A Huge Thank You
Many thanks to everyone who attended my sessions on Online Marketing last week in Toronto and Banff.

Thank you also to Jack Illingworth at the Canadian Publishers Association and Katherine Shute at the Book Publishers Association of Alberta for organizing the sessions.

Hire Monique
If you are interested in online marketing services, please feel free to get in touch with me. See the Work Industries contact page.

If you are interested in having me come into your company to talk about online marketing, Jack tells me there is money available in the mentor program for members of the ACP.

Here’s a list of further services that I offer through Work Industries. You can see details on the Work Industries services page.

Subscribe to the Underwire Newsletter
And if you are curious about my Underwire Newsletter: Full Support for Non-Techies, you can subscribe here.

Out of the Office Travel Notes
Just a reminder that James and I will be out of the country from October 1 to 21 and will have sporadic email access. But we’re back full time November 1.

Testimonials?
Testimonials and referrals are greatly appreciated. If you have a testimonial that I may share on my websites or with potential clients, please contact me.

Many thanks again.

The Sherlock Holmes stories are by far my favourite detective stories of all time. James and I have watched all the videos and read most of the books.

Yesterday I gave a presentation for members of the Association of Canadian Publishers on online marketing. We were talking about how long it takes to make a blog post so I asked for a book from the audience–The Eye of the Crow by Shane Peacock was the proffered title.

The Eye of the Crow turns out to be a series about a young Sherlock Holmes. The boy detective is as sharp and witty as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s senior Holmes–I’m looking forward to confirming that myself. The book is published this fall from Tundra Books.

Shane Peacock has a Flash site promoting the series.

[And now you know what I was on about yesterday. Oh, the arcane workings of my brain …]

I met JK Rowling in 2000 when she made her first visit to Canada. She came to the Raincoast offices and met each and every one of us. Then we all went to the Pacific Coliseum to hear her read and chat to the kids.

WELL HERE WE GO AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’m just getting on a plane for Toronto but here’s the Raincoast Harry Potter News Alert that I received just now:

Quote:

RAINCOAST HARRY POTTER NEWSLETTER: September 17, 2007
http://www.raincoast.com/harrypotter/

J.K. Rowling Comes to Canada

J.K. Rowling will be making an appearance in Canada this fall! J.K.
Rowling will be appearing at the Winter Garden Theatre in Toronto on
October 23 for an all-ages event sponsored by Raincoast Books and hosted
by the International Festival of Authors. J.K. Rowling will offer a short
reading from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, answer questions from
her fans and sign complimentary copies of the final book in the Harry
Potter series for every fan in attendance. The event will begin at
10:00AM.

There will be no tickets for sale and numbered and assigned seats will
only be available through random draws.

Beginning at 9:00AM Pacific on Monday September 17, Raincoast will be
holding an online sweepstakes for lucky fans, ages seven and older, to win
one of one hundred pairs of tickets to the J.K. Rowling Comes to the
Winter Garden Theatre event. Raincoast will draw ten pairs of tickets per
day for ten days, excluding weekends, from September 17 though September
28. For full details please go to: www.raincoast.com/harrypotter/.

The IFOA, working with The Ontario Library Association (OLA) and their
sister organisation, The Partnership (The Provincial and
Territorial Library Associations of Canada), will also be making hundreds
of tickets available for fans across Canada. Seating at the event will be
capped at 950 attendees.

“J.K. Rowling has always given priority to her fans,” said Allan
MacDougall, CEO of Raincoast Books, “and we and the IFOA have tried to
plan an event that reflects her values. The Winter Garden event will be
intimate, interactive and something that her Canadian fans will never
forget. We are thrilled to have her in Canada again.”

—————————————————–

Raincoast Books of Vancouver is the joint publisher of Harry Potter series
in Canada in conjunction with Bloomsbury Plc of London. Since first being
published in 1997, the seven books in Harry Potter series have sold over
350 million copies worldwide and over 11 million copies in Canada. The
trip next month will mark the second occasion that J.K. Rowling has
travelled to Canada. In October 2000, she made appearances in Vancouver
and Toronto.

Remember my little site http://www.sinceharry.com well since I’m flying hither and tither, post on the site for me or post comments here if you are as excited as I am.

And in the post or comment answer this question: what has happened in your life since first reading Harry Potter?

Wooooohooooo.

This weekend was a symposium–Reckoning 07–organized by BC BookWorld‘s Alan Twigg, Shadbolt Fellow (SFU).

See Canadian Centre for Studies in Publishing info on Reckoning 07 or download the PDF of the Symposium Announcement.

It was pitched as a chance to gather BC’s writing and publishing community together to talk about the cultural successes that are seldom told here–successes that are often overshadowed by the sexier, media-friendly sister, the BC film industry.

What it was was a brilliant documentation of the unique stories behind the birth of BC’s publishing industry. The morning session was a walk down memory lane. And remember, these are publishers–storytellers. It was not a boring session reviewing the corporate histories of BC publishing houses. It was storytime.

Karl Siegler of Talonbooks talked about joining the company in 1974 as business manager and going for tea and cookies with other BC publishers to talk about starting the BC Publishers Group, an organization that would help members collectively promote their titles and prosper.

Randy Fred talked about founding Theytus Books, one of the first indigenous publishers in BC and how the government tried to suggest to them how indigenous publishers could work together and how the native elders were suspicious of natives publishing native works because that had never been done before.

Richard Olafson explained the name “Ekstasis Editions”, ekstasis means to stand outside of oneself and that’s what good poetry does.

Rhonda Bailey of XYZ Publishing, who attended one of my sessions months ago, told me I have changed her life. And she’s now on Facebook and keeping up with her students.

Ron Smith reported that Oolicahn was started over a scotch with Robert Kroetsch, that Rhonda Bailey was instrumental in the early days of the press, and that a fellow–whose name I missed–used to encourage them to go down to the highway and sell boxes of books to the logging truck drivers. They sold cartons and cartons their first year.

It was a family reunion, and the best of sorts.

The afternoon sessions were on the future of publishing. I was on a panel that spoke about online marketing, new technology and what exciting prospects are on the horizon for publishers and authors.

The following session was on the future of writing in BC and the audience was packed with BC authors. I met Zsuzsi Gartner.

And the day ended with an evening celebration of Duthie Books, who are celebrating their 50th anniversary.

Good times were had by all. Thank you Alan Twigg for hosting the biggest and best BC party I’ve ever been to–of course, James tells me his book launch was also pretty big and fun.

As Alan promised, it was not dull.

Quick note, I saw this press release from Business Wire on September 10:
“Blogosphere’s Brightest Stars to Offer Expert Advice to Bloggers, Entrepreneurs, ADV, PR Communities at First BlogWorld & New Media Expo
Business Wire”

BlogWorld & New Media Expo, the first-ever industry-wide blogging conference and trade show is scheduled for November 7-9, 2007 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

There will be more than 60 sessions on blogging, podcasting, video blogging and other types of social media activities.
See the site for speakers and other info.

Discounted pricing is available through October 19.

Vanessa’s Gingerbread Cottage Bed and Breakfast is a very cute bed and breakfast in Victoria, British Columbia.

My mom and I spent two nights there and I’ll never forget the incredible breakfasts I had.

Ayala Sender is a perfumer here in Vancouver, BC.

We met at Portobello West, which is a great craft market that happens the last Sunday of every month.

At some point I registered for Ayala’s newsletter. I dream of making the most intoxicating perfume. And, I just won a contest for a copy of the video Perfume. Thank you Ayala.

My prize arrived in the mail today, along with an email announcement about Ayala’s new website. See how beautiful perfume can be.

http://www.ayalamoriel.com

You can see exactly how the different forms and concentrations are packaged and the beautiful colours of the perfumes.

Each fragrance has a description and review that will taunt you. And you can now order online.

Ayala Moriel Parfums
http://www.AyalaMoriel.com/

Also check out the SmellyBlog: http://SmellyBlog.com/