Looking for ways to step up your professional development? Look no further than the recently revamped Tech Forum website, and gain access to a repository of all the content we’ve created and shared as part of our event throughout the years.

From video recordings of virtual and in-person presentations to slides, podcast episodes, and blog posts, we’ve got a wealth of content in your preferred format.

In our previous instalment of this blog series, we highlighted content related to publishing, today the spotlight is on research.

If you’re looking for something in particular, here’s a quick guide on how to leverage the power of our website’s search engine.

Diversity in Canadian Book Publishing: Findings from the 2022 baseline survey

How has the face of the Canadian publishing industry changed over the past four years? Are we a more diverse sector than we were in 2018? In this presentation, representatives from the Association of Canadian Publishers discuss findings from the recent Canadian Book Publishing Diversity Baseline Survey, digging into data around race, gender, sexuality, salary, and more. They highlight where the publishing industry has improved in terms of diversity, what areas still need work, and how we as publishing professionals can continue to identify any challenges or opportunities for building inclusive workplaces.

Find the video and other related content here.

Why are women always talking to men in novels? A conversation about debiasing books using data analytics

Debiasing has become a much-debated topic in the world of AI and data analytics, and it's time to talk about it in publishing. Together with the software team Granthinka, we have begun developing tools that can allow editors to assess their manuscripts for different kinds of bias, whether it's how much space men and women characters take up, the presence or absence of visible minorities within fiction, the familiarity of actions or descriptions ascribed to different types of characters, down to the titles that are used to estimate "comparability" when it comes to marketing. Debiasing is important because it challenges the common stereotypes that govern how individuals are represented in creative works today. But it also raises a host of challenging questions: When is bias part of the story? Are we limiting authors' freedom? How might readers react to these changes? What kinds of new markets do less "familiar" books open up (or close down)? How can we work with authors to think about little changes that gradually add-up to building new imaginary worlds? This talk is geared towards editors, authors, and publishers. It's about conveying what is currently possible when it comes to content analytics in books, and about hearing how audience members feel about the important and complex questions surrounding bias when it comes to the content of books.

Find the video and other related content here.

Audiobooks in Canada

Arm yourself with research and insights from BookNet Canada and its partners relevant to the audiobook market.

Find the video and other related content here.

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