"Books", the biweekly newsletter of the Book Publishers Association of Alberta

The 2020 Alberta Book Publishing Awards are currently accepting submissions, through February 28, 2020. The shortlist will be announced in June, and winners will be announced at a Gala Evening at the Hotel Arts in Calgary on September 11, 2020.

The Indigenous Mentorship Program has re-opened for ongoing applications, with a deadline of January 10, 2020. See our website for the full details and application instructions.

Calgary Arts Development released its new grant investment program overview this week. Highlights of the update to their program include the removal of the OG+ program, Organizational Access Program, and Individual Artist Program. More information is available here.

Now Hiring!

Broadview Press has an opening for the position of Permissions Coordinator. More information can be found here. Applications are due January 16, 2020.

Ampersand Inc. is seeking sponsors for National/Regional Book Fairs that will begin in February 2020. There are a wide range of potential sponsorships available and they go a long way in supporting Canadian bookstores. A spreadsheet with the opportunities and sponsorship details/contacts can be found here.

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 being accepted for the Eric Hoffer Book Award, which recognizes excellence in independent publishing. There is a $60 submission fee and the deadline for submissions is January 21, 2020. More information on the awards and entry guidelines can be found on their website.

Editors Canada's newest award was created in memory of long-time association member Karen Virag, and in recognition of her many contributions to the profession. The Karen Virag Award recognizes the efforts of an editor or an organization to raise the profile of editing in their community. The recipient will be recognized on Saturday, June 20, at the banquet of the International Editors Conference 2020, and will receive a cash award of $400 and a commemorative plaque. Nominations are currently being accepted, through February 14, 2020. More information and nomination instructions are available on the Editors Canada website.

Registration for PubWest 2020 is now open. The theme of the conference is “Publishing in the Clouds: Practical Solutions for Big Ideas,” and will be held from February 20-22, 2020, in Portland, Oregon.

The Ministry of Culture, Multiculturalism, and Status of Women announced a new grant on December 10. The Multiculturalism, Indigenous and Inclusion Grant revitalizes the Anti-Racism Community Grant to support a broader range of projects. Projects will focus on promoting cross-cultural understanding, celebrating diverse backgrounds and helping Albertans understand the impacts of discrimination. There are two intakes remaining for 2020, with the first deadline on March 1. Full application guidelines and eligibility information is 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.

On Wednesday, December 4, 2019, A ccess Copyright released a statement regarding the K-12 litigation . The lawsuit was initiated by the Ministries of Education in February 2018, under the claim that they have overpaid Access Copyright $25 million from the years 2010-2012. In their statement, Access Copyright claims that they’re actually owed over $50 million in royalties for the years 2013-2019, which continues to grow each year. Additionally, they say that rights holders are being severely impacted by schoolteacher’s unauthorized use of copyrighted materials from Access Copyright’s repertoire.

On Friday, December 6, 2019, the Copyright Board of Canada issued a decision in relation to the Access Copyright Post-Secondary Educational Institution Tariffs which outlines the terms of access and annual rates for copying for each full-time student. A press release from the Association of Canadian Publishers can be found here.

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.

Upcoming sessions to be announced.

January 21 - February 8, 2020: Alcuin Awards for Book Design in Canada 2018 Showcase (Edmonton)
February 18-20, 2020: Alberta Regional Book Fair
February 20-22, 2020: PubWest 2020 (Oregon)
March 23-25, 2020: Tech Forum (Toronto)
May 30 - June 5: Congress 2020 - Bridging Divides (London, ON)
June 24-25, 2020 (TBC): Alberta Regional Book Fair
September 10-12: BPAA Annual Conference (Calgary)
September 11: Alberta Book Publishing Awards Gala (Calgary)
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.

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 21^st: 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.

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.

FICTION

Keeper’n Me - Richard Wagamese (Doubleday Canada)
Strange Planet - Nathan W. Pyle (HarperCollins)
The Testaments - Margaret Atwood (McClelland & Stewart)
Girl, Woman, Other - Bernardine Evaristo (Grove/Atlantic)
Agent Running in the Field - John le Carré (Penguin Random House)
Reproduction - Ian Williams (Penguin Random House)
The Dutch House - Ann Patchett (HarperCollins)
A Gentleman in Moscow - Amor Towles (Penguin Random House)
The Boy, the Horse, the Fox and the Mole - Charlie Mackesy (HarperCollins)
Where the Crawdads Sing - Delia Owens (Doubleday Canada)

NON-FICTION

Effin’ Birds - Aaron Reynolds (Ten Speed Press)
Duchess at Home - Giselle Courteau (Appetite by Random House) *
Fantastic Fungi - ed. Paul Stamets (Insight Editions)
Rocky Mountain Cooking - Katie Mitzel (Appetite by Random House)
Up Ghost River - Alexandra Shimo and Edmund Metatawabin (Knopf Canada)
First Nations Education in Canada - ed. Marie Battiste and Jean Barman (University of British Columbia Press)
tawâw: Progressive Indigenous Cuisine - Shane M. Chartrand * and Jennifer Cockrall-King (House of Anansi) *
Rising - Sharon Wood (Douglas & McIntyre)
Power Play: Professional Hockey and the Politics of Urban Development - Jay
Scherer, * David Mills, * Linda Sloan McCulloch (University of Alberta Press) * +
The Body - Bill Bryson (Doubleday Canada)

* Alberta Author + Alberta Publisher
Alberta Bestseller List Week Ending 2019-12-15

The Bestseller List is compiled by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta from information provided by BookNet Canada’s national sales tracking service, BNC SalesData. Thank you to Alberta Politics and the Taproot Edmonton Arts Roundup who distribute the list each week.

FICTION

The Empress of Idaho - Todd Babiak (McClelland and Stewart) *
The Tattooist of Auschwitz - Heather Morris (HarperCollins)
The Dutch House - Ann Patchett (HarperCollins)
Circe - Madeline Miller (Little Brown and Company)
My Sister, the Serial Killer - Oyinkan Braithwaite (Anchor)
Girl, Woman, Other - Bernardine Evaristo (Black Cat)
A Better Man - Louise Penny (St. Martin’s Publishing Group)
ʔbédayine - Kaitlyn Purcell (Metatron Press) *
Red, White & Royal Blue - Casey McQuiston (St. Martin’s Publishing Group)
Cockroach - Ian McEwan (Vintage)

NON-FICTION

Your Art Will Save Your Life - Beth Pickens (Feminist Press)
From the Ashes: My Story of Being Métis, Homeless, and Finding My Way - Jesse Thistle (Simon & Schuster)
Dirty Food: sticky, saucy, gooey, crumbly, messy, shareable food - Julie Van Rosendaal (self-published) *
No One is Too Small to Make a Difference - Greta Thunberg (Penguin Canada)
Duchess at Home: Sweet & Savoury Recipes from My Home to Yours - Giselle
Courteau (Appetite by Penguin Random House) *
Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know - Malcolm Gladwell (Little Brown and Company)
tawâw: Progressive Indigenous Cuisine - Shane M. Chartrand * and Jennifer Cockrall-King (House of Anansi) *
Power Play: Professional Hockey and the Politics of Urban Development - Jay Scherer, * David Mills, * Linda Sloan McCulloch (University of Alberta Press) * +
I’m Afraid of Men - Vivek Shraya (Penguin Canada) *
Underland: A Deep Time Journey - Robert Macfarlane (Penguin UK)

POETRY

This Love is Mad Reciprocal - Liam Coady (Glass Buffalo Publishing) * +
This Wound is a World - Billy-Ray Belcourt (Frontenac House) * +
A Place More Hospitable - Jason Purcell (Anstruther Press) *
NDN Coping Mechanisms: Notes from the Field - Billy-Ray Belcourt (House of
Anansi) *
For Your Safety Please Hold On - Kayla Czaga (Nightwood Editions)
Renaissance Normcore - Adèle Barclay (Nightwood Editions)
This is How We Disappear - Titilope Sonuga (Write Bloody North) *
Faces that Fled the Wind - Alycia Pirmohamed (BOAAT Press) *
I Am a Body of Land - Shannon Webb-Campbell (Book*hug)
Voodoo Hypothesis - Canisia Lubrin (Wolsak & Wynn)

* Alberta Author + Alberta Publisher
Edmonton Bestseller List Week Ending 2020-01-05

Thank you to Audreys Books and Glass Bookshop for providing sales data, and to Alberta Politics and the Taproot Edmonton Arts Roundup who distribute the list each week.

“Publishing is definitely something you do because you enjoy educating or entertaining people.”