BookNet Canada – Details, episodes & analysis

In this month’s podcast, we’re sharing some mid-year market data from an excerpt of the Tech Forum presentation, Ready, set, go: Pre-fall sales trends and data-driven insights. Links: - Ready, set, go: Pre-fall sales trends and data-driven insights: https://bnctechforum.ca/sessions/ready-set-go-pre-fall-sales-trends-and-data-driven-insights/ - BookNet eNews weekly newsletter: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/newsletter-sign-up#enews - BookNet blog: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog - Customer satisfaction survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/LX7DD55

This month we talked with Evelyn Elgie, the assistant publisher at Inanna Publications about what it’s like to run a feminist press in today’s landscape, the challenges facing small presses, and why prioritizing marginalized voices and building community is so important to upholding the values of the company.

In this month’s podcast episode, we talk to Simon Crump, Environmental Consultant for BIC, to discuss the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) and its impact on the book industry. Simon offers insights on how the EUDR affects the book supply chain, practical steps for Canadian publishers to align with the regulation, and resources for non-European publishers aiming to understand compliance requirements. Find the transcript and relevant links here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2024/12/17/podcast-an-introduction-to-the-european-union-deforestation-regulation

At last year's ebookcraft conference, Teresa Elsey, the Digital Managing Editor of the Trade & Reference Division at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, shared her experiences maintaining backlist ebooks with her team. Besides the technology advances that affect the quality of those earlier conversions, she explained that those backlist ebooks aren't getting any more semantic, aren't getting any more legal, aren't getting any more accurate, and have increasingly irrelevant metadata. In this thought-provoking talk, Teresa discusses the challenges and questions that arise when books turn into software and ebooks don't go away after you've made them. (Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2016/10/19/podcast-when-nothing-ever-goes-out-of-print). Learn more about ebookcraft: http://ebookcraft.booknetcanada.ca

Publishers opening their own physical bookstores seems to be all the rage these days. We sit down with two Canadian publishers—House of Anansi and Penguin Random House Canada—to talk about their new shops and why they've decided to take the plunge into brick-and-mortar. (Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2016/9/26/podcast-publishers-enter-the-bookstore-game).

Long live the audiobook! Thanks to smartphones, podcasts, and our oh-so-busy lives, the digital audiobook is making a comeback. We talk with some industry players to discuss the format's reinvention, how the industry is adapting to increased demand, and where Canadian-produced audiobooks fit into all this. (Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2016/7/27/podcast-the-audiobook-gets-its-groove-back). Hungry for more data? Keep an eye on the BookNet Canada Blog in the coming weeks for more results from our research: booknetcanada.ca/blog.

Laura Brady, ebook developer and principal of Brady Type, joins the BookNet podcast to educate us about the benefits and challenges associated with bringing accessible features to ebooks in Canadian publishing. We talk about ableist privilege, InDesign quirks, and if the future of print and digital in harmony includes coding that old book smell. (Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2016/6/27/podcast-accessible-ebooks-is-the-printebook-debate-a-privileged-one).

After another round of inspiring talks, illuminating research, and innovative ideas at our annual Tech Forum conference on digital developments in the book publishing industry, we're here to share some highlights from the conference. We've got consumer research on how millennials buy and read books, how and why the industry should work to include more diverse voices, five recommendations for improving your book metadata in today's complex marketplace, and lessons for encouraging grassroots innovation at a legacy publisher. (Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2016/5/30/podcast-highlights-from-tech-forum-2016). To see videos of all the Tech Forum presentations in their entirety, visit booknetcanada.ca/tech-forum.

It's been a big year for adult colouring books in Canada: they've dominated the non-fiction bestseller lists, adults are frequenting drinking 'n' colouring nights, and everyone seems to have an opinion about the trend. So are they on the decline, or here to stay? We investigate by examining sales trends from the past year, talking with consumers and experts on the subject, and surveying adult colouring book buyers to learn more about their buying habits and preferences. (Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2016/5/2/podcast-the-rise-and-fall-of-adult-colouring-books). Hungry for more data? Keep an eye on the BookNet Canada Blog in the coming weeks for more results from our research: booknetcanada.ca/blog.

Kaya Thomas, creator of the app We Read Too, joins BookNet on the podcast this month. While still in her undergrad at Dartmouth College, Kaya developed We Read Too—a book resource application that showcases a directory of hundreds of children's and young adult fiction books written by and for people of colour—which contains over 600 books and has over 4,000 downloads. Kaya has held software engineering internships at Time Inc and Intuit working on mobile applications. She was a CODE2040 2015 Fellow and is a technical volunteer mentor for Black Girls Code. For her work in education and technology, Kaya was recently honoured by First Lady Michelle Obama at the 2015 Black Girls Rock Awards. She joins us to talk about her favourite books, breaking into coding, and diversifying the publishing industry. (Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2016/3/22/podcast-we-read-too). techforum.booknetcanada.ca