In this episode of the BookNet Canada podcast, we share valuable tips and strategies for independent booksellers gearing up for the holiday season. From planning business hours and fulfillment options to creating engaging themed promotions and leveraging social media, this episode covers content that will help you increase sales and connect with yo…

We share some highlights from our newest study, Turning Pages: Print Book Use in Canada 2023, all about print books: who’s buying them, borrowing them, and reading them. And what did we learn about their book acquisition and reading behaviours?Find the transcript and relevant links here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2024/10/29/podcast-who-is-t…

This month, we invited Wendy Reid, the Accessibility and Publishing Standards Lead at Rakuten Kobo and the co-chair of the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) Advisory Board to talk about the W3C, the EPUB Fixed Layout Accessibility document, and more.Find the transcript and relevant links here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2024/9/26/podcast-the-w…

In this month’s podcast episode, we talk to Nick Maturo, Interim Executive Director at the English Language Arts Network (ELAN), to delve into the aftermath of a cybersecurity incident that ELAN faced a few years ago. Nick offers valuable insights into the incident's repercussions, the invaluable lessons learned from the experience, as well as the …

This month, we invited Janis Nostbakken, the Project Director for Accessible Books for Young Readers at the Canadian Children’s Book Centre (CCBC) to talk about their services.Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2024/5/28/podcast-accessible-canadian-childrens-booksKirjoittanut BookNet Canada

We invited Jarin Pintana, speaker at the first Swiftposium, to come and talk to us about Taylor Swift and her impact on the book industry.Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2024/4/30/podcast-taylor-swifts-impact-on-the-book-industryFurther reading:- MPub alumnus Jarin Pintana presents at the first-ever 'Swiftposium': https:…

In this month’s podcast episode, cybersecurity expert Francis Syms joins us to discuss the evolving landscape of digital security. In our conversation, we explore key insights and best practices to safeguard digital assets against cyber threats.Find the transcript and additional resources here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2024/3/26/podcast-na…

This month we’re bringing you a small taste of a Tech Forum presentation with booksellers from Little Ghosts Books, Cross & Crows Books, Cedar Canoe Books, and Analog Books Inc. where they share insights into their bookselling journeys, collaborative strategies with various partners, and their approach to online vs. in-person bookselling.Find the t…

In this podcast episode we share some high-level data for what was going on with the print book market in Canada last year and share some highlights from the BookNet research and education channels.Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2024/1/30/podcast-looking-back-at-2023Show notes: - BNC SalesData: https://www.booknetcanada…

In this month’s episode, we hear from Daniella Levy-Pinto, Manager at the National Network for Equitable Library Service, and Sarah Smith-Eivemark, Associate Director of Retail Marketing and Partnerships at Penguin Random House Canada about the latest collaboration project between their organizations and its impact on accessibility.Find the transcr…

In this month’s podcast episode, we take a look at the data on book formats, the people behind the data, and what it means to be a good reader.Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2023/11/28/podcast-book-formats-and-what-it-means-to-be-a-good-readerFurther reading and listening:-Is BookTok sucking the joy out of reading?: htt…

In this episode we look at two upcoming reasons to get your metadata in order (whether you’re a data sender or a data user): I Read Canadian Day and the holiday season.Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2023/10/31/podcast-the-power-and-importance-of-metadataFurther reading and listening:- I Read Canadian: https://ireadcanad…

Listen to this month’s episode where we hear from Max Arambulo, Bookseller & Manager at TYPE Books Junction, about how they run the bookstore with inclusivity and equity in mind, create safe spaces for their staff and customers, and build community.Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2023/9/26/podcast-running-a-bookstore-wit…

This month we talked to Christen Thomas and David Stinson from CNIB Beyond Print about accessible audiobooks, braille, and more.Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2023/6/27/podcast-making-books-accessible-for-everyoneFurther reading and listening:-CNIB Beyond Print: https://cnib-beyondprint.ca/-Centre for Equitable Library …

Authors of the short book Reading Bestsellers: Recommendation Culture and the Multimodal Reader, Danielle Fuller and DeNel Rehberg Sedo, join us for this month’s episode to talk about their research into the relationship readers have with bestsellers and what they found from their qualitative work with a group of international Gen Z readers.Link to…

Book industry leaders EJ Hurst from New Society and Jen Knoch from ECW Press talk about their work and progress in making their operations greener. Brian O’Leary from the Book Industry Study Group shares insight into the mission of the Green Book Alliance, the resources they have made available, and what they’re hoping to accomplish in the near fut…

It's clear that romance titles are seeing an increase in sales in the Canadian market. In this month’s podcast, we look beyond the numbers and discuss why we're seeing this trend.(Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2023/3/28/podcast-the-resurgence-of-romance-books)Further reading/listening:- Romance book sales in the Canadi…

This month we chatted with Taste Canada’s Karen Baxter about the work she and Taste Canada are doing to promote Canadian books and the business case for identifying Canadian authors in your metadata.(Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2023/2/28/podcast-talking-canadian-contributors-with-taste-canada)Further reading/listenin…

Wondering how events have changed for independent booksellers now that we’re three years into the pandemic? We sat down with John Toews, the Event Coordinator at McNally Robinson Booksellers in Winnipeg to chat about the positive side of hosting virtual and hybrid events, how they measure success, the challenges that came with pivoting to virtual, …

The BookNet staff recaps 2022 in terms of book sales and library circulation in the Canadian book market, popular BookNet blog series, and some other 2022 book related highlights.(Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2022/12/20/podcast-another-year-in-the-books-2022-highlights)Further reading/listening:- Tech Forum to-go seri…

In this month’s episode, we again pull back the curtain for a behind-the-scenes look at what it’s like to be a BookNet staff member. CataList Project Coordinator Vivian Luu, Project Manager and Retailer Liaison Tim Middleton, and Senior Software Engineer Tom Gerrard join this episode to tell us what they do, their favourite part of the job, and wha…

In September, eBOUND Canada launched the Accessible Publishing Learning Network, an online resource library and community hub designed to empower publishers in Canada to create high-quality content that is accessible to all readers. We invited accessibility expert, Laura Brady, to tell us all about it in this podcast episode.(Find the transcript he…

This month, we interviewed Serah-Marie McMahon, a graphic novel editor at Annick Press. We talked about editing, comics and graphic novels, accessibility, and everything in between. Is the rise of comics and graphic novels just a trend? Find out what we think in this episode.(Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2022/9/27/pod…

This month, we’re talking all about movies and TV shows. Specifically the ones based on books. Our newest research report, out today, Must-Watch, Must-Read: Book-to-Screen Adaptations in the Canadian Book Market 2022 gives you all the information we’ve been asked for and that you’ve been looking for about the impact that TV and movie adaptations ha…

Looking for a quick roundup of our most recent research? Look no further. In this podcast episode we’ll share a list of quick takeaways from our most recent studies including our Canadian Leisure & Reading Study 2021, The Canadian Book Market 2021, and the Canadian Book Consumer Study 2021.(Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blo…

Just how many books are written by Canadian authors, anyway? In this episode we take look at why identifying Canadian contributors in book metadata matters for the industry — the work it involves, the impact it has across the supply chain, and how we can measure that change.(Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2022/4/26/podc…

In this podcast episode we’re bringing you a small taste of a Tech Forum presentation given by Jennifer Chen and Nikoo Sarraf from McGill University’s .txtlab. They took a deep dive into the differences between queer fanfiction and mainstream published works and shared some insights about what publishing can learn from their work.(Find the transcri…

What does BookNet Canada know about independent bookstores? A lot. In this podcast episode, BookNet Canada’s Marketing Associates Nataly Alarcón and Aline Zara share highlights from the study The State of Independent Bookselling in Canada 2020, talk about what the last five years of independent bookselling have looked like in Canada in terms of boo…

January 4 was World Braille Day and to celebrate we sat down to talk with Kerry Kijewski and Marcia Yale, two of the five authors of the study Improving Braille Availability in Canadian Public Libraries to learn more about the study and what the book industry can do to improve braille accessibility in Canada.(Find the transcript here: https://www.b…

The BookNet staff recaps 2021 in terms of book sales in the Canadian market, BookNet staff reading habits, and all the other book news fit to share.(Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2021/12/21/podcast-2021-in-the-rear-view-window)Further reading/listening:- See this as a webinar on YouTube: https://youtu.be/j5Ef4vImS2o - …

We sat down with Kiley Turner, 49th Shelf’s Managing Editor, to have a conversation about the work she and her colleagues do to promote Canadian books, the role metadata plays in discoverability and marketing, the ways publishing and non-publishing people can use 49th Shelf, and much more.(Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog…

A conversation with Fazeela Jiwa from Fernwood Publishing about sensitivity readers — what that term means, the shortcomings of using them, Fernwood’s approach, and what the future might have in store for sensitivity reading.(Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2021/10/26/podcast-beyond-sensitivity-readers)Further reading:- …

In this month’s episode, we give you a behind the scenes look at life as a BookNet staff member, aka a BookNetter. Join us for a chat with Project Manager Monique Mongeon, Product Coordinator Hannah Johnston, and Software Developers Ben Farrall and Madeleine Griggs to learn a bit about themselves and all about their work with us at BookNet Canada.(…

In this month's podcast episode we’re talking about social media and its influence on bookselling, what the popularity of these online communities built around books mean for the industry, how backlist titles are having second chances thanks to TikTok, and more.(Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2021/7/27/podcast-beyond-bo…

This month we’re talking about Thema and exploring how you can use this international book classification for describing diverse books. Join BookNet Canada’s Marketing Associate Aline Zara, with appearances by EDItEUR’s Chris Saynor and BookNet Canada’s Bibliographic Manager Tom Richardson, alongside a worked example of Tanya Boteju’s book Kings, Q…

Last month we shared highlights from Tech Forum 2021. This month we’re sharing one thought-provoking panel in particular. The idea for this panel was inspired by an essay from Annahid Dashtgard a renowned author, changemaker, and co-founder of Anima Leadership, a boutique consulting company specializing in issues of diversity, inclusion, and anti-r…

In this month’s podcast episode, we’re bringing you some highlights from some of our fantastic sessions. This year’s programming had a mix of topics that ranged from crisis management, the impact of the pandemic on booksellers and publishers, bibliographic standards, diversity, equity and inclusion, and much more. The recordings from the sessions w…

The newly formed Canadian Independent Booksellers Association (CIBA) is hitting the ground running. In this podcast episode, we sat down to talk to Doug Minett, the Executive Director, to learn how it came about, what initiatives they’re tackling in their first year, what they see for the future post-COVID, and what they’ll need to do to be success…

Join BookNet Product Coordinator Hannah Johnston and Marketing Associate Nataly Alarcón as they share sales data for print books about anti-racism and social justice in 2020, a brief overview of the efforts related to equity, diversity, and inclusion made in the Canadian book industry, as well as a number of resources available to you — from resear…

A look at book sales and reader behaviour in the Canadian market in 2020. (Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2021/1/26/podcast-a-look-at-the-canadian-book-market-in-2020)Show notes:eNews sign up: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/newsletter-sign-up#enewsBookNet blog: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/Niche subject explorations …

This month’s episode is tailored to booksellers. In it, we go over some key things you should think about before facing the peak of the holiday bookselling season, as well as a series of tools, products, and resources from BookNet and other organizations that can help you take your business to the next level now or beyond the gifting season.(Find t…

It's Canadian library month, so LibraryData team members, Hannah Johnston and Monique Mongeon share some data about Canadian library circulation stats, genre trends, and more.(Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2020/10/27/podcast-canadian-library-month)Further reading/listeningLibraryData: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/libra…

In this episode, BookNet Marketing & Communications Manager, Ainsley Sparkes, shares insights about the status of the publishing industry in Canada. What impact has COVID-19 had on readers' habits? Have book buying behaviours changed? What subjects are selling the most? All these answers and more in this edition of the BookNet Canada podcast.(Find …

It would be fair say that we’re fascinated by audiobooks and learning about their production, distribution, and everything else involved in the process. Last month we interviewed Jamie Dupras and Jeff Guillot from Deyan Audio in Los Angeles, but for this month’s podcast episode, we brought the conversation to Canada. Ann Jansen, Director of Audiobo…

For last month’s podcast episode we had planned to include bits of an interview BookNet Canada Research Associate Shimona Hirchberg had with Jamie Dupras and Jeff Guillot from Deyan Audio but the conversation was so rich we decided to share the full interview in this month’s episode. Among other things, they talked about-the nitty-gritty of audiobo…

Our biennial study on audiobook use among Canadians is here! Join BookNet Canada Research Associate Shimona Hirchberg and President & CEO Noah Genner as they go over how Canadian audiobook listeners discover, use, and feel about audiobooks, including what they like to listen to, when they like to listen, and how they obtain their audiobook content.…

Isadora Cal goes over how in Brazil, a country with so many adversities in all areas, accessible publishing is being tackled. She shares how Bookwire Brazil is taking part on it, being in the position of an aggregator, and what further options they’re currently exploring. Accessible publishing is a social issue, but one that will be profitable for …

The results for our annual Canadian Leisure and Reading survey are in! BookNet Canada President & CEO Noah Genner and Research Associate Shimona Hirchberg will tell you all about them in this month's podcast episode.(Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2020/4/27/podcast-canadian-leisure-amp-reading-study-2020)Links:- BookNet…

What better time than the present to start a podcast? Learn how to get started and create the best podcast possible with tips from BookNet Canada’s Marketing Manager and Tech Forum speaker, Zalina Alvi in this podcast sharing her Tech Forum presentation, Podcasting for beginners.(Find the transcript here: Find a transcript to the episode at https:/…

Cynthia Pong, feminist career strategist, founder of Embrace Change, and Tech Forum 2020 speaker, joins us this month to talk about the publishing industry’s vertical segregation problem, why stats on diversity haven’t been shifting much, and how we can balance addressing systemic issues with helping individuals to empower themselves. (Find the tra…