BookcampTO 2013 and the Extending Hallway

BookcampTO uses a charming gif, conveying the awe and wonder their fantabulous "unconference" elicits.Conferences bring people together for a few days of fruitful exchange, but those exchanges are often cut short just when they’ve gotten started. Just when small talk gives way to conversation, it’s time for closing remarks. Just when the others start to look familiar, it’s time to go home.For the past five years, BookCampTO has attempted to address that dilemma with its “unconference.” A free event hosted by the Canadian Book Professionals’ Association, or CanBPA, and the University of Toronto’s iSchool, BookCampTO makes space for the conversations that end too abruptly.On a Saturday morning, over 200 editors, publishers, writers, marketers and professionals linked to the publishing industry met at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information. The schedule was crammed, with sixteen hour-long sessions running co-currently over three floors. A marketplace allowed participants to meet with the Editors’ Association of Canada, Booknet, the Association of Canadian Publishers (ACP), Kobo and Wattpad. Meanwhile, a free room was set up for scheduled sessions that went overtime, and gave air to topics that attendees felt were not covered at other sessions. Attendees were encouraged to move from room to room if their interest wandered.Topics ranged from digital publicity, critical culture, and new publishing platforms, and tackled practical and logistical concerns such as unpaid internships, designing layouts on tight budgets, or freelancing. A number of sessions were cryptically titled, such as “Asset Management,” “AMA: Metadata and THEMA,” and “The Value Chain Gang,” but I guessed they covered specialized topics for editors, and I was content to be baffled.A Taste of the Panels“Diversity in Publishing” was led by Natalie Zed and Leonicka Valcius, whose talking points jumpstarted the conversation. Zed stated there is little data to support conclusions about disparities in publishing, nor is the publishing industry held accountable in that area. Zed pointed to CWILA (of which she is a member) and to VIDA as among the few organizations collecting figures on gaps in critical culture and publishing, while advocating for a more balanced representation. She discussed CWILA’s goals to improve the tracking of data regarding writers of colour.

Natalie Zed dropped some knowledge about diversity in publishing.Leonicka connected the issue to genre, and referred to the controversy surrounding the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. Writers such as N.K. Jemisi have pointed to the racist and sexist nature of SFWA’s content and, in particular, its newsletter. Considering how certain genres are dominated by certain groups or genders, we came to several possibilities. First: marketers often promote certain genres to niche markets, i.e. romance novels or “chicklit,” and second: readers tend to be attracted to books that reflect their own experience.A highlight of the session was the proposal of a “25 book challenge,” in which readers attempt to read 25 books by authors they didn’t self-identify with. Several attendees accepted this challenge. The hour ended too quickly, but a feeling of optimism, too unfamiliar, lingered.Later, Emily Keeler of Little Brother, Troy Palmer, editor and publisher of Little Fiction, and Jessica Lewis of Static Zines discussed the sustainability of small press publishing, with Dragnet editor Jeremy Hanson-Finger as an unofficial session contributor. They demonstrated a variety of different business models they use to fund their publishing ventures. Contributors are often unpaid, but publishers also refuse to take a salary, and instead fuel funds back into the publication’s upkeep.All three work at other jobs, and their publications demand many unpaid hours of labor. Several attendees were concerned this is unfeasible in the long-term. Others suggested that as long as there are talented editors, writers and graphic designers willing to work for free, they will never be paid what they feel their work is worth. I was encouraged by the ingenuity of alternative publishing models, but I couldn’t forget the inability of the publishing industry to sustain itself this past decade.The Panels Spill OverQuandaries raised in one session were often discussed at another. As a result, BookCampTO had the feel of an extending telescope, with one section nested inside another, its multiple lenses reflecting on the state of publishing. While leaving, I ran into several acquaintances. Voices spilled through the stairways, and onto the sidewalks outside. BookCampTO simultaneously gave the feeling of having been included, yet also of extending out of bounds. The event was larger than the sum of its participants, and the solutions and ideas it generated would require more than a single conversation.In the weeks after the event, I caught up with new acquaintances and listened in on sessions I hadn’t been able to attend using the hashtag #BCTO13 on Twitter (which also allowed me to view the urgent cheese and hummus alerts throughout the day). Organizers created opportunities for participants to follow-up, and this was one of the most constructive aspects of the event.The hashtag #DiverseCanLit is being used to continue talking about equality in publishing, and Leonicka has begun a Tumblr site to address the topic at. Kate Icely has written a series of “dispatches” on interns in publishing for the EAC blog, and Booknet’s Tom Richardson summarized the event here: http://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2013/8/29/pushing-boundaries-at-bookcampto.html. If you weren’t a part of BookCampTO this year, what came out of its hallways can still benefit you.