INDEX // mb Ideas on Publishing Books in Canada (and other attempts to write good)

Canadian Wine Meet Canadian Content

A Canadian vintner should get together with a Canadian literary agent and do a deal for a CanCon special edition wine series. A limited edition work from a Canadian author with a limited edition bin from a Canadian winery. Put the words on the label or pair them in a gift box. Do the deal. Have a release party where all participating authors attend. Release one author/wine combo a season. Instant hit. Maybe even advertise in the prestigious LCBO Food & Drink magazine.

My friend Sandy, over at BringMyWine.ca, introduced me to wines by Norman Hardie over Christmas (warning audio autoplay). If only Mr. Hardie could get connected to the folks at Westwood Creative Agency then we could have a really wide breadth of writers involved. Christopher Dewdney, Frances Itani, Roy MacGregor, Alberto Manguel, Stephen Marche, Yann Martel, Josef Skvorecky, Esta Spalding, and Margaret Visser are some of the authors I would love to see involved. Attention Hilary McMahon — can you make this happen?

On second thought, Westwood’s website is so infuriatingly poor I take it back. Any Canadian lit agents out there? Dean Cooke? Anybody? This idea is yours for the taking…

(photo)


2 Comments

[...] a season. Instant hit. Maybe even advertise in the prestigious LCBO Food & Drink magazine. [more...] Bookmark the permalink. Trackbacks are closed, but you can post a comment. « [...]

Posted by Wine & Books on 9 January 2009 @ 12pm

[...] Canadian Wine Meet Canadian Content Mark at Index//mb has a nifty marketing idea: pair Canadian books/authors with Canadian wines. Mark, Australian Coriole Wines did a brilliant promotion using exactly this idea a few years ago with Adelaide poets. Poetry and poet bios on the labels, attractive limited edition half-cases with royalties to the poets, and even “Poets in the Vineyard” events with readings and music. I hope Canadian wineries can follow the example! [...]

Posted by Alphabet Soup 11-Jan-09 « Electric Alphabet on 11 January 2009 @ 5am

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