Canada Reads 2011 has come to a close with Terry Fallis taking home the prize for his novel The Best Laid Plans.
A few of us at BNC were lucky enough to attend the debates this week.
Capitalizing on the Giller Announcements
The Scotiabank Giller shortlist was announced on Tuesday, and people are absolutely delighted by the number of independent presses represented on this list. But many are also worried. They worry that the independents won’t know how to react. Steven Beattie wrote a thoughtful piece on the plight of the shortlisted indie publisher just yesterday. It’s true. It can be difficult for publishers without much Giller experience to know exactly what to do, when to reprint and how much. BNC can help with that—as long as a print job can be scheduled in time.
Check Out the Giller's Track Record
The fall book season has officially begun now that the Giller longlist is out. Everyone is overthinking how to sum up the jury’s selections, but the longlist does indeed seem like “a fairly balanced affair”.
Politics aside, this is a moment for the nominees to celebrate. The Scotiabank Giller Prize works. It brings considerable attention to Canadian fiction, and it has been proven to generate sales, significant sales.
Do Sales Make an Author Overrated?
On Tuesday, Alex Good and Steven W. Beattie gave another good stir to the CanLit pot by listing who, in their opinion, are the ten most overrated fiction writers in Canada. Now, I’m not going to take sides; BookNet Canada officially loves all books equally. But working for BNC, whose SalesData service tracks approximately 75% of the Canadian book market, does make you wonder about “real value” in publishing.
