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

Message from the Executive Director

The annual conference schedule is now posted on our website, and we hope that many of you will be able to join us for the AGM, Conference and Awards Gala taking place from September 13 - 14 in Edmonton. A reminder to our out of Edmonton members that you can apply for the member subsidy for your travel and accommodation costs to attend.

We’re delighted to welcome our friend Ken Davis, Director of Marketing and Communications at the Citadel Theatre, and former member of the BPAA, as our keynote speaker at this year’s Awards Gala. Ken has an extensive knowledge of the arts and culture scene in Edmonton and Alberta, and a strong perspective of how books fit into all of that.

Yesterday we put out a call for submissions for titles that will be displayed at our booth on the Canada Stand at Frankfurt Buchmesse this October. We look forward to showcasing the fine work of Alberta book publishers, alongside the work of our colleagues in British Columbia. We’ll be updating the online catalogue to include our new members, and promoting it on the new website that is being created for that purpose.

We’re also planning a PD workshop on anti-harassment in the workplace, in partnership with the Alberta Magazine Publishers Association. These will take place in Edmonton and Calgary in November - more details to follow.

With best regards,

Kieran Leblanc

Association News

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

Registration for the 2019 Book Publishers Association of Alberta Conference and Alberta Book Publishing Awards Gala, held at the Varscona Hotel in Edmonton from September 12-14, 2019 is now open through the above links. We hope to see everyone there!

The schedule for the 2019 BPAA conference is now 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

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.

Now hiring!

The University of Alberta Press is hiring an Acquisitions Editor. More details are available on the University of Alberta's Careers website.

Alberta Views magazine is seeking proposals for a comical monthly cartoon on politics, social issues or culture. Please send your best cartoons, no longer than one page each, to queries@albertaviews.ca by July 31, 2019.

From October 9 to 27, 2019, Canada will be the Guest Country at one of the biggest performing art festivals worldwide – Festival Internacional Cervantino. Featuring artists from across Canada, the festival will include stage shows, films, and visual, literary and performing arts programming. The full Canada program has just been announced and can be found on the Canada Council for the Arts website.

The Alberta Foundation for the Arts has recently updated their grant terms, to switch from yearly grant cycles to quarterly. Read more on the update in a recent CBC article.

Frankfurter Buchmesse has just announced that they will be extending book sale days at the 2019 fair to include both Saturday and Sunday. The CEO and President of Frankfurter Buchmesse, Juergen Boos, explains that the expansion of book sales is necessary to support the increase in book buyers they saw in 2018.

Member publishers University of Calgary Press and Freehand Books both had titles featured in the June issue of the Literary Review of Canada. Read more about The Student by Cary Fagan (Freehand Books) in "Family Ties," and Imperial Standard by Graham D. Taylor (University of Calgary Press) in "Drip by Drip."

In a recent Canada Day-themed blog post on All Lit Up, two titles from BPAA member publishers NeWest Press and Stonehouse Publishing were highlighted with books named for Alberta and Saskatchewan.

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.

Since the conclusion of the parliamentary review of the Copyright Modernization Act, the Association of Canadian Publishers have issued a media release to urge the government to act on the recommendations of the Shifting Paradigms report. Read the full release here.

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
Sessions are being planned for Edmonton and Calgary in November - stay tuned for more details.

Upcoming Events

July 20: Fiddlehead 2020: A Special Anniversary Event (Edmonton)
August 1-30: Vistas of the West Art Show and Book Launch (Calgary)
August 29: Vistas of the West Book Launch and Readings (Calgary)
September 4: Vistas of the West Book Launch (Calgary)
September 8: Vistas of the West Readings (Turner Valley)
September 12-14: BPAA Annual Conference (Edmonton)
September 13: BPAA Book Publishing Awards Gala (Edmonton)
September 20: Yellowhead Regional Library Conference (Edmonton)
September 21: Word on the Street (Lethbridge)
September 26-27: Rural Libraries Conference 2019 (Grande Prairie)
September 30: Audreys Book Club September: The Melting Queen (Edmonton)
October 16-20: Frankfurt Book Fair (Germany)
October 14-18, 2020: Frankfurt Book Fair (Germany)
November 14: Alberta Book Day (Edmonton)

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

September 9: Organizational Access Program Application (Calgary Arts Development)
Ongoing: Arts Abroad (Canada Council for the Arts)

FBM2020

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.

The Frankfurt 2020: Incentive for Purchasing Translation Rights and for Publishing in German has launched! The Canada Council, in partnership with the Department of Canadian Heritage, is setting up a one-time initiative for the translation, and in some cases, the production and promotion of Canadian works into German. For the duration of the initiative, the Council will fund the translation of works by Canadian authors even in genres normally outside its mandate.

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

Season of Fury and Wonder - Sharon Butala *
Big Sky - Kate Atkinson
The Empress of Idaho - Todd Babiak *
Dual Citizens - Alix Ohlin
This Place: 150 Years Retold - Various Contributors, Foreword by Alicia Elliott
The Reckoning - John Grisham
Where the Crawdads Sing - Delia Owens
Bunny - Mona Awad
The Perfect Girlfriend - Karen Hamilton
Jonny Appleseed - Joshua Whitehead *

NON FICTION

D is for Dementia (children's) - Lori Chenger *
Stuck! Learn to Love your Screenplay Again - Josh Miller * +
Lands of Lost Borders: Out of Bounds on the Silk Road - Kate Harris
Boy Wonders: A Memoir - Cathal Kelly
No Immediate Danger: Volume 1 of Carbon Ideologies - William T. Vollmann
Elements of Indigenous Style - Gregory Younging +
Enlightenment Philosophy in a Nutshell - Jane O'Grady
The Forgotten Child - Richard Gallear
Diversify - June Sarpong
Geddy Lee's Big Beautiful Book of Bass - Geddy Lee

* Alberta Author + Alberta Publisher

Thank you to Audreys Books for providing sales data, and to Daveberta and Alberta Politics, who distribute the list each week

Reading List

BookNet Canada has released its annual report The Canadian Book Buyer 2018. This in-depth study examines trends in book-buying and includes consumer research that will prove useful to booksellers, marketers, and publishers.

Global Publisher, Springer Nature, recently completed the first large scale survey that aims to understand the views of book authors on open access. They surveyed over 2,500 authors and saw trends in attitudes across different regions of the world. Ros Pyne, Springer Nature’s director of open access books, argues that open access is a more sustainable way for authors to increase readership.

In June 2019, the second event in the newly created PublisHer series was held at the International Publishers Association‘s (IPA) “Africa Rising” seminar in Nairobi. Meant to celebrate women in publishing, the Nairobi event "featured performance, discussion, and networking." Publishing Perspectives has more on the highlights, alongside three exclusive interviews.

Quote of the BiWeek

“Publishing a book is like stuffing a note into a bottle and hurling it into the sea. Some bottles drown, some come safe to land...”

―Margaret Atwood