Scotiabank Giller 2010 Prize Shortlist

[Logseman]

Will they include a warning in the cover that "reading this book in an eBook reader can bug out your eyes and infect your thumbs"?

[taming]

Nice coverage of the event on CTV Montreal website. Apparently folks are going to have trouble finding pBook edition of the winning book.

Thirty-year-old Montreal author Johanna Skibsrud became the youngest recipient of the $50,000 Scotiabank Giller Prize on Tuesday night, but readers may have trouble finding her winning novel, "The Sentimentalists."

That's because her Nova Scotia-based publishing house, Gaspereau Press, makes its hand-crafted books locally and can only print about 1,000 copies of "The Sentimentalists" a week.

Some bookstores across the country have been unable to get the title since the Giller short list came out Oct. 5.

It's 3rd on the list of Kobo best sellers this morning.

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by SensualPoet

... Joanna Skibsrud for The Sentamentalists!

Originally Posted by Logseman

Will they include a warning in the cover that "reading this book in an eBook reader can bug out your eyes and infect your thumbs"?

Since the title is not available in the US may I assume it was to protect our well being?

[Logseman]

They're not even releasing it in eBook, I guess. These Gaspies are the unsufferable fools who posted this lame aside note: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...10&postcount=3

[taming]

Originally Posted by Logseman

They're not even releasing it in eBook, I guess.

EPUB version is available at kobobooks.com. http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/The-S...Usg/page1.html

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by taming

EPUB version is available at kobobooks.com. http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/The-S...Usg/page1.html

Not available in the US.

[SensualPoet]

Actually, at the moment, none of the five Giller Prize short list titles are available in the US (or, I believe, outside Canada). Four of the five are first time novels / collections.

[taming]

I was amazed to hear on the program that a hardcover Canadian book generally sells 3-5,000 copies--if it does well. They then said that some Giller winning books have sold 80-120,000 copies. I have no idea what the small publisher for this year's winner will do if it is true that they can only produce 1000 a week. Of course they are "handmade" so maybe they will contract with someone else.

[SensualPoet]

I believe the definition in Canada of a Bestseller is 5,000 copies. I could be wrong.

[taming]

That is the number Wikipedia gives--but the source is an article about the surprising success of a BC book about chainsaws published in 2007. I wonder where that number really originated.

[taming]

Found on TeleRead: Kobo on top of the Canadian Giller Prize; the immediacy of ebooks

http://www.teleread.com/paul-biba/ko...acy-of-ebooks/

[SensualPoet]

Just a note for anyone interested in the Scotiabank Giller Prize winner and the four other shortlist titles (see OP for details): all are available this weekend at 20% off from Kobobooks AND each purchase is an entry for some cool prizes. Discount code: Nov12a1120 is an unlimited use coupon until Nov 15 (note: some Agency 5 titles excluded).

In general Kobo is about the same price as Amazon Kindle so it's a pretty good deal.

[Barcey]

Originally Posted by taming

I was amazed to hear on the program that a hardcover Canadian book generally sells 3-5,000 copies--if it does well. They then said that some Giller winning books have sold 80-120,000 copies. I have no idea what the small publisher for this year's winner will do if it is true that they can only produce 1000 a week. Of course they are "handmade" so maybe they will contract with someone else.

I've heard some news stories on the CBC that the publisher has had offers to mass print for them but so far has refused. They believe in the hand-crafted books as art themselves. I'm not sure the author is too thrilled with this though. It's interesting and has been good publicity for e-books.

“It would no longer be a Gaspereau Press book,” said Steeves, who declined to identify the bigger press. “If you are going to buy a copy of that book in Canada, it’s damn well coming out of my shop.” Steeves said the initial print run on The Sentimentalists, a novel about a daughter uncovering her father’s dark history, was in his usual modest range of 600 to 1,500 copies, and that the book had sold 400 copies before the Giller long-list was announced. He has printed just over 2,000 more copies of the inside pages but is waiting on a delivery of paper for the cover. He hopes to be printing the cover and binding the books next week and filling orders the first week of November.

If that’s not fast enough for Toronto, he makes no apologies.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...22/?cmpid=rss1

[taming]

Here (and elsewhere):

Heinemann, an imprint of Random House U.K., has acquired U.K. and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, to The Sentimentalists.