Publishers try new promotional tricks at BEC

Quill & Quire OMNI

June 13, 2008 | 6:58 PM | By Stuart Woods

Trying to stand out on BookExpo Canada’s crowded convention floor is a challenge many of the annual trade show’s exhibitors face, but it’s one that can lead to some unconventional marketing strategies. This year’s event, running Sunday and Monday, features a number of ambitious promotional campaigns – including a film-festival teaser, a unique prize giveaway, and a racy flesh-and-blood mascot – all vying for attention.

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Another BEC event that’s hardly by-the-book is a preview of the Moving Stories Film Festival, a program of book-inspired short films that will tour Canadian literary festivals this fall. Run by BookShorts founder Judith Keenan and curated by Canada Reads-winning author Paul Quarrington, the screening on Sunday at 2 p.m. in the BookShorts Lounge will feature an animated short by English filmmaker Kate Jessop (based on a poem by Diana Syder) as well as

a more conventional BookShorts-produced film commissioned by self-published author James McCreath, who will be promoting his soccer-themed “novel of hope,” Renaldo, at BEC.

Quarrington – who wrote and directed a short film based on his novel The Ravine, which he says may be included in the final festival lineup – views the promotion as an expression of the commonality between literature and film. “I think the novel’s much more flexible and agile as a storytelling mechanism, but movies are so popular, and especially with some of the new media, access to them is going to be so pervasive that it’s good for the two to co-operate.”

Keenan hopes the promotion will spur a “flurry” of new entries before the festival’s July 10 submissions deadline (the final 90-minute lineup will be announced on July 30) and attract potential screening partners from across North America. So far, the fest is slated to play at six literary festivals in Canada (including fests in Vancouver, Winnipeg, and Ottawa); one U.S. retailer, Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe, Arizona, has also signed on to host the program. “Ultimately, we’d like to get the booksellers on board and create community screening programs associated with their own outreach,” Keenan says, adding that she hopes to grab the attention of event planners at Indigo Books & Music at BEC.

For more information about Moving Stories Film Fest at BEC — watch this column on Sunday June 15!