Monday, January 16, 2012

Me on A Possible Canadian YA Lit Event

Yesterday, I was talking to Kathy at A Glass of Wine on Twitter and she mentioned she had an idea for a blog event where it was just all Canadian authors. So I started thinking and figured this would be a good idea.

Now comes the planning and the asking of authors and possibly involving publishers.
 My initial idea is that it would be 1 week or 2 weeks, maybe in April or May, and every day would have a different post, either a review or a guest post or an interview, on a different Canadian author and their book(s). I'm not sure about giveaways. They're fun, they increase blog publicity and readership, but shipping can get a little pricey. (This might be where I'd contact publishers, see if they're willing to give anything away.) Another option is for this to be a once a month feature.
It sounds like fun. Canadian YA authors are out there, but they're not as well known for a number of different reasons. I love that there are currently 3 books on my list of books I'd punch a lion in the face for written by Canadians. And they all come out in the next 6 months. And that I've already read another that came out a couple weeks ago.

The thing is... I've never hosted something like this. I don't really know how to go about it, apart from contacting authors to see if they'd be interested or contacting publishers to see if they or their authors would be interested.
So... yeah.

I'd like this not to be just be reviewing books for a whole two weeks, because that would be boring. I want you to be entertained. So, pretty much what I'd like from you is any tips or suggestions on how I'd go about this, as well as any authors you'd like to hear from or any books you'd like featured. It's possible that, because I love having you all as readers, I'll have a giveaway that'll go on during the whole event but only for one or two books.
I hope you like this idea. I think it would be rather fun. :) And let me know if you'd like to join in, either in reviewing or writing a post on your thoughts on YA in Canada. You can get in touch with me here in comments, on Twitter (@-mention or DM), or through e-mail (if you know my e-mail).

(And the pictures are recent and upcoming books by Canadian authors. :) Any surprises??)

5 comments:

  1. I might be a little biased but I think this is fantastic. For my angel event I just sent out a email to publishers asking if there were any books they wanted me to include. Once I had a list of names I emailed authors and asked them if they wanted to take part and if so in which way could they take part. The response has been really positive, and I have most of the posts taken care of.

    Just email publishers and authors to get some feedback and go from there.

    I love the idea, and figured it would be a good fit for you!

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  2. I am a Canadian author with a book coming out May 1st (The Right & the Real). I could most likely get my publicist to donate a book. I don't know if I have your email address or not, but you can email me through my website, http://www.joelleanthony.com and we should talk! Oh, and even if I didn't have a book out, I think it's an excellent idea!

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  3. I love this idea! I had actually just started planning one last week for the summer time haha. Great minds must think alike ;)

    I think you're on the right track planning-wise though!

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  4. Hi Lindsay - great idea. I'd love to be involved with an event like this, if it ends up happening. My debut YA contemporary (WAY TO GO) comes out on April 1st (Orca Book Publishers) and I can definitely hook you up with a giveaway and I'm pretty sure my publisher would take care of postage. Drop me a note at tomwrotethat (at) gmail (dot) com!

    :)

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  5. p.s. - my website is www.tomwrotethat.com if you wanna check it out!

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