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It has been a packed summer for me with book signings (which I keep forgetting to post here) and just summery type stuff. One thing I've begun to observe is the break in the chain of publishing in Canada. I am beginning to see a sense of inferiority in the Canadian writing industry and it filters all through the chain of command stopping just shy of the reader. We have the publishers. For some reason we think that if we are published in Canada we really aren't legitimate writers. And this is sometime reinforced by book stores that have been convinced that New York publishers are the end all and be all. Then there are the distributors. Again, it is assumed that we need a US distributor to get our books into the States. Then we get to the book stores. No Canadian section. No Canadian books. No Canadian authors featured. Having said that, I do realize that there are some who have dived in and are rightfully proud of the Canadian content of their stores and to those store owners--thank you, thank you, thank you! But far too many people in the publishing process still believe that Canadians can't write, edit, publish, distribute or promote. Nonesense! I am proud to say that I have done my books in Canada because I'm Canadian. Funny thing is: the American readers understand this concept completely! They couldn't imagine using another nation's publishing company, promotion company, distribution company to get their books out there. And what do the readers of Canada think? As I have continued to chug my way from book signing to book signing, I have discovered that Canadians want to read what Canadians write. I've had people buy my books just because I'm Canadian. They didn't even care what they were about! Now how crazy is that? And yet, they are frustrated because they have to beg for Canadian books to be brought into stores. Isn't it time Canadians embraced all things Canadian? Just a thought. |
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