From March to June 2021, TOPO presented the virtual forum Mutations :: Books in the Digital Age. Twenty-four webinars on the challenges of publishing digital projects were held with some twenty speakers who play a key role in the digital publishing process, in creation, production, distribution, and marketing, focusing on the following issues:
Platform hybridity • Audiobooks and podcasts • Children's publishing • Education • Sales and distribution networks • Publishing and discoverability • Scholarly publishing • Professional association initiatives • Production and design • Narrative innovation and experimentation
This forum is intended for experienced individuals and anyone interested in new ways of promoting publishing projects through digital media.
Thank you to the Canada Council for the Arts Digital Strategies Fund.
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A word from the director
The digital publishing industry is undoubtedly undergoing constant change and is rapidly seeking expertise, hence this forum for discussion focused on digital books, a term that can certainly be interpreted very broadly.
TOPO has taken a particular interest in new forms of narrative expression and their dissemination through digital media since entering the digital world in 1998 with a literary and photographic fiction adapted for radio, the web, CD-ROM, and installation. This is also reflected in all the creative and publishing projects undertaken since then, notably our first digital book, Habiter l’incertitude d’une vitrine (Living with the uncertainty of a shop window), which confronted us with the creative and distribution constraints inherent in this format.
As a digital production artist center, TOPO has been running a training program for several years, with the support of Emploi-Québec, including several courses aimed at the literary creation, experimental publishing, and multiplatform production communities. The MUTATIONS forum is, in a way, an expanded version of a course offered on several occasions, “Issues in Digital Books and Augmented Reality in Publishing.” Limited to two short days, this training course barely allowed us to touch on the various issues related to conception, programming, interactive design, children's publishing, art publishing, multiplatform distribution, audiobooks and podcasts, discoverability, promotion, etc. Although limited in time, it brought together several people active in the publishing sector, both digital and traditional, who are experimenting and asking themselves many questions about “digital books.”
Especially since, with the pandemic, a new generation of readers is becoming accustomed to new digital initiatives, in children's publishing as much as in art publishing. The book as we know it is dissolving into a fusion of sprawling ramifications adapted to distribution networks and consultation tools. As a laboratory for digital writing, TOPO is at the heart of these issues. Hence the intention behind this more ambitious forum, with an à la carte program for a diverse clientele.
The years 2020 and 2021 saw other forums rich in shared experiences around digital books, including that of La Fabrique du numérique, a research and monitoring laboratory established at Laval University under the direction of René Audet. We can also mention the monitoring work carried out by UQAM's NT2 Laboratory and the Partenariat Littérature québécoise mobile. The Quebec Booksellers Association held its 13th edition of interprofessional meetings in May and June 2021 on the topic of digital publishing. In October 2021, the Collectif d’éditeurs d’art contemporain (CÉAC) published Le Livre numérique – États des lieux et Guide pratique (Digital Books: Current Status and Practical Guide).
Since there is no immunity against stupidity, all these initiatives, such as ours with the MUTATIONS forum, aim to enrich collective intelligence. Make good use of it.
– Michel Lefebvre
