call to action for Canada's political parties in response to the findings of the Shifting Paradigms report. The call encourages each political party to "use this report and its recommendations as the underlying structure for your approach to the cultural sector." PDF copies of the full document are available in both English and French.

Access Copyright has released a letter template for rights holders in response to the unauthorized posting of copyrighted works on websites like ebook.bike. The letter was adapted for Canadian authors and publishers by the Writers' Union of Canada (WUC), from a template originally written by the US Author's Guild.

In the most recent video from Access Copyright's I Value Canadian Stories campaign, Sylvia McNicoll outlines the ways that the Copyright Modernization Act has impacted the livelihoods of authors and other creators, calling for action from the ministers in charge of the Statutory Review. Other videos in the series feature Christine Fischer Guy, Diana Stevan, Susan Stromberg-Stein, Sky Gilbert, David Chariandy, David Robertson, Jennifer Mook-Sang, Bill Horne, Scott White, Amy Stuart, and Andrew Pyper.
Professional Development
Anti-harassment in the Workplace
In partnership with the Alberta Magazine Publishers Association

Edmonton, November 19
9:30am-12:30pm
Tickets

Calgary, November 20
9:30am-12:30pm
Tickets
Upcoming Events
November 16: Book Launch! Air Salt by Ian Kinney (Calgary)
November 18: Giller Light Bash YYC (Calgary)
November 19: Anti-Harassment in the Workplace (Edmonton)
November 20: Anti-Harassment in the Workplace (Calgary)
December 3: BPAA Edmonton Holiday Gathering
December 10: BPAA Calgary Holiday Gathering 
December 11: Global Social Media Strategies Webinar
February 20-22, 2020: PubWest 2020 (Oregon) 
March 23-25, 2020: Tech Forum (Toronto)
May 30 - June 5: Congress 2020 - Bridging Divides (London, ON)
October 14-18, 2020: Frankfurt Book Fair (Germany)
The BPAA, Edmonton Arts Council, and Calgary Arts Development all maintain calendars of upcoming arts and culture events. To submit events please email eacweekly@edmontonarts.ca, or use the submission forms for Calgary Arts Development and the BPAA.
Awards, Grants & Funding
Ongoing: Arts Abroad (Canada Council for the Arts)
FBM2020
The Canada Council for the Arts has updated the guidelines for its initiative Frankfurt 2020: Incentive for Purchasing Translation Rights and for Publishing in German. The changes now make it possible to apply for translation and promotion costs for all books, and to apply for books that have a scheduled Canadian publication date before the start of the 2020 Frankfurt Book Fair (in addition to books already published in Canada). More information and application instructions can be found here (and through the link above).

As the Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair, Canada will be organizing literary programming in partnership with the Literary Programming Committee (LPC). Canada FBM2020 is now accepting submissions from publishers and literary agents to participate. The official call for submissions and eligibility criteria can be found here (FR).

Major renovations are taking place at the Frankfurt Book Fair. Publishing Perspectives has outlined what to expect for the upcoming years.

With FBM2020 approaching, a professional development day was held in Toronto on March 21st: Roadmap 2020: Building Your Rights Business. This day-long event aimed to guide publishers through the process of selling foreign rights for their titles. Videos presentations from the event have been made available online.

CanadaFMB2020 invites you to save the date for upcoming events and activities at FBM 2019 this fall: 
October 16, 5:00 pm: Livres Canada Books Stand - Networking Reception 
October 17, 11:00 am: Preview Press Conference - Canada FBM2020 
October 17, 5:00 pm: Québec Édition Stand - Networking Reception
October 20, 3:30 pm: Handover Ceremony 

The literary programming sub-committee members for CanadaFBM2020 have been announced. Heather Kanabe, Claudia Larochelle and Hal Wake will be tasked with coordinating Canada's literary programming in Germany and Frankfurt for the 2020 book fair.

In advance of Canada’s presence as the Guest of Honour at the 2020 Frankfurt Book Fair, Canada FBM2020 is looking for input to help FBM2020 and its German counterparts better understand the rich Canadian publishing landscape, its marketplace, influencers, creators, producers and readers.

CanadExport podcasts connect Canadian companies to business leaders and industry experts, as well as the Canadian Trade Commissioner Service. These podcasts explore hot topics as well as pan-sectoral exporting and investment opportunities, and science and technology partnerships.


Canada FBM2020’s Online Rights Catalogue enables Canadian publishers and literary agents to promote titles that have been selected especially for the German market. New titles from Canadian publishers can be listed in the Canada FBM2020 Rights Catalogue for free and with no registration deadline, which means that you can submit new titles at any time and add information of modify details about your selections at your convenience. 
 

Canada FBM2020, the entity responsible for managing the Canadian book publishing industry's involvement in the Canada as Guest of Honour initiative, is tracking German rights deals from October 2016 to 2020 for reporting purposes and to help on further activities surrounding the Guest of Honour project. If you have sold a German rights deal for one of your titles, please complete the following Google form, inform FBM2020 by email, or visit their website. 
Edmonton's Bestselling Books
FICTION

The Red Chesterfield - Wayne Arthurson * +
Haunting the Haunted - E.C. Bell * +
The Testaments - Margaret Atwood
Agent Running in the Field - John le Carré
The Cockroach - Ian McEwan
A Wake For The Dreamland - Laurel Deedrick-Mayne *
The Guardians - John Grisham
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
Ducks, Newburyport - Lucy Ellmann
The Starless Sea - Erin Morgenstern

NON-FICTION

From the Ashes: My Story of Being Métis, Homeless, and Finding My Way - Jesse Thistle
tawâw: Progressive Indigenous Cuisine - Shane M. Chartrand * and Jennifer Cockrall-King *
Power Play: Professional Hockey and the Politics of Urban Development - Jay Scherer, * David Mills, * Linda Sloan McCulloch * +
Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know - Malcolm Gladwell
From Where I Stand: Rebuilding Indigenous Nations for a Stronger Canada - Jody Wilson-Raybould
The Collected Schizophrenias - Esmé Weijun Wang
Duchess at Home: Sweet & Savoury Recipes from My Home to Yours - Giselle Courteau *
The Body: A Guide for Occupants - Bill Bryson
Halfbreed (Revised Edition) - Maria Campbell
Silver Linings: Stories of Gratitude, Resiliency and Growth Through Adversity - Janice Landry

* Alberta Author  + Alberta Publisher

Thank you to Audreys Books for providing sales data, and to Alberta Politics and the Taproot Edmonton Arts Roundup who distribute the list each week
Reading List
At the Frankfurter Buchmesse’s Audio Summit conference, speakers from around the globe gathered to discuss the booming audiobook market. The director general of Hachette Livre's Audiolib, Valérie Lévy-Soussan, provided insights into the evolution of the audiobook market from CD's and cassettes to fully digital formats.

Numerous countries have declared their intention to lower taxes on digital publications after new EU legislation allows member states to lift the current 20% VAT. The UK is being urged to scrap eBook taxes by activists who hold that tax-free digital publications will benefit consumers, authors, publishers, and the general economy. 

Recently, the European Parliament and the Council came to a provisional agreement on the European Accessibility Act, which regulates accessibility standards on numerous fronts. The act is a step towards making "born accessible" eBooks mandatory, creating equal access to digital content for print-disabled users.  
Quote of the BiWeek
“A publisher should go where the books are, wherever that may be.” 
―Christopher MacLehose
Copyright © 2019 Book Publishers Association of Alberta, All rights reserved.


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The Book Publishers Association of Alberta is grateful for the support of our funders:
City of Edmonton | Edmonton Arts Council | City of Calgary | Calgary Arts Development | Canada Council for the Arts | Department of Canadian Heritage | Government of Alberta | Alberta Culture, Multiculturalism, and Status of Women | Access Copyright Foundation