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.
Track Your Success
How Ladies Find Books: Tips for Online Book Matchmaking
We at BookNet Canada talk a lot about metadata, sometimes ad nauseam. Accurate and thorough metadata is the best way for consumers to find out about a publisher’s book online. Some people think, “Well, that’s great for online. But we know that a lot of books are still sold in brick-and-mortar stores.” True, but that doesn’t get you off the hook, especially with women. Women looking for their next favourite book will find their perfect match online.
How Does Your Garden Grow?
When I read the word perennial I immediately think about gardening. Doesn’t everyone? I don’t know a lot about gardening and I know less about perennial philosophy, but I do know perennials vs. annuals. Perennials come up year after year and so involve less labour and less investment. Annuals appear annually, are labour intensive and cost you money each year. The same applies to books, and a new research study by BookNet looking at Perennial Bestsellers attempts to examine those lovely perennials.
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.
Vending Machine Dreams
Something tells me that humans are sentimental beings or perhaps it is that when there is a disruption we like to hang onto something we think is undisruptable. The problem is we don’t really know what is solid enough to hold onto. Is a vending machine solid enough? The reason I am thinking this right now is thanks to an article I saw on a 100 year old butcher shop adding a vending machine so that they can serve their customers 24/7.
I began to think about the number of times I’ve passed my local bookstore in the morning on the way to the train. I stare in the window and think “I would buy that right now,” but I can’t because the store is closed.
BNC 101: BISAC Classification
Increase Sales and Lower Costs with Better Metadata
More and more digital platforms are sourcing their content from ONIX files, which makes it easy for publishers to take part without increasing their workload. The catch, though, is that the information needs to be in the ONIX files to be shared, and currently most publishers are not including enough information in the files they’re creating.
