According to a press release issued today by Finkle, “the agency will negotiate terms on behalf of its writers [and] it will also act as a reliable resource for editors and commercial clients interested in finding suitable and proven writers.” The agency also aims to shift away from per word rates and will instead focus on the skill and experience of the writer, as well as take into account the time to complete the article and any required research.

The sticking point for many members of the Canadian freelancing community, however, is Finkle’s repeated claims to represent the country’s “best” writers. The fear is that the CWG will help the elite — the freelance writers who are already very successful and are earning a decent living. Although the lineup of current writers represented by the CWG has not been publicly released, the list of publications that agency members have contributed to is essentially a list of the biggest titles in the country: The Globe and Mail, Maclean’s, Chatelaine, Toronto Life, National Post and so many more.

At this early stage of the game it does seem that the CWG will initially benefit the best of the best, but I think that Finkle’s goal of changing how the industry treats freelancers will prove helpful to all writers in the future. $1 per word is often seen as the ultimate goal for freelance writers, but realistically this only translates to $30,000/year — and that’s without any benefits. To move away from this payment plan could be a great improvement for all writers, and hopefully the CWG will help break down that barrier.

(Thanks to The Canadian Journalism Project for their great post on this issue back in November which provided me with further background information.)

As of May 1st, I am now the editorial intern at Quill & Quire and will hold this position until the end of August. I’ve been kept quite busy so far by blogging (three posts today, one yesterday, and my first one on Friday) and writing some short round-ups of awards and bestsellers for the subscription-only section of their site, Q&Q Omni. I’m looking forward to the opportunity to write for the print magazine as well, and I have a few ideas of other new jobs to create for myself here which I will divulge more on as they happen.

When I’m not busy writing (or proofing, because I’m doing a lot of that, too!), I’m busy reading. In order to keep myself well-versed in the happenings of the industry, my Google Reader account now keeps track of 17 book blogs. On a slow day, I’ll likely get the chance to read most of these blog’s daily posts. On a hectic day, I’ll be lucky if I get to skim-read half of them! It’s exciting though, for me, that reading and writing about books all day is now my job.

For those of you interested in adding a few more book blogs to your own RSS reader, two of my newest faves are the L.A. Times‘ Jacket Copy (which posted today the above photo of Spanish designer Jordi Milla’s amazing Wisdom Tree bookshelf) and MediaBistro‘s Galley Cat. Happy reading!

Derek Weiler, editor-in-chief of Quill & Quire, passed away yesterday. He was 40 years old and articles posted today cite that he passed away suddenly at his home in Toronto. Quill & Quire posted an announcement about his death on their website this morning, and articles have popped up all over the internet throughout the day. Two of the most heartfelt and well-written articles I’ve found are by Martin Levin (Books Editor at The Globe & Mail) and Steven W. Beattie (Review Editor at Quill & Quire).

Without a doubt, Derek’s death will be felt throughout the Canadian publishing industry. His work at Q&Q was phenomenal and so crucial to publishers and authors across the nation. He was an extremely talented writer and editor, and even more importantly he was an incredible person. Every word I’ve read about Derek today has been exceptionally positive, praising his kind and gentle manner along with his quick wit. I only got to meet Derek twice, but from those two short meetings alone I can agree that all these assertions are spot on.

The first time I met Derek I interviewed him, and the second time I met Derek he interviewed me. These two incidents were just over a week apart. At the beginning of this past March, myself and two classmates interviewed Derek as part of a presentation we were doing on Quill & Quire for our Magazine Editing class in our last term of the Book & Magazine Publishing post-graduate certificate program at Centennial College (which, incidentally, Derek is also a graduate of). The three of us were thrilled that the EIC of a magazine was taking the time out of his busy day to meet with us, but Derek modestly insisted that it wasn’t that big of a deal. Meeting Derek that first time, I liked him immediately. He was kind, well-spoken, and had interesting answers to all of our questions. I instantly felt a connection to him, and even more so when I found out that not only were we both Centennial grads, but like Derek I had also attained a BA in English Lit at the University of Waterloo, and I also worked at Imprint, UW’s student newspaper during my years at the university.

Our interview with Derek was fairly brief, but I was thrilled by the opportunity to learn more about my favourite magazine. And to actually meet the editor-in-chief? What an amazing experience. I know that the one statement from that interview that we’ll always remember was when we asked Derek what role he thought Q&Q played in the industry and he made it very clear that the magazine was “not a cheerleader”. I remember that when I wrote that down in my notes I actually underlined each word because he wanted us to understand that Q&Q‘s role was to report the happenings of the industry, whether they be positive or negative. The magazine’s job was not to simply provide moral support to publishers, and I admired his integrity on that matter.

The second time I met Derek we switched roles as he interviewed me for their summer internship position. It was a job interview like any other, but again I enjoyed meeting him and appreciated his laid-back manner. Although he told me that I may have to wait a week or more to hear back, I received a phone call from him the next evening offering me the position. I think I floated on air the rest of that night and likely for the next few days as well. Not only was I extremely excited for the opportunity to work for Q&Q but I was also incredibly looking forward to working with a man that I already so very much admired and respected.

I am saddened that my chance to learn from this amazing editor has been cut so very short. His influence on the industry has been so great already and I know that he still had much more to teach us all.

The Fail Whale: An Easter present for Amazon

The Twitterverse has been all a-flutter this fine Easter Sunday as Amazon has unexpectedly removed sales rankings, listings, and search functionality of books with themes relating to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender issues. The hashtag #amazonfail has been used in tweets to document this event and is currently the second highest trend on Twitter, following after “Happy Easter”.

Author Mark R. Probst, a gay romance young adult novelist (thanks for the clarification, Maggie!) whose book The Filly suffered from this mass removal, wrote about this incident on his LiveJournal blog this morning and the news has spread like wildfire ever since. After noticing the removal of hundreds of gay and lesbian romance novels, Probst contacted Amazon and received the following reply:

In consideration of our entire customer base, we exclude “adult” material from appearing in some searches and best seller lists. Since these lists are generated using sales ranks, adult materials must also be excluded from that feature.

Hence, if you have further questions, kindly write back to us.

The problems with this mass action by Amazon are endless. For the company to claim that this act is to protect their customer base is ridiculous. This brilliantly-written “open letter” on Booksquare points out that Mein Kampf and a book on how to train fighting dogs are exempt from this discrimination, despite the fact that many Amazon customers may be offended by such titles. Also, it’s been noted on several blogs that some classic novels, including D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover, have fallen victim to Amazon’s “adult” distinction.

Amazon, when you’re done stuffing yourselves at Easter dinner, a public response on this would be appreciated. I’d do it sooner rather than later, before the verb “amazon rank” becomes more prevalent and much more naughty than it seems you’re into.

Addition: A great list of books/authors affected can be found here. Also, if anyone finds additional interesting info about this issue as it progresses, please comment!