BookCrossing is an online community of booklovers and book-sharers. Members release books into the wild and give other members clues about where to find them — a bit like a booklover’s treasure hunt! Once a member finds a book, he or she visits the site, records the find, and enjoys the book. When done, he or she releases it into a new location and waits for another member to pick it up and take it some place new.

Self Condemned against some stately ivy

This year, we wanted to release Self Condemned, a satirical look at wartime Canada by Wyndham Lewis, set in a fictionalized Toronto at a fictionalized UofT. So, I took a trip to the hallowed, ivy-strewn campus of the University of Toronto (or, to Wyndham Lewis, the University of “Momaco”) and found the perfect release spot for this book.

Will you go on the hunt for it? I can’t wait to see who finds it and where they take it — I’ll let you know once we learn where it goes. For our beloved blog readers, though, I’ll offer one more pictoral hint:

Good luck, blog buddies!

Well, if you’re not able to make it to the El Ateneo Bookstore in Buenos Aires, Argentina, here’re some things we’ve stumbled across (thanks to the many people that shared them with us over twitter) that perhaps you may want to try out … when you’re not reading:

Construct Something With Your Books … a house, staircase, maybe even a bookshelf?

Line up your book spines and see if there’s a connection

Sculpt from books

Turn the books into a masterpiece work of art

Arrange all of Your Books according to colour

We’ll be closed for the holidays until January 5th 2009 so if you happen to visit us and begin wondering if we’re still around. Don’t worry, we’ll be back … or perhaps we’re just in the midst of laying out the schematics to actually constructing a castle out of books…

“People can get a cheeseburger anywhere, ok? They come to Chotckie’s for the atmostphere and the attitude. That’s what the flair’s about. It’s about fun.” – Stan, Office Space

Regardless of the size, every company at BookExpo Canada – from Random House to Napoleon Publishing to Dundurn- had one thing in common – flair. What is flair, you ask? In the 1999 cult classic movie Office Space, flair is defined as slogan buttons that contribute to the fun atmosphere of a work environment. Flair are stylistic items that can range from buttons (in the case of Office Space) to posters to calendars to mugs. Really anything that can carry your message, whether that message is a provincial slogan or the title of an upcoming book, can be considered flair.

In the publishing world items of flair, such as bookmarks, BLADs, pens, CDs, sample chapters, and postcards, are usually used to publicize newly released titles, upcoming titles, and the company. At the Dundurn booth this year we were offering pens that promoted Dundurn, our blog Defining Canada, and our new Now You Know It All website, which features our line of Now You Know books; buttons; bookmarks for upcoming titles such as The Young City and Doom Lake Holiday; postcards for newly released titles such as Kickstart and upcoming titles such as Labours of Love and Mike Filey’s Toronto; and BLADs for Caribou and the North.

Dundurn’s Booth Before the Masses Descend

Dundurn Flair

Another form of flair is free books. Most publishers at BookExpo will host author signings at their booth as a way to create buzz about an upcoming title.

Rick Antonson signs copies of To Timbuktu for a Haircut.

Everyone loves flair at BookExpo, with some people scooping it up by the armful, but does it work? Will it lead to sales? Does it sway booksellers, buyers into placing an order for an upcoming title or for a title that they perhaps overlooked? Will using our Now You Know It All pen lead to users typing in the website and spending some time there discovering why humans kiss and what is the origin of the expression “bite the dust”? Does our flair get into the “right hands” ie the decision makers, whether it’s a buyer for a bookstore or the event coordinator at a festival? I can tell you that, although I love my Harcourt Genius Squad button, it probably didn’t get into the right hands since I’m not a retailer and won’t be calling their distributor to purchase copies, but then again maybe it did since this fun yellow button has found a home on my purse for all (perhaps an Indigo buyer) to see. Are potential customers too overwhelmed with all of the freebies that are given to them that they don’t give them a second look?

I’m not sure what the answers are to these questions. I don’t have scientific proof, statistics to tell you that x amount of flair leads to x amount of sales. What I can tell you is that unique and memorable flair have the ability to help sell your product. As well, in-booth author events along with promotional materials not only contribute to the branding of a company but they also create buzz around one’s booth and encourage attendees to stop by, which can lead to networking, new accounts, securing reviews and author appearances at festivals.

Photos From BookExpo Canada

Dundurn’s Booth After Set-Up

All Stocked-Up and Ready for Day One

Chad Fraser signs copies of his book Lake Erie Stories

Maureen Jennings signs copies of the new Christine Morris mystery The K Handshape

James Bow signs copies of The Unwritten Girl

J.D. Carpenter signs copies of Twelve Trees

Mike Filey gathers his thoughts before signing.

Alexander Herman and Andrew Feindel chat with Dundurn President Kirk Howard, Beth Bruder (Director of Sales and Marketing), and former MP Patrick Boyer.

Norma Charles signs copies of The Boxcar Kid

Editor Michael Carroll and new Dundurn author Shaun Smith

Kate Walker’s Saffron Beckwith and Sales Rep of the Year Dot Middlemass

Have a father who’s a history buff? How about getting him Lake Erie Stories: Struggle and Survival on a Freshwater Ocean by Chad Fraser, which takes a fresh look at the history – from the earliest explorations of French adventurers to the rumrunners of the Prohibition era - of what may be the most colourful of all of the Great Lakes. Or perhaps Scottish history is more his thing and he would enjoy receiving a copy of Lucille Campey’s An Unstoppable Force: The Scottish Exodus to Canada; essential reading to those wishing to understand why the Scots came to Canada and enormousness of their achievements.

For the father who likes to travel there’s To Timbuktu for a Haircut: A Journey Through West Africa in which author Rick Antonson chronicles his travels in Senegal and Mali by train, four-wheel drive, camel, and foot and delivers an armchair experience that will linger in the mind long after the last page is read. For the father that likes to kick back at the cottage and enjoys nature there’s Lake of the Old Uncles in which author Gerard Kenney takes the reader along the route that led him to build a lone cabin on the small and inaccessible Lake of the Old Uncles.

Looking for fiction? Then Twelve Trees by J.D. Carpenter, a literary spin-off from the Campbell Young Mysteries, and The Postman’s Round  by Denis Theriault, a tragicomic story full of twists and turns, are for you. And finally, for Dads’ that lean towards mysteries there’s the brand new Jack Taggart mystery Angel in the Full Moon by Don Easton.

From all of us at Dundurn – Happy Father’s Day! 

“Hmmm … maybe we should go the Ebook route”

Humour aside, the important thing to keep in mind is that not all web 2.0 sites are for everyone but it is still vital for authors to ensure they are available on different platforms so that their readers can reach them.

While the laptop is not very adult-friendly, it is quite intuitive for children to use, and rough up for that matter.  There are many other great qualities of this laptop that I won’t get into but the idea that it was the first laptop that was really made for the world, its diverse environments or living conditions, and for children to learn from –  made it a worthwhile initiative to check out and support.

Yesterday, the founder of OLPC, Nicholas Negroponte, has announced a first look at the XO-2.  While it is still a laptop, many people are already seeing it as very much an e-book device.  There aren’t a lot of details concerning the XO-2 so far, but what has been revealed is that it will include dual touch screens, the ability to act as an e-book reader (with more of a resemblance to a book), and as a next-generation laptop.  The objective again is to focus on children and learning.  Some websites are reporting that the XO-2 will be able to hold 500 e-books.  The OLPC definitely has its work cut out for them as they are reported to have set the goal of making this laptop cost a mere $75.  Perhaps it will be doable by 2010 but regardless of that — it is a worthy goal to strive towards by turning what is technically a luxury, into a universal low-cost affordable device.  That said, the XO-2, just like the XO laptop, is still meant for children around the world.

So how do we fit into the picture?  We publish books.  The printed book will not disappear despite what people continue to suggest so those who love their paperbacks and hardcovers need not fear.  The primary difference is that the content inside and outside the book is evolving as people look for a connection that is beyond what we consider today as a book.  With alternative ways arriving to read a book, whether it may be a cell phone, a PDA, an e-book reader, or a laptop — the way we interact (i.e. learn, read, feel, etc.) with what’s inside a book changes and what is considered to be a book in some sense is being redefined.

Oh nothing major — merely its product name. What is peculiar would be the timing of it all. Sometimes you have to wonder if certain words suddenly stand out and become a popular term — by coincidence or by conspiracy — especially when you’re involved with marketing and the name of your product is literally “Kickstart”.

Take our recently released book Kickstart: How Successful Canadians Got Started by authors Alexander Herman, Paul Matthews, and Andrew Feindel.

While the book was still in production, a social networking website for students pops up from the folks at Yahoo! — also called Kickstart.

Now the Globe and Mail is reporting that the maker of the Blackberry, Research in Motion (RIM) may be releasing a new flip phone dubbed the “Kickstart”. More on this “Kickstart” phone from the Boy Genius Report.

Courtesy of Boy Genius Report

One now has to wonder how many other kickstarts there will be this year.  One could also start connecting the three “Kickstarts” together and formulate an interesting story…

We originally formed the blog as a way that we could communicate with the public and our authors while our website was being redeveloped. What we discovered was that the blog was as much of an entity as was the website — they co-exist. Personally, I love to see people comment on our blog — telling us what they think (giving us a piece of their mind).

Maple Leaf Mosaic by Chris Darling

A Look at the Past Year

After a year, we’ve blogged over 400 different posts — not bad for a first year. Let’s take a look at ten posts from Dundurn that changed the way we blog — starting from the earliest.

1. No this wasn’t our first blog post, this was our second one! We announced a chat that took place last year with Maureen Jennings about her first Christine Morris mystery, Does Your Mother Know?

2. We tried to introduce new books that came in hot off the press, but it didn’t work out so well. But we did learn a lot in the process — especially when it came to playing with photography. Take Don Easton’s second Jack Taggart mystery as an example — Above Ground worked brilliantly for the photo shoot — and the book is awesome for those who love gritty mystery novels involving undercover mounties. Stay tuned for a third book in the series.

3. There’s (almost) nothing better than posting up great reviews on a consistent basis of the books you publish. This was one of our first round ups. It just so happened to also be another staffer’s earlier blog postings.

4. It’s always fun to get to listen to audio interviews online. Especially when you don’t have the opportunity to tune in on the radio. Robert Hoshowsky, author of The Last to Die, had the opportunity to chat with Peter Anthony Holder. Peter provided us with the audio file and we posted it up right away! You can still listen to it… thanks again Peter.

5. If you can remember when the first CD-ROM encyclopedia first arrived in the early 90s, then you can remember how amazing it was to be able to view tiny movie clips direct from your computer. Fast forward to 2007 and we’ve got YouTube. Lance Goddard, author of Hell and High Water, provided us with some amazing video interviews with the Canadian veterans who fought in the Italian Campaign of World War II — YouTube let us share the first of many videos here.

6. After the Quill and Quire posted an article about the future of bookchat, I decided to run our own internal poll. This was vital blog post as it quantified and provided a visual manner of interpreting how people really felt about different mediums and their impact on our individual daily lives. To this day, it still fascinates me how people regard newspapers and blogs. Perhaps we’ll do a follow up study — another time.

7. The first author to start blogging on Defining Canada. J.D. Carpenter, author of mystery novel 74 Miles Away, and forthcoming Twelve Trees — went on a one month tour around the United States to do research on a book he is working on. While J.D. was initially a little hesistant, he turned out to be a brilliant blogger. He blogged daily about his adventures and provides some interesting side stories. This one was a favourite of mine. Make sure you check out his American Odyssey (you may need to work your way backwards).

8. Believe it or not, the Amazon Kindle ebook reader continues to be of interest to many many Canadians. They just keep searching for it and they arrive here. Sorry folks, but the Kindle just hasn’t arrived yet in Canada.

9. Just for fun around the time of the holidays. We polled ourselves and the public about whether or not they enjoyed fruitcake. By no means is this an accurate poll but — the no side wins — for now…

10. This may seem like a normal post and it is. It was a great review of Caroline Rennie Pattison’s The Law of Three. However it was also the beginning of you hearing less from me and more from others here at Dundurn.

Mind you there are so many notable posts that I can’t list them all (it is over 400 after all), so I encourage you to explore.

Just to give you a brief idea of how we’ve been doing — this is a graph of the number of posts we make per month from beginning to the present.

Now what? The future!

Look out for some upcoming changes to our blog. Some big and some small. We hope to serve up a nice new and fresh platter of variety to suit your taste buds. More voices and more interesting tales to tell.

Thanks for visiting us over and over again for the first year — let us know if there’s something you want to see more of!

We may not be able to provide you with the experience of interaction here, but we definitely can try and get you started with some things you may or may not have known about this little country tucked away between Tibet and India.

Photo by Douglas J. McLaughlin

1. The Bhutanese call their Druk Yul which means “land of the thunder dragon”.

2. Bhutan’s government operates as a constitutional monarchy with a king, a prime minister, members elected from village constituencies, royally appointed members, representatives for monks, and government appointed members.

3. Thimpu is the capital of Bhutan, also the largest city.

4. The national language is Dzongkha.

5. Bhutan’s national sport is archery.

Not too long ago, we published a book by Britta Das, a young woman who travelled to Bhutan as a physiotherapist under the auspices of the Volunteer Service Overseas(VSO), an international development agency that works through volunteers. Throughout the book, she describes her experience in Bhutan prior to the 1999 opening of the country towards technology (i.e. the internet) and international media. Despite this huge development for what could be considered as a “backwards” country, the opportunity that the VSO provided for the people of Bhutan and for Britta Das herself were invaluable because both influenced one another through the experience of interaction.

We’re currently supporting VSO Canada by donating a portion of our sales from Buttertea at Sunrise.  For more information how you can support their work around the world — click here.