BookNet Canada
Episodes
A look back at the book market
16 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 tr...
Inanna Publications: A feminist press
25 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 lan...
Studying storytelling with AI
28 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This month’s episode features a conversation with Sophie Wu, a Master's candidate in Digital Humanities at McGill University, about AI and one of it...
Libraries and Canadian readers
01 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this month’s podcast episode, we dive into the data on Canadian book borrowers, their library visitorship, book borrowing by format, and more. Fi...
Editing Indigenous voices with care
23 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Mélanie Ritchot joins us this episode to talk about the Indigenous Editors Circle and how it's influenced her approach to editing. Whether you're an ...
Beyond the survey: More on salary equity in the book industry
27 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This month’s podcast episode is a continuation of the conversation from the Tech Forum webinar: Canadian book publishing: Insights from the latest s...
Canadian Bookmark Project
29 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This month we’re talking with Chandler Jolliffe, owner of Cedar Canoe Books in Huntsville, who pioneered the idea of a Canadian flag bookmark as a w...
Canadian audiobooks in 2025
23 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this podcast episode, we talk to Cassie Smyth about AI integration into audiobooks, accessible audiobooks, supporting the Canadian audiobook ecosys...
A research sneak peek
23 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Listen to a sneak peek of BookNet Canada’s upcoming research reports, The Canadian Book Market and The Canadian Book Consumer. Find the transcript a...
AI in the book industry
25 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this podcast episode, we share some snippets from last year’s Tech Forum sessions on AI in the book industry. Find the transcript and relevant l...
An introduction to the European Union Deforestation Regulation
12 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this month’s podcast episode, we talk to Simon Crump, Environmental Consultant for BIC, to discuss the European Union Deforestation Regulation (E...
Gearing up for the holiday season: Tips for independent booksellers
25 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of the BookNet Canada podcast, we share valuable tips and strategies for independent booksellers gearing up for the holiday season. Fr...
Who is the print book reader?
29 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We share some highlights from our newest study, Turning Pages: Print Book Use in Canada 2023, all about print books: who’s buying them, borrowing th...
The W3C and digital publishing
26 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This month, we invited Wendy Reid, the Accessibility and Publishing Standards Lead at Rakuten Kobo and the co-chair of the W3C (World Wide Web Consort...
Best practices for navigating cybersecurity
24 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this month’s podcast episode, we talk to Nick Maturo, Interim Executive Director at the English Language Arts Network (ELAN), to delve into the a...
Accessible Canadian children's books
27 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This month, we invited Janis Nostbakken, the Project Director for Accessible Books for Young Readers at the Canadian Children’s Book Centre (CCBC) t...
Taylor Swift's impact on the book industry
29 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We invited Jarin Pintana, speaker at the first Swiftposium, to come and talk to us about Taylor Swift and her impact on the book industry. Find the t...
Navigating cybersecurity: Insights for the publishing industry
25 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this month’s podcast episode, cybersecurity expert Francis Syms joins us to discuss the evolving landscape of digital security. In our conversati...
Booksellers adapting, engaging, and thriving
27 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This month we’re bringing you a small taste of a Tech Forum presentation with booksellers from Little Ghosts Books, Cross & Crows Books, Cedar Canoe...
Looking Back At 2023
30 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this podcast episode we share some high-level data for what was going on with the print book market in Canada last year and share some highlights f...
Jamie Oliver braille publishing milestone: Impact on readers and the industry
18 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this month’s episode, we hear from Daniella Levy-Pinto, Manager at the National Network for Equitable Library Service, and Sarah Smith-Eivemark, ...
Book formats and what it means to be a good reader
28 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this month’s podcast episode, we take a look at the data on book formats, the people behind the data, and what it means to be a good reader. Fin...
The power and importance of metadata
31 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we look at two upcoming reasons to get your metadata in order (whether you’re a data sender or a data user): I Read Canadian Day and...
Running a bookstore with inclusivity and equity in mind
26 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Listen to this month’s episode where we hear from Max Arambulo, Bookseller & Manager at TYPE Books Junction, about how they run the bookstore with i...
Making books accessible for everyone
27 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This month we talked to Christen Thomas and David Stinson from CNIB Beyond Print about accessible audiobooks, braille, and more. Find the transcript ...
Reading bestsellers
30 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Authors of the short book Reading Bestsellers: Recommendation Culture and the Multimodal Reader, Danielle Fuller and DeNel Rehberg Sedo, join us for t...
Industry leaders on making publishing greener
25 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Book industry leaders EJ Hurst from New Society and Jen Knoch from ECW Press talk about their work and progress in making their operations greener. Br...
The resurgence of romance books
28 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It's clear that romance titles are seeing an increase in sales in the Canadian market. In this month’s podcast, we look beyond the numbers and discu...
Talking Canadian contributors with Taste Canada
28 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This month we chatted with Taste Canada’s Karen Baxter about the work she and Taste Canada are doing to promote Canadian books and the business case...
A conversation with John Toews from McNally Robinson Booksellers about events
30 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Wondering how events have changed for independent booksellers now that we’re three years into the pandemic? We sat down with John Toews, the Event C...
Another year in the books: 2022 highlights
20 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The BookNet staff recaps 2022 in terms of book sales and library circulation in the Canadian book market, popular BookNet blog series, and some other ...
Behind the scenes again at BookNet
28 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this month’s episode, we again pull back the curtain for a behind-the-scenes look at what it’s like to be a BookNet staff member. CataList Proj...
Introducing a free accessibility learning network
24 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In September, eBOUND Canada launched the Accessible Publishing Learning Network, an online resource library and community hub designed to empower publ...
Behind the scenes of children’s graphic novels
27 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This month, we interviewed Serah-Marie McMahon, a graphic novel editor at Annick Press. We talked about editing, comics and graphic novels, accessibil...
Books on screen
28 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This month, we’re talking all about movies and TV shows. Specifically the ones based on books. Our newest research report, out today, Must-Watch, Mu...
BookNet research roundup: What you need to know
30 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Looking for a quick roundup of our most recent research? Look no further. In this podcast episode we’ll share a list of quick takeaways from our mos...
Why identifying Canadian contributors still matters
26 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Just how many books are written by Canadian authors, anyway? In this episode we take look at why identifying Canadian contributors in book metadata ma...
The importance of queer fanfiction
29 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this podcast episode we’re bringing you a small taste of a Tech Forum presentation given by Jennifer Chen and Nikoo Sarraf from McGill University...
#ShopLocal: What we know about the health of Canadian indie bookstores
22 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What does BookNet Canada know about independent bookstores? A lot. In this podcast episode, BookNet Canada’s Marketing Associates Nataly Alarcón an...
Improving access to Braille in Canada
24 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
January 4 was World Braille Day and to celebrate we sat down to talk with Kerry Kijewski and Marcia Yale, two of the five authors of the study Improvi...
2021 in the rear view window
20 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The BookNet staff recaps 2021 in terms of book sales in the Canadian market, BookNet staff reading habits, and all the other book news fit to share. ...
Promoting Canadian books: An interview with 49th Shelf
29 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We sat down with Kiley Turner, 49th Shelf’s Managing Editor, to have a conversation about the work she and her colleagues do to promote Canadian boo...
Beyond sensitivity readers
26 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A conversation with Fazeela Jiwa from Fernwood Publishing about sensitivity readers — what that term means, the shortcomings of using them, Fernwood...
BookNet behind the scenes
31 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this month’s episode, we give you a behind the scenes look at life as a BookNet staff member, aka a BookNetter. Join us for a chat with Project M...
Beyond #BookTok: When social media and publishing collide
27 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this month's podcast episode we’re talking about social media and its influence on bookselling, what the popularity of these online communities b...
Describing diverse books with Thema
29 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This month we’re talking about Thema and exploring how you can use this international book classification for describing diverse books. Join BookNe...
Foreign object in the house of Canadian literature
31 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Last month we shared highlights from Tech Forum 2021. This month we’re sharing one thought-provoking panel in particular. The idea for this panel wa...
Tech Forum 2021 highlights
26 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this month’s podcast episode, we’re bringing you some highlights from some of our fantastic sessions. This year’s programming had a mix of to...
All about the Canadian Independent Booksellers Association
29 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The newly formed Canadian Independent Booksellers Association (CIBA) is hitting the ground running. In this podcast episode, we sat down to talk to Do...
Diversity, books about anti-racism, and the Canadian book industry
22 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Join BookNet Product Coordinator Hannah Johnston and Marketing Associate Nataly Alarcón as they share sales data for print books about anti-racism an...
A look at the Canadian book market In 2020
25 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A look at book sales and reader behaviour in the Canadian market in 2020. (Find the transcript here: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2021/1/26/po...
Bookselling during the 2020 holiday season and beyond
24 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This month’s episode is tailored to booksellers. In it, we go over some key things you should think about before facing the peak of the holiday book...
Canadian Library Month
26 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
It's Canadian library month, so LibraryData team members, Hannah Johnston and Monique Mongeon share some data about Canadian library circulation stats...
The Canadian book market so far in 2020
28 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, BookNet Marketing & Communications Manager, Ainsley Sparkes, shares insights about the status of the publishing industry in Canada. W...
The story of Canadian audiobooks
31 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
It would be fair say that we’re fascinated by audiobooks and learning about their production, distribution, and everything else involved in the proc...
The whys and hows of audiobooks, a conversation with Deyan Audio
23 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
For last month’s podcast episode we had planned to include bits of an interview BookNet Canada Research Associate Shimona Hirchberg had with Jamie D...
Press Play: Audiobook Use in Canada 2020
29 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Our biennial study on audiobook use among Canadians is here! Join BookNet Canada Research Associate Shimona Hirchberg and President & CEO Noah Genner ...
Making Brazilian literature accessible
21 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Isadora Cal goes over how in Brazil, a country with so many adversities in all areas, accessible publishing is being tackled. She shares how Bookwire ...
Canadian Leisure & Reading Study 2020
23 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The results for our annual Canadian Leisure and Reading survey are in! BookNet Canada President & CEO Noah Genner and Research Associate Shimona Hirch...
Podcasting for beginners
31 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
What better time than the present to start a podcast? Learn how to get started and create the best podcast possible with tips from BookNet Canada’s ...
Finding empowerment in the book industry with Cynthia Pong
19 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Cynthia Pong, feminist career strategist, founder of Embrace Change, and Tech Forum 2020 speaker, joins us this month to talk about the publishing ind...
New BISAC codes for Indigenous books
27 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
With the recent release of new BISAC subject codes for 2019, host Elizabeth Barker goes over the changes, what they mean for Indigenous books in Canad...
A look back at the decade
16 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we talk to BookNet President and CEO, Noah Genner, about the decade in review. What were the biggest trends in publishing? What were ...
Radio-frequency identification & the publishing industry
25 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Radio-frequency identification (RFID) has been used for decades in other industries, like in car manufacturing and for commercial use as anti-theft sy...
#PayInterns
24 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
For this month's podcast, we're talking with Simon Collinson, a former ebook developer, a small press publisher, and Content Sales Analyst at Rakuten...
Innovative bookselling, part 3: More than a bookstore
23 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
For the third and final episode in our summer series on innovative bookselling (see the first episode and the second episode at the links), we talk wi...
Innovative bookselling, part 2: Writers are friends, not food
26 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
For the second episode in our summer series on innovative bookselling, we talk with Canadian booksellers who are dedicating space and time to supporti...
Innovative bookselling, part 1: Outside-the-box partnerships
29 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
For our three-part summer series, we're talking with booksellers across Canada who are proving that there's more than one way to sell a book. In part ...
Libraries and their data: Introducing LibraryData a new product from BookNet Canada
24 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
We're pleased to introduce BookNet Canada's latest project: LibraryData. While LibraryData is currently in beta only for select libraries who are pro...
Demand for Diversity
24 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, BookNet Canada Research Associate Shimona Hirchberg shares some highlights from our new Demand for Diversity: A Survey of Canadian Re...
ISNI, the dream identifier
30 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In this month's episode, we talk about ISNI, the International Standard Name Identifier. It's an identifier with potential in the supply chain for you...
Minorities in Publishing: Live at Tech Forum 2019
25 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Jennifer Baker of the Minorities in Publishing podcast interviews Jael Richardson, author, columnist, and founder of the Festival of Literary Diversit...
A children's librarian on the state of children's publishing in Canada
25 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Here at BookNet, we've had children's titles on the mind since we opened up voting for our new Loan Stars Jr. list in November. The first Loan Stars J...
PubFight All-Star game wrap-up
29 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Our PubFight game came to an end at the beginning of January, so we wanted to interview our All-Star players to find out what strategies they employed...
Bestselling & award-winning books of 2018
14 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
For our last episode of 2018, we share the bestselling Fiction, Non-Fiction, and Juvenile/YA books of the year, discuss some of the major award winner...
Holiday bookselling
26 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Talk to anyone in the book industry and they'll tell you, the winter holidays are the best but busiest time of year for book sales. We bring you the s...
The growth of audiobook listening and production in 2018
29 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
It's been two eventful years since we published our last study on audiobook listening in Canada, so we're back with updated stats on consumer habits a...
The first rule of book club is tell us all about your book club
28 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
This month we're talking about book clubs. But not the kind where you pretend to read the books and just drink wine – real book clubs. We're bringin...
More than just books: Why libraries should not be overlooked
27 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
From drag queens to Netflix to registered therapy dogs to power tools, Canada's libraries offer patrons more than just books. In this month's episod...
Shoot for the Moon: Awards for underrepresented writers
30 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
As part of his mission to make sure artists are financially supported, Toronto-based fundraising consultant Rahim Ladha has taken it upon himself to f...
Audiobooks, enhancements, and accessibility: Digital publishing in 2017
27 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In our latest research study, we asked publishers about their digital publishing programs, from audio production to use of EPUB 3. We're sharing some ...
Batten down the hatches: How we're combatting book piracy
28 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
How big is the book piracy issue, who's pirating them, and why? We answer these questions, offer other (legal!) ways of getting free books, and talk w...
Highlights from Tech Forum & ebookcraft 2018
19 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
This month we're looking back at our biggest book-publishing-meets-technology conference ever. From March 21-23, 2018, hundreds of professionals from ...
[Repeat] We Read Too: Diversifying Publishing with Kaya Thomas
16 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
From the archives: While still in her undergrad at Dartmouth College, Kaya Thomas developed her first app: We Read Too, a book resource application th...
Creating a roadmap for accessibility in ebooks
23 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In this presentation from last year's ebookcraft conference in Toronto, Amanda Karby from Michigan Publishing Services and Kristin Waites from The MIT...
Audiobooks and audio-first publishing
29 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Nastaran Bisheban, VP of Global Technology Delivery at Kobo, talks about their recently-launched audiobook program, their first audiobook original, an...
A Look Back at 2017
13 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
We're nearing the end of the year and, like pretty much everyone else, feeling reflective about the past 12 months. And since we're BookNet, that incl...
Building In-House Momentum for Diverse Books
27 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
This month we're talking with Léonicka Valcius about how to interrogate and rethink in-house processes and assumptions when publishing diverse books,...
True Crime
31 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Murder, organized crime, and....well, more murder. This month's episode is all about true crime, from recent bestsellers to the evolution of the genre...
Keywords and Second Story Press
25 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Second Story Press is serious about keywords. Allie Chenoweth, Marketing & Promotions Coordinator, joins us to talk about their approach on this month...
Television Adaptations and the Books They Are Based On
29 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
To help distract us from all our Game of Thrones feelings, we sat down with Evan Munday, children's author and Community Manager at TYPE Books, to dis...
The Canadian book industry 150 years later
20 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
To help celebrate Canada's 150th birthday, we sat down with Sue Carter, Editor-in-Chief at Quill & Quire, Canada's magazine for the book publishing in...
Ebook Apps from the Inside Out
19 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Micah Bowers, Founder and CEO of Bluefire, was a speaker at ebookcraft 2017. His talk, titled Ebook Apps from the Inside Out, is an exploration of the...
Readers Will Listen: Audiobooks and the sound of sales
08 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
There has lately been a huge surge in demand for audiobooks. This spike has largely been driven by the digital disruption that not only changes how li...
Advanced sales strategies for selling diverse books
13 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In this panel from Tech Forum 2017, panelists Léonicka Valcius, John Toews, and Tan light discuss how to effectively market and sell diverse book lis...
The Irresistible Opportunity: McSweeney's Approach to Repurposing Content
15 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
When other resources are in short supply, the one thing all publishers always have more than enough of is content. So how do you maximize that resourc...
Monetizing content and what traditional publishers can learn from Wattpad
28 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
This month in the BookNet Canada podcast we talk with Ashleigh Gardner, Head of Partnerships at Wattpad about the evolution of Wattpad as a company, t...
A Look Back at 2016
31 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In this mini episode, we run through the bookish highlights of 2016, including the current size of the Canadian book market, industry updates, and new...
Why the Print Book Won't Die: Part 2
12 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In the second part of our series on the print book and why it won't be going away any time soon, we talk with David Sax, the author of the new book, T...
Why the Print Book Won't Die: Part 1
25 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Is the print book as a technology underrated? In this month's episode, Joanne McNeish, a professor who studies the resilience of incumbent technologie...