Book Talk - A Forum for Writers & Publishers

Kester · Joined: 21 May 2007 Posts: 4 Location: Canada

Hi All:

I've posted this on several author and writer sites. Since the response period extends until July, I will leave it here for new members to read and respond.

The Canada Council for the Arts has a discussion paper and an online link going for a couple of months whereby Canadian ‘artists' (which includes writers in their definition) can respond to their intentions for its corporate plan 2008-2011. It's worth some of your time to see how the Council might respond to the needs of e-published and POD published authors.

The link to the discussion (in English) is :-
http://www.50.canadacouncil.ca/en/consultation/default.aspx

While this topic is specifically for those authors here who are Canadian, I urge everyone to read and respond with your ideas on this board. I'd suggest we pool our ideas on what might increase our collective weight in the publishing industry and individually send these to the Council's contact address. If Canada adopts a policy of promoting e-publishing and POD, it would be a good lever to use in other countries.

For the last year data is available, 2005-2006, the Council provided just over $20,000,000 to "Writing and Publishing" – mostly, I believe, to support small Canadian independent publishers, and a few travel grants to authors for research etc. How much went to e-publishing and POD? Probably nothing.

1. The Council operates by ‘peer revue', which can be understood to mean academics in Creative Writing departments, authors who are also professors, etc etc – so the first thing we need is to look for are ways in which we might be considered ‘peers' able to participate in this revue process. Is the verdict of the marketplace as credible an accreditation as an MFA?

2. The Council has an arms-length relationship with the government, but it represents a window of opportunity to make our needs known to government. One important action that government can help us with is to discuss with foreign governments the issue of pirating our works online. We should ask the Council to take this up with the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade.

3. We are essentially low budget operators, but that doesn't mean we should be satisfied with being no-budget writers. We need to be able to access Canada Council grants as e-authors as readily as can paper published authors. We need to finance our travel for research and promotion, though perhaps not as extensively.

4. Distribution is a function that the Council has helped Canadian publishers with. What about helping to provide a distributor for POD – not to physically move the books but to promote them with retailers and libraries? As individuals we might be able to budget for 50 or 100 copies to peddle out of car trunks or whatever, but having an association that pushes our writing all the time would be invaluable.

5. Our Canadian publishers need to be eligible for the same kinds of support and funding as are other small publishers. We might also look for support for on-line magazines as well.

6. One item from the discussion paper I will paste here. The Council does recognize that the technologies are changing, so we must add our voices to say that we are a part of this and are looking for the Council to take up our interests – especially where they differ from the traditional venues.

(Quote –>)
Changes in public attitudes and society at large

* New patterns of work, family and social structures that leave less time for participating in the arts and volunteering (time-stressed people, single parent families, multiple jobs, etc.).
* Increased competition for audiences from market- and celebrity-driven popular culture and new technological means for accessing the arts.
* Changing audience expectations, with some Canadians wanting direct, interactive and "unmediated" participation in creative activities, while others become more passive consumers, experiencing the arts in sound-bytes or through a variety of media rather than "live."
* Increasing recognition that all people have a right to culture and to experience the arts that interest them, along with an increasingly broad definition among the public of what "the arts" means (professional, amateur, recreational, community-based, commercial, popular, etc.).
* Increasing demands from the public that government institutions and recipients of government support prove they bring real and demonstrable value to society.
* Changes in how the media cover the arts: less space and airtime devoted to serious arts coverage and a tendency to sensationalize arts controversies but more arts coverage by alternative media sources (e.g., e-zines, websites, blogs, etc.).
(close Quote)

7. What have I missed? Please reply to fill me in.

The Council is serious about opening a dialog with us. The closing words from the consultation link above are --
I urge you to accept this invitation to inspire us with your ideas, and keep us grounded with your experience. We look forward to hearing from you.

So, let's do it.

Chris.
_________________
Coming from Double Dragon soon, my novels "Deadly Enterprise" and "The Wildcat's Victory"

See my website at www.christopherhoare.ca and blogs at www.trailowner.blogspot.com and www.serial-adventure-fiction.blogspot.com