The 'Empire' Strikes back!

A special Summit on the eve of this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair will examine three sometimes overlooked—yet growing and dynamic—English-language book markets.

A century ago, Canada, Australia and New Zealand were part of the British Empire. While that Empire is long gone, these three countries are still considered by some—wrongly—as merely extensions of the dominant British or American book markets.

Nothing could be further from the truth. While they contain predominantly English-language populations, Canada, Australia and New Zealand are now free of their colonial past and are vibrant book markets in their own right, with their own unique publishing cultures.

To encourage greater interaction and cooperation between these three book markets, a special Summit is being hosted by the Association for the Export of Canadian Books (AECB), the Australian Publishers Association and the Book Publishers Association of New Zealand to discuss the many opportunities that exist, and also to explore the common issues and challenges faced by Canadian, Australian and New Zealand publishers.

Participants have been invited from some of the leading publishing companies in each country, including:

• Rob Sanders—Publisher, Greystone Books (Canada)
• Craig Riggs—Partner, Turner-Riggs Consulting and author of the Canadian Book Retail Study done on behalf of the Department of Canadian Heritage
• Juliet Rogers—Global Managing Director, Murdoch Books (Australia)
• Erica Wagner—Children’s Publisher, Allen & Unwin (Australia)
• Margie Wolfe—Owner and Publisher, Second Story Press(Canada)
• Scott McIntyre—Chair, Douglas & McIntyre Publishing Group (Canada)
• Teresa Garnett—Manager, Export, Pearson Education (New Zealand)
• Kevin Chapman—Managing Director & Publisher, Hachette Livre (New Zealand)

I'm told the event will also be attended by the Ambassadors of the three countries, in a show of solidarity.

The Summit will be held in Room Esprit, Hall 9.1 on Tuesday 14 October from 8.30am. You'll need to pre-book if you're interested with the AECB.

It promises to be an interesting morning. With more and more agents and publishers separating Canadian and ANZ rights from UK and US rights, there's never been a better time to learn about these markets, and find out what you're missing.

A world without books is closer than you think

Like many countries around the world, Australia has its 'first people'- the indigenous people collectively known as the Aborigines. The disadvantages faced by this minority group (which constitutes about 2.5% of the Australian population) are a matter of record, and arise from many factors - social disadvantage, geographical remoteness, lack of appropriate educational and health infrastructure, and so forth.

One of the many challenges Aboriginal children can face is a lack of basic English literacy. An Aboriginal child may speak several indigenous languages and yet struggle to achieve competence in English, partly because they often have no access to books. That's right, thousands of children with no access to books in a first world country.

A few years back one Australian bookseller - Suzy Wilson of Riverbend Books in Brisbane - decided to do something about it by starting a reading challenge to raise money for indigenous literacy. Kids paid money to enter the challenge, and then read 10 books during a designated period to complete the challenge. The money raised went to purchase books for disadvantaged Aboriginal children.

The following year, Riverbend included adults in the challenge and then went national a year later, as booksellers across the country took to the idea.

Two years on, and this year (today in fact), Australia is celebrating its second national Indigenous Literacy Day. Supported by both the Australian Booksellers Association and Australian Publishers Association, the Day will see Australians encouraged to buy books from participating booksellers, who will give at least 5% of their income from the day's trading to the project. A national program of events will help to raise awareness, and last week booksellers were invited to the home of our Prime Minister, The Lodge in Canberra, for an audience with the PM's wife, Therese Rein (who I guess is Australia's First Lady, or as near as we come to one). This year's event will raise hundreds of thousands of dollars.

As a first world country, you'd think this is the least Australia ought to be doing, and you'd be right. But at least it's happening, and all thanks to one visionary bookseller.