The launch of Read Alberta is a reason for Alberta’s book community to celebrate. Not only does the website feature Alberta books, but it is also a hub to connect the Alberta book community as a whole: readers, authors, publishers, booksellers, libraries, events, and festivals. Although it is a recent site, Read Alberta was years in the making.
“The idea was originally modelled off of other great Canadian book websites like Read Local BC and All Lit Up, but focused on Alberta, where in many cases we were watching book media shrink or disappear, and didn’t have a particular outlet dedicated to showing off our outstanding storytellers and book community,” explains Kieran Leblanc, executive director of the Book Publishers Association of Alberta, which spearheaded the site.
“Since the beginning, we’ve always known that Read Alberta couldn’t be just a website – it needed to be an online community supported with an active social media campaign.”
The COVID-19 pandemic made the creation of the site urgent, as the need to connect the book community became greater than ever. The physical locations of bookstores had to close, and these stores pivoted to selling online. Events started being held online. As well, funding became available through Canadian Heritage’s Canada Book Fund.
The need to support shop local initiatives was high, and in response they added a Booksellers page to the site (with articles like How to Buy Alberta Books Online), and included a Bookmanager Shop Local button beside every book featured on the site, so that readers could easily click through to purchase the book from their local independent bookstores.
“Meanwhile,” Leblanc continues, “author events were suddenly all via video for the first time, so we sought to become the go-to for online event listings to help promote those events on social media, and also created an online event archive where anyone can find past video events by Alberta authors.”
Read Alberta goes beyond being just a website. In fact, most users access the site through social media. “Since the beginning, we’ve always known that Read Alberta couldn’t be just a website – it needed to be an online community supported with an active social media campaign,” says Anna Boyar, the Calgary-based project manager for the creation of the site, who provides book marketing and publicity services to independent Canadian publishers.
“So in many ways the website is a jumping off point to start conversations on social media.” For this, they’re using the handle @WeReadAB and hashtag #ReadAlberta.
“That being said, we do have some core content on the site, which will always live there as a resource for users, such as our Alberta bestseller list and new releases, publisher profiles, bookseller map and profiles, library map and access to the Read Alberta eBook Collection, and event listings and archives.”
Leblanc and the website team believe Read Alberta has great potential as a tool for advocacy for the book community in Alberta.
Some notable items on the site thus far include the following:
- A recent case study in which Eschia Books owner and publisher Dianne Meilli explores how their recent book Mother Earth Plants for Health & Beauty: Indigenous Plants, Traditions & Recipes came to top the bestseller list.
- A cheeky list of Alberta Books Bears Love to Read inspired by editorial cartoonist Derek Evernden’s June cartoon.
- A video interview with Kevin Van Tighem, author of Wild Roses Are Worth It: Reimagining the Alberta Advantage, conducted by Ken Davis.
- Jessie Bach’s article about the work being done to decolonize the language of library cataloguing for books by and about Indigenous Peoples in Alberta.
- A list by Nisha Patel of 5 Alberta Poetry Books That Inspire Me.
“Overall, what we want is for our users to enjoy themselves and have fun, while accessing great Alberta author interviews, book excerpts, behind-the-scenes with incredible people (and cats) in the industry, peeks into the literary history of the province, our beloved library column by Jessie Bach, and so much more,” says Heather Lohnes, a contributing editor to the site and owner of Alpine Book Peddlers, a wholesaler based in Canmore that helps various local retailers to source great book sections.
Leblanc and the website team believe Read Alberta has great potential as a tool for advocacy for the book community in Alberta.
“Between our team and the Alberta publishers, there are so many great ideas floating around that we hope to explore in the future, such as promoting themed Alberta book lists that are created for the site via tools like CataList and Bookmanager to public libraries, school libraries, booksellers, course instructors, associations, and more,” she says.
“Once the content is there, the question will become how to harness that content in support of the community’s efforts. An enthusiasm for Alberta books and the people who make them – that’s what we’re all about.”
