Toronto is getting another big-theme literary festival this year and it's occurring in October — just one week after the popular Word on the Street book and magazine festival and less than three weeks before the International Festival of Authors.
Details of the Toronto Book Fair were unveiled today (Wednesday) to publishers, booksellers and the media by Reed Exhibitions Canada, the fair's owner and organizer. The inaugural edition is scheduled for Oct. 2, a Friday, through Oct. 4 inside the Direct Energy Centre on the Canadian National Exhibition grounds.
The fair is Reed's response to persistent complaints by publishers, particularly the "big four" multinationals — Random House, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins and Penguin Group (Canada) — that its annual four-day trade show, BookExpo Canada, in June in Toronto, hasn't been inclusive enough and has failed to drive sales.
Reed's fall fair will feature elements familiar to attendees of Word on the Street, which marks its 20th anniversary in Toronto on Sept. 28. There will be a substantial children's program, a "comics corner" highlighting manga and graphic novels, visits by literary celebrities, as well as booths for publishers and booksellers, among other features.
But John McGeary, general manager of Reed Canada, promised that his fair will be "much more interactive and entertaining" than either Word on the Street or IFOA, which kicks off on Oct. 21. "We're going to bring back the excitement of literacy to Toronto. … We consider ourselves extremely different." The fair also is going to be a paid event (Word on the Street is free) with admissions ranging from $8 to $15.
Much seems to be riding on the fair's success, not least the future of BookExpo Canada. The 2009 edition runs June 19-22, but it's happening without the country's largest trade publisher, Random House, which announced last November that it would be a no-show. It was expected the other big players would follow Random, thereby threatening BookExpo with extinction. But so far they haven't taken a firm position.
McGeary said many publishers were holding off deciding on BookExpo "until they hear about this [the book fair]." Now, he said, Reed "will be reaching out to our customers within the next couple of weeks," asking them if they want to participate in both BookExpo and the Toronto Book Fair or just one event to the exclusion of the other.
About 70 people — including representatives from small and medium-sized publishers and independent bookstores — attended yesterday's session in a hotel conference room, and their response to the pitch was lukewarm at best.
"I think this set-up is ideally suited for the four major multinationals and for Indigo [Books and Music, Canada's biggest book retailer]," observed House of Anansi Press president Sarah MacLachlan. The four "already supply about 80 per cent of the books into the Canadian market; Indigo sells probably close to 50 per cent of the books in Canada. So the question for me is, could I as a smaller independent publisher benefit from going along [when] the thrust of it is going to come from the big guys?"
MacLachlan said she didn't know the answer at this time. But she indicated that she would be upset if BookExpo Canada was severely compromised or cancelled. "That show has always been very good for us. Now, I'm having to wait to see what iteration of BookExpo they can put forward and see if it's worth participating. BookExpo was the hub for the industry, for booksellers to come from across the country to meet with publishers, talk about upcoming lists, pre-plan, for us to hand out reading copies, advance the cause of a new writer. A consumer fair can't do that."
Independent booksellers worried about how big Indigo's role would be and the costs of renting floor space and hiring staff for three days. "It can work if they can bring in the big guns ... and if it doesn't turn into a discounting thing," said Eleanor LeFave of Mabel's Fables bookstore, referring to the discounts Indigo and remainder houses can offer that smaller retailers can't.
