Forum Aims to Bring Canadian Publishing Stakeholders Together

By Josh Kerbel -- Publishers Weekly, 5/26/2006

BookExpo Canada, set to run June 9-12 in Toronto, kicks off this year with a day-long forum, "Writers to Readers: Linking the Content Creators to the End Users," featuring industry insiders who promise to tackle issues facing publishers in Canada.

According to the Transatlantic Literary Agency's Don Sedgwick, who has been contracted by Humber College to organize the event in cooperation with the Book and Periodical Council (BPC), the forum will help publishers learn to cope with a shrinking traditional marketplace, understand new publishing technologies, as well as receive tips on how to utilize the Internet to drive book sales.

"Publishers need to overcome their hesitancy of cooperating with service providers, such as Carol Fitzgerald's The Book Network and Judy Rebick's Rabble.ca in order to explore new marketing channels for their work," said Sedgwick.

Representatives of Google, Amazon and Microsoft will also be attending the event and will offer a special lunch hour panel where participants can learn about each company's plans in the publishing arena.