So Misguided

I’m preparing to go to Toronto next week for BookExpo Canada (BEC). What is BEC? Well, it’s the Canadian version of BEA, BookExpo America. I know, clever name. Anyway, BEC is a book convention. Canadian publishers gather in the convention centre, they have booths, and booth parties, and in the booths are typically sales and marketing folks who talk to booksellers and media about the upcoming season and the fantastic books on the list.

Why do we do this? Some publishers offer discounts on book orders at the show, but in recent years the number of book orders taken at the show has dropped off. It’s not really the purpose of the show. Ok, so what is the purpose? Authors often attend and sign books for booksellers, who already love or know about the author. Signings for unheard of authors don’t draw a crowd so publishers have stopped inviting unknown authors. Unpublished authors sometimes come and try to meet the editors and pass off a manuscript, but generally the editors don’t come or don’t want to carry around manuscripts, which eventually get lost in the booth anyway. So why, why do we spend the money every year to participate in this event? I’m not sure, but I’m going to start asking people who might know.

Posted by Monique at 12:52 PM. Filed under: Books •

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Alice Munro has been in the back of my car for a couple of months now, and today she finally left.

Ok, it wasn’t actually Alice Munro, it was a huge banner for Alice Munro’s book Runaway. I kind of liked having Alice rolling around in the back of my car, but it certainly pissed off James. I don’t think he’s a fan, but then again, she was always getting in his way. “When is this leaving?” he’d say, not so much with a question mark, more with an exclamation.

My problem was only partly procrastination. I was going to take her to the library, but then I thought, the paperback is coming out and wouldn’t it be great to give Alice to a bookstore.

So Alice has return to her natural habitat, and now my car, and my heart, are empty without her.

Posted by Monique at 05:06 PM. Filed under: Books •

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So far 67 attendees at Chuck Palahniuk’s book readings have fainted. They all did not attend the same reading, there’s no chicken salad food poisoning or stuffy room syndrome that can account for the dropping of audience members. And it’s not just the ladies.

Portland, Oregon: 2 men faint
Borders: 2 faint, man and woman
Seattle: 2 more men faint
San Francisco: 3 more people faint
Berkeley: 3 more [apparently the words “corn and peanuts” were particularly horrifying.]
Beverly Hills library, Los Angeles: woman’s husband faints, in the men’s bathroom another man faints and cracks his head on the sink
Columbia University: 2 students fall victim to Palahniuk’s prose
Leeds and Cambridge, Britain: more fainters ...

67 people so far have fainted at readings of Chuck Palahniuk’s short story “Guts.”

Palahniuk says in a Telegraph article:

My goal was to write a new form of horror story, something based on the ordinary world, without supernatural monsters or magic. Guts, and the book that contained it, would be a trapdoor down into some place dark. A place only you could go, alone. Only books have that power.

Apparently carrots, candles, swimming pools, microwave popcorn and bowling balls are also involved, but as far as we know, not as faint-inducing as corn and peanuts.

The story is included in Palahniuk’s new novel Haunted. I suggest reading it with a medical attendant standing by.

Posted by Monique at 12:56 PM. Filed under: Books •

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On June 11th (4pm-10pm), Seamrippers craft collective will be hosting the MOBILIVRE-BOOKMOBILE Project at their space: the pink door at 436 West Pender, Vancouver. (Also the closing day for Seamrippers’ Mini Book Show.)

Mobilivre-Bookmobile Info, http://www.mobilivre.org

Project Mobilivre-Bookmobile explores the tradition of the travelling library; you know, the book van that used to come down all the rural routes? If you don’t, this is the coolest bookmobile I’ve ever seen.

The Bookmobile is a vintage 1959 Airstream.

[UPDATE: I’m having trouble with the root for this image. Have a look at the mobilivre.org site.]

The MOBILIVRE-BOOKMOBILE project is based primarily in Montreal, Canada and Philadelphia, USA. This is the fifth year of the touring exhibition of artist books, zines and independent publications.

The BOOKMOBILE visits a variety of venues in Canada and the US including community centres, schools, libraries, festivals, artist-run centres, and galleries.

Also Seamrippers is its own damn cool place.
436 West Pender, 604.689.SEAM (7326)
www.seamrippers.ca

Posted by Monique at 01:22 PM. Filed under: Books •

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Winnipeg writer David Bergen is gracing the cover of the June issue of Quill & Quire, Canada’s magazine of book news and reviews. Bergen has the cover story because he has written a fantastic novel, The Time In Between. I was lucky enough to read an advance copy, and I loved it.

David Bergen’s previously acclaimed novel was The Case of Lena S., which won the Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award and was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award for Fiction. I didn’t much care for The Case of Lena S. It was set in Winnipeg, which was interesting to me, but the characters didn’t grab me. Not so with The Time In Between.

Charles Boatman is an American who fought in the Vietnam war, then came home to his wife and kids and could never quite get settled. He eventually leaves his cheating wife and becomes a bit of a recluse in interior BC. But the ex-wife dies and the 3 kids end up on his doorstep. That’s the backdrop and Bergen really quickly gets you into the story and the tensions of Charles and his eldest daughter Ada.

If this was a film, the second act starts out with Charles returning to Vietnam. He disappears. His kids (now adults) Ada and Jon, leave the younger sister Del in BC, and travel to Danang, Vietnam to search for their father. Their quest to find their father is incredibly engaging. The focus of the story moves back and forth—from Charles to Ada to Jon to Del to various Vietnamese characters. The whole story is elusive and yet crafted in a way that as a reader you are not frustrated with the pace.

We’re all on some sort of quest narrative, and Bergen has definitely found his way. In the Quill article he is quoted as saying, “wasn’t it Samuel Beckett who said that with every book you are bound to fail? But the next time, you hope to go out and fail better.” Bergen has failed marvelously. The Time in Between releases in August and according to Quill, Bergen will be on a 10-city tour from Vancouver to Halifax.

If you’re looking for interesting Canadian fiction, check out David Bergen. The Time In Between is truly worth it.

Posted by Monique at 05:03 PM. Filed under: Books •

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I am dead impressed with the Britons at Penguin UK. Twice this year I have been wowed by their book marketing campaigns.

It is easy to bemoan the less than creative tactics North American companies use to market books, and then not do anything about it. So I’ve been mulling over the state of affairs in an attempt to generate creative ideas with action items.

One of my reflections is that publishers treat reading as this serious thing that will somehow improve your life and that’s why you should do it. This line of thought in teen marketing particularly sucks. Publishers talk about making reading cool, but I don’t think we actually get around to making it really cool.

So what’s cool and how do you find it?

I think the book publishing industry does a lot of inward looking vs. outward looking. Forget what that other publisher is doing, what are the cool recording studios doing, what’s Apple doing, what are cell phone companies doing? Why not look at industries with high competition. Seems to me that in hugely competitive markets, the creative departments and ad agencies are really driven to create clever and unique campaigns. Is the lack of exciting, memorable book ad campaigns partly due to a lack of competition? I think so.

I don’t know what kind of rabbits I can pull out of my hat in terms of book campaigns, but I’m setting my sights on Penguin UK.

A couple of months ago Penguin launch “Are you good booking”. The site was set up to promote the male counterpart to chick lit, but it wasn’t just about books the boys would like. It was about what books you should have on the coffee table or be able to discuss with a date. What books would make you good booking in the eyes of a lady love who loves reading. Jocks and books, the ladies’ man and books. Sex it up.

The campaign was clever. There were polls and puns and lots of sex talk. I vaguely recall a list with books that had great sex scenes. I can’t find the original screen shots I took, but the site does still have Good Booking Monthly selections and the cheekiness is carried through in some of the copy. For example, “Hornby Days are Here Again.” Can’t you hear the ladies cooing, “oh Nick.”

So that was number 1. Number 2 is Penguin Remixed. Hear Penguin. Sample Penguin. Remix Penguin.

I know some of you cool kids already know about this, but I’m gob-smacked by this most awesome use of spoken words. I’ve been to other sites with audio readings by the author. Those are lovely, but really author readings are better live and the audio clips don’t normally make it anywhere interesting—like passed around to your friends and saved in your playlist. Enter Penguin.

Penguin has taken 30 of the “best spoken word samples from some of the greatest books of all time and the finest actors around.” Read here: Penguin has published many of the greatest books of all time, many being Penguin Classics—you remember the orange spine, the penguin logo ... anyway they have posted the media samples for us to play with and they are cool. Not just wouldn’t it be nice if the kids thought books were cool, but truly pass-on-to-your-friends cool. Try these samples on for size. There’s a contest too to submit personal entries. Books, music, online contests: I like it.

Check out Penguin Remixed but make sure you have an intervention plan in place. This site is addictive.

Have you seen any great campaigns lately for books? Or that could be modified for books? I’m on the lookout.

By the way, Geist magazine has a cool Haiku Night in Canada video and a Listening Room.

Posted by Monique at 06:36 PM. Filed under: Books • Technology •

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Canadian Press last week reported that Sears Canada Inc. has hired the services subsidiary of Amazon.com Inc. to provide “a more robust online shopping experience” at sears.ca.

Oh the joy. What does this mean tech-wise? Will there be books?

“This is a significant business initiative with aggressive growth opportunities and other long-term benefits and is planned with a substantial return on investment,” stated Brent Hollister, president and CEO of Sears Canada. “It is important to us to incorporate web features that make sears.ca as user-friendly as today’s technology allows,” Hollister added. Sears will concentrate on its “core competencies including merchandising, marketing, fulfillment and customer service.”

Other Amazon Services clients include Target.com and NBA.com.

Now whatever happened to the talks between Zellers and Target? Have you been to a Target. They’ve got books. What are the odds of Sears adding books? Does anyone remember the book department at the Bay? Mmmm. Memories. I think I got a Zamfir record signed in book department of the Bay in 1982 or ‘83.

Posted by Monique at 07:58 PM. Filed under: Books •

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I bought a PSP this week. Mmmmmm. It is a handsome little machine. Unfortunately for me I have to give it to someone else. Regardless, portable entertainment has arrived. It is a very sweet looking package, slim, great screen, and you can play games, music and movies. Also good for photos. I fear the thing will get easily scratch, but what’s a little wear and tear. Love nips really.

If only it could offer wireless phone and internet ... I looked at the Fido Hiptop2. Blech. It looks big and ugly.

I’m waiting for the sexy little machine that will solve all my wireless work/play needs.

James sent me this peek at things to come, check out Jason Kottke’s post:

The Sony Librie.

The thing that blew me away was the Sony Librie, the first commerically available electronic ink e-book reader. Here’s a photo I took:

What you can’t see from the photo is how insanely crisp and clear the text on the “screen” is. It was book-text quality…it looked like a decal until you pushed the next button and the whole screen changed. It was *really* mind-boggling and you could instantly see how most books are going to be distributed in the very near future.

Ah, books and the future, a subject close to my heart.

I think there’s a separate post in me regarding future distribution models for books. Stay tuned, the life of the mind isn’t exactly reliable or timely. I find lately I’ve been reflecting on the book industry and where it should be going. These are fleeting moments of brilliance that have yet to make it onto paper.

Not associating myself with genius, just an interesting segway, Albert Einstein apparently felt like an underachiever.

In my case, I’m testing Newton’s theory of relative motion. A body at rest will remain at rest. I’ve noticed in my house this does not apply, “oh, are you having a nap?”

What gave it away? The pillow? The horizontal position? The closed eyes?

Posted by Monique at 05:46 PM. Filed under: Books • Technology •

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Last night I went on a guided literary tour with host and author Michael V. Smith. As one friend put it, “I’d follow Michael V. Smith anywhere.” The Literary Tour was part of BC’s Book and Magazine Week.

Fun and prizes were involved.

Destination 1 was Pulp Fiction. Talon Books presented bill bissett, Jamie Reid and George Bowering.

Destination 2 was Lark. Raincoast Books presented Karen X. Tulchinsky. Whitecap Books presented Julie Van Rosendaal. And apparently delectable finger foods were provided. I joined the tour a little late.

Destination 3 was Burcus’s Angels. Event Magazine presented a reading.

Destination 4. Enter Monique. Soma Coffee House. Anvil Press and Nightwood Editions presented Fiona Tinwei Lam—I liked her poems, Matt Rader—he was good too, but the music from Monsoon was rattling off the window I was sitting against and I got distracted, but his new book looks beautiful, and last was Lyle Neff whose son was in the audience. Lyle read a poem about his son’s death. He did, of course, make a joke about the darkness of his work, “there are happy poems in the book.”

Destination 5. I got my second event punch, one more and I was on my way to winning prizes. Our Town Cafe, my most favourite haunt and home of Henry’s Americano. Dance International Magazine presented a dance and a dance critic introduced the soloist. It was a modern piece that moved around the room. And I won a prize for knowing that Bournonville worked with the National Ballet of Denmark. Oh it was my good fortune to have a copy of the Spring 2005 issue on my table, with the headline “Bournonville’s Legacy—Danish Dance and Beyond.” Denmark was fed to me.

Destination 6 was in THE most interesting building, home of FRONT Magazine. There was a sign on the stairwell that said “denouement” and at one point everyone at my table upstairs passed around a sign “Climax.” I had a Lager and another chance at prizes. There was also a stack of Tylenol on my table.

It was pretty fun, essentially we followed Michael V. Smith around. He was dressed as a ringleader with pink and red knee high socks, black suit and top hat. Under the top hat was a frog.

And people think the arts are unaccessible?

Posted by Monique at 05:04 PM. Filed under: Books •

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Here’s a random round-up of book news:

Grumpy Old Bookman is talking about the UK publishing industry’s support or denunciation of Google Print. The comments can be extended to the North American publishing industry. Are we for or against? It depends what day it is and who’s asking. Here’s the post.

On The Tyee, Lisa Richardson comments on “The Art of Book Dropping.” In particular she talks about BookCrossing.com. Let your books wander. Read the article.

Paul Kennedy of CBC fame is quoted in John Mullan’s column in the Guardian, regarding a movement to make Leonard Cohen the next recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature.

“Now one of the best-known radio broadcasters on the CBC, the Canadian equivalent of the BBC, is leading a campaign to have Montréal’s own bard given this year’s Nobel prize for literature.”

Get the full meal deal, read the Guardian article or just listen to The Man, leonardcohen.com.

Posted by Monique at 05:05 PM. Filed under: Books •

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BBC News reported yesterday that the writings of Joseph Ratzinger had ousted Harry Potter from the German book charts.

Seems everyone’s favourite wizard was put in his place on Thursday. The German version of Amazon had three of the Pope’s books in the top spots on the charts, pushing Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (coming July 16) to fourth place.

Fourth place. Outrageous! Well, outrageous really that an unpublished book has sat at #1 since its publication was announced in December.

From Regular Joe to JO. Both JOs have gone from unknown to superstar. Both JOs have a small empires. Both JOs have book deals. It is nice that someone is making money in publishing.

Posted by Monique at 09:27 PM. Filed under: Books •

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April 21 is Earth Day. It’s better being green.

My favourite independent US bookstore, Powells, has posted a Green Press Initiative section in recognition of publishers who support the forest-friendly paper initiative. Read about Green Press Initiative.

I was also pleased to see mention of Alice Munro on the wire today. Canadian Press is reporting “The fictional wizard Harry Potter and real-life renowned writer Alice Munro are helping to spearhead a made-in-Canada environmental campaign designed to save the world’s endangered old-growth forests.” Go team!

Markets Initiative is the Vancouver-based environmental group who is working with the Canadian publishing industry to shift from printing on paper that originates from ancient forests to more ecologically sound alternatives, like 100% post-consumer recycled paper.

I’d like to point out that recycled paper is not what it was originally. It is not grey or brown or trashy like newspapers. High-quality recycled paper is out there, and it makes a lot of sense to support the publishers and authors who take a stand—Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje, Farley Mowat, Barbara Gowdy, Alice Munro, McClelland & Stewart, Raincoast Books, 35 Canadian mags including Canadian Geographic, Walrus, Harrowsmith Country Life, Owl and Cottage Life. I know I’m missing people and I apologize. The point is the economies of scale, the more demand for this paper, the more the printers will source it, the less it will cost, the better it will be for the world.

Here are some of the facts from the CP story:
• 80% of the world’s large tracts of old-growth forest have already been logged.

• Canada, Russian and Brazil hold the vast majority of what’s left

• Northern Canada is home to 25% of the world’s remaining frontier ancient forests

• Globally, 71% of the world’s paper comes from ecologically valuable forests, rather than from tree farms.

Check the back cover or the copyright page for the tag line on forest-friendly books. It usually something like “This book is printed on acid-free paper that is 100% recycled, ancient-forest friendly (100% post-consumer recycled).”

It’s Earth Day on Thursday. Love the rock you live on.

Posted by Monique at 05:37 PM. Filed under: Books •

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The Litblog Co-op was all over the news this week. I love it. I’ve been following the progress on Bookdwarf and Elegant Variation.

What is it? The Litblog Co-op: “Uniting the leading literary weblogs for the purpose of drawing attention to the best of contemporary fiction, authors and presses that are struggling to be noticed in a flooded marketplace.”

Ya, so what is it? On May 15, the 20 participating litblogs will announce the 5 titles they think everyone should read. Apparently this will happen 4 times a year.

What I like is that the objective is to give little-known books more attention. Like my favourite book, Up In Ontario.

Posted by Monique at 12:44 PM. Filed under: Blogging • Books •

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Google, the Code, the B-day

Happy 553rd Birthday Da Vinci. Google’s got a Da Vinci illustration today. Yahoo.

Da Vinci was a man after my own heart. He was good at a lot of things but not great. Well, ok, that Mona Lisa was pretty great, but it was only one of six finished paintings. Now I like to complete tasks, but what I admire is that Da Vinci could do a little bit of everything. I aspire to that kind of wide-spread brilliance.

I often engage in conversations about thematic convergence so let me tell you the Da Vinci connection.

I woke up this morning wondering about that damn Da Vinci Code and why it’s so popular. I have read it, and have bought it as a gift, so I’m not slamming the book. I’m just interested in pinpointing its tipping point. As I was mulling over the Code, I turned on the computer and Google popped up with the Da Vinci banner. I look up Da Vinci Code in amazon and saw that the publication date was March 18, 2003. The book has been on bestseller lists for two years. How does this happen? Then I found this article on PopMatters.

Read the article on PopMatters, which, by the way, comments on the many trees “felled to print the billions of pages demanded by hungry readers.”

Why don’t publishers print books on 100% post-consumer recycled paper and stop clearing the world of its old growth forests. Maybe Da Vinci Code is? I don’t know. But wouldn’t it be great to demand that any book being mass produced be printed on old-growth free paper, preferrably something recycled? 18 million copies is a lot of trees.

Posted by Monique at 01:16 PM. Filed under: Books •

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Jane Jacobs’ Dark Age Ahead won the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing. This is the top political writing prize in Canada and worth $15,000. Not bad for one’s evening take home pay.

The Shaughnessy Cohen prize is award annually to the most outstanding political book based on literary merit and enhancement of one’s understanding of political and social issues in Canada.

If you liked Ronald Wright’s A Short History of Progress, you’ll like Jane Jacob’s Dark Age Ahead. It has sat on the bestseller list for awhile, but aside from that the book is described as a grave warning to a society losing its memory. I quite frequently talk about “collective memory” and its fallibility regarding politics. But Jane and Ronald truly outperform in terms of hammering that message home.

Jane’s book is her reflection on society and her lessons on how to avoid decline. And we’re not talking physical body decline (although Jane is 88), we’re talking society’s decline. She looks at North American culture and compares it to European culture before the fall of the Roman Empire. And those who remember history will recall the “Dark Ages” followed.

I’m humming “The Imperial March” from the Empire Strikes Back. I would like to believe civilization continues, but I could do with a little less empire.

Posted by Monique at 06:34 PM. Filed under: Books •

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