Books in Canada no longer published but hasn't told funders

Globe and Mail arts writer James Adams asks the apt question about the Amazon.ca/Books in Canada First Novel Award, (which is being given out in Toronto tonight at the Drake Hotel. Namely, why is it still called that when the magazine Books in Canada has ceased publication. It wasn't an announced closure or suspension; the magazine simply hasn't come out since January/February of this year.

Publisher Adrian Stein is quoted saying he has no intention of reviving it, at least as a print publication. There had been some talk about switching over to digital publication, though that hasn't happened. And Adams reports that the home page of the magazine's website is now "under construction". This, despite the fact that the first novel award program apparently continues to be administered by the magazine, with Amazon continuing to pay the costs.

If Amazon is concerned that it has partnered with an operation that no longer produces a print publication and has yet to realize its digital ambitions, it is not saying so publicly. Would Amazon continue to be affiliated with BiC even if its digital edition never appeared? "It's too early to say right now," a representative from the company said recently from Seattle. "As far as we know, it's business as usual."

Adams also talked to the Canada Council, which has given BiC funding, including $46,600 released in December when nine issues were to be published in 2008.

However, the council had not, as of late August, received "any formal notification from Books in Canada that they've suspended publication," nor notice of a digital reincarnation. As a result, the Canada Council is operating under the assumption that, by the end of this year, "Books in Canada will have produced the issues, in print, that they received funding for" - funding that was "released in good faith."