Thursday, April 24, 2008

Could Vancouver Become a World City of Literature?

A movement is underway to have Vancouver named a UNESCO City of Literature, like the City of Edinburgh, which received the first-ever UN designation in 2004. To be recognized by UNESCO (a designation comparable to the World Heritage Sites), a literary city must demonstrate that it has a broad-based publishing industry, a tradition of hosting literary events and festivals, and a wide range of public spaces dedicated to the preservation and promotion of literature.

Kiley and I have been working on the project over the past year, and I joined Alma Lee, the founding artistic director of the Vancouver International Writers and Readers Festival, and Margaret Reynolds, executive director of the Association of Book Publishers of British Columbia, yesterday for a public consultation at the Vancouver Public Library. The session was well attended, and I had a chance to present some of the background from our working proposal for UNESCO along with Hal Wake from the Writer’s Festival, CBC’s Joan Anderson, and Rick Antonson from Tourism Vancouver.

A number of people asked to receive copies of the draft UNESCO dossier and so we’ve posted it here for download: UNESCO_DossierFeb4_DRAFT.pdf. (Please note the file is currently a draft only and will be revised over the spring before it goes to UNESCO this summer.) If anyone would like to receive further project news or provide additional feedback, please email

Thursday, April 03, 2008

Writing to Get Read: Paul Collier

How refreshing! In his Globe and Mail column last Saturday, “How to fix the world? Make aid work for the ‘bottom billion,’” Doug Saunders quotes Paul Collier, professor and author of The Bottom Billion, as saying:

I think that economists have a responsibility to write in such a way as to be read by ordinary people and by political leaders. So I wrote a book that’s very readable.

It sounds so logical, so ... “duh!” But it’s actually a bold and confident move for someone who is normally an academic (Collier is an Oxford professor). For anyone, for that matter. If you want to be read, make your writing readable.

His book’s title alone—The Bottom Billion—is serving Collier very well. The title neatly and plainly sums up Collier’s argument: that foreign aid needs to target not the poor, but the poorest of the poor—numbering one billion people, overwhelmingly in Africa—to reverse a tide of social, political, and economic catastrophe that will reverberate across the whole world unless checked.

Collier could have called his book Alleviating Extreme Poverty: An Argument for Targeted Geographic Reallocation of Aid—or some such jargony mouthful, but he refrained. He went for a simple, memorable, concrete title: The Bottom Billion.

As a result of this and strong, plain-language writing, “the bottom billion” is becoming a catchphrase. As Saunders reports, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Kimoon declared 2008 “the year of the bottom billion.” Collier is arguing his case—and promoting his book—across the world, and he has just won the $60,000 Lionel Gelber Award for non-fiction writing. Would Alleviating Extreme Poverty: An Argument for Targeted Geographic Reallocation of Aid have fared so well? It’s highly doubtful.

The Bottom Billion lesson is one that so many companies and organizations could profit from. It can be difficult to trade in the comfort—yes, the comfort—of industry jargon, since it masquerades as refined or “in-the-know” vocabulary. But “masquerades” is the key term: rest on the laurels of jargon, and you won’t be making meaning at all—you won’t be saying anything.

And guess what? People won’t be interested. They won’t be able to be, because there’s nothing to hang onto.

Summoning up the courage to eschew jargon—even when all your competitors use it—and wrestle to say what you mean, in plain language, is a worthwhile challenge. Just ask Paul Collier.

Thursday, March 06, 2008

BC Book Prize Finalists Announced in Fine Style

The finalists for the 2008 BC Book Prizes were announced today, and, better yet, they were announced via a snazzy new website. The site was produced by our friend and colleague Monique Trottier over at Work Industries.

The site features an easy-to-browse archive of the finalists and winners dating back to 1985 as well as a new blog with posts from finalist-authors touring the province.

Congratulations and good luck to all of the finalists and to the BC Book Prize Society on the launch of the new site.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

The Power of Slow and Spare

Ten years ago in grad school, I had to make an oral presentation to about thirty people. A daunting prospect for me under ordinary circumstances, the endeavor became much more difficult when about fifteen minutes before the presentation, I developed some bizarre reaction to a cough medicine I had taken. I grew shaky and very spacey, but the show had to go on—it was a group thing, and an end-of-the-year-marks-depend-on-this thing.

The minutes I spent up there by the podium were torturous. I laboured to get each of my planned statements out—it felt like I was pushing them though molasses. As a result, I spoke very slowly and emphatically, with lots of pauses (I was summoning up the strength—and attention span—to get to my next line). The elaborate ideas I had meant to articulate got truncated to far shorter, simpler bits.

People clapped when I was done, but I attributed this to a kind reaction to my obvious struggle. I skulked back to my team and got ready to apologize profusely.

There was no need.

According to everyone, I had delivered my most memorable, effective presentation of the year.

Haste Makes Waste

I recalled this odd event when I read Jane Taber’s “Turtle Talk Wins the Race” in the Globe and Mail last weekend (February 23. 2007). Taber delves into the reasons behind Barack Obama’s masterful oratory, calling on several speech experts to help her out. In a nutshell: Obama speaks slowly and makes use of well-timed pauses: “… he chooses his words carefully and deliberately, allowing his audience to savour every syllable, conjunction, vowel and pause.”

Taber’s speech experts advise their clients to slow down and utter no more than 110 to 120 words a minute (as opposed to the 140 to 160 words per minute typically raced through by politicians such as Stephen Harper and Jack Layton). They note that a slow pace lends “gravitas to the message almost regardless to what the message is” and by contrast, that a fast pace “loses people” and almost signals that “you don’t want us to listen closely.”

More Core, Less Bore

Good writing is in many ways like good speaking, and many of the points Taber raises can be applied to writing effective communications. One of the things we try to do with clients when helping them with press releases or communications campaigns is to focus on the core of their message, and strip out the rest.

When you’re excited about something your business is doing—a new initiative or product, for example—it’s tempting to want to include in your press release every one of the 34 reasons it’s so great. And explain each reason in depth. And quote all the people who were involved in the idea. And give background. And context. And related information.

But guess what?

Most people will abandon your press release unless you relinquish your dream of including everything you’d ideally like to say. Our society is time-starved as well as compelled to cram as many sources of information in as possible—we are news grazers, not gourmands.

Once you swallow this, the next part can be fun. It involves isolating your core idea, then coming up the best words in the world to do it justice. Instead of skipping lightly through A to Z, you embrace one letter and make it sing. Chances are, your audience is going to hear—and remember—that simple song much more clearly than the 34 items you originally wanted to cover.

It may feel strange at first—much as my grad school speech felt almost catatonic—but reducing clutter in communications is a golden rule.

Sunday, February 03, 2008

Book Retail Study Now Available Online

Last year, we were commissioned to do a comprehensive study of Canadian book retail. The study report, The Book Retail Sector in Canada, has just been published by the Department of Canadian Heritage and is available online in PDF and HTML editions, and in both official languages.

We’ve structured the Book Retail paper as a collection of linked studies, each of which explores a major aspect of the market: reading and book buying behaviour, the size and composition of the consumer book market in Canada, the traditional book retail channel, the book market in Quebec, non-traditional sales channels, and online book retail.

The Globe and Mail quoted extensively from the study in a February 2 article and has called it an “essential reference work” for the industry and policy makers alike.

It’s a pleasure to see that readers both in and outside of the book business are so engaged with the study. Thank you to the many publishers, booksellers, and industry groups who contributed their time, expertise, and data.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

How About Some Good News About Canadian Books?

You don’t have to look far these days for signs that Canadian book publishers and bookstores are facing challenging times. For example:

• Pundits and researchers are warning that the practice of reading for pleasure is under siege (see Caleb Crain’s New Yorker article Twilight of the Books or the recent Ipsos-Reid/CanWest reading poll).
• Canadian booksellers and publishers are watching already razor-slim margins dwindle further due to industry consolidation, consumers’ price sensitivity, and exchange rates.
• Bestsellers are crowding out niche and literary titles in an intensely competitive book retail landscape. (For more on the last two bullets, see The Book Retail Sector in Canada study we just completed for Canadian Heritage.)

In times like these, it’s all the more important to support Canadian literature and those who make it available to us. The BC Award for Canadian Non-Fiction is doing just that—and it’s coming up soon: February 7, 2008. We work on the award program, which is now in its fourth year, and as usual, we’re anticipating a thrilling event that reminds us of all the reasons we chose to make publishing one of our core focuses.

What’s So Exciting About the BC Award?

1. It’s happening in Vancouver.
   Vancouver, BC. This makes it the first major national award to originate outside of Ontario. Until the BC Award was established four years ago, every one of the big national awards—the Giller, the GGs, the Charles Taylor, and the Griffin—came out of Toronto or Ottawa. The BC Award reflects the strengthening of literary culture across Canada.
2. It’s worth $40,000.
   That makes it the richest non-fiction prize in the country, and one of the most valuable literary prizes in Canada, period. Contrary to some popular opinion, money isn’t immaterial to writers, as much as they will continue to write in the absence of it.
3. It’s all about literary non-fiction.
   This is a genre in which authors write passionately and personally about the real world around them—a genre that at its best, makes Canadian readers more aware of the issues and events shaping our lives and country.
4. The shortlist is riveting.
   The finalists are Donald Harman Akenson’s Some Family: The Mormons and How Humanity Keeps Track of Itself, a brilliant examination of the Mormon genealogical project; Lorna Goodison’s From Harvey River: A Memoir of My Mother and Her People, a lyrical exploration of family; and Jacques Poitras’s Beaverbrook: A Shattered Legacy, a journalistic investigation of art, ego, and ambition.
5. The presentation ceremony is a forum for ideas about Canadian literature.
   Each year, a distinguished and eloquent individual introduces each finalist—and why the finalist’s work matters. These introductions have been highlights of the event in years past, and doubtlessly will be again for the 2008 ceremony. As soon as possible after the ceremony, the introductions will be posted at The BC Achievement Foundation website. And right now, you can check out videos of last year’s introductions and remarks from the 2007 finalists.

Here’s a list of things you can do to participate in the BC Award for Canadian Non-Fiction celebration:

1. Find out more about the BC Award for Canadian Non-Fiction
2. Check out the BC Award finalists’ books: Some Family: The Mormons and How Humanity Keeps Track of Itself; From Harvey River: A Memoir of My Mother and Her People; and Beaverbrook: A Shattered Legacy
3. Tune in to CBC Radio 1’s Almanac at noon to 1:00 pm PST February 4, 5, and 6 for interviews with the finalists, and to North by Northwest the following weekend for their interview with the award winner
4. Enter to win the three finalists’ books by writing us at and telling us your favourite Canadian non-fiction book from the past year. Your email will automatically enter you in the contest.

And keep buying Canadian books!

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles: Adventures in the East

We’ve spent the last two weeks on the move in Eastern Canada--with stops in Ottawa, Halifax, Ottawa again, and then Toronto--and are now settling in to a large pile of mail and two disgruntled cats back here at Turner-Riggs HQ.

The trip was great and we especially appreciated the chance to deliver a couple of extended workshops to senior staff at the Department of Canadian Heritage in Ottawa and the trade committee of the Association of Canadian Publishers in Toronto.

These sessions focused on an about-to-be-published market study on book retail we did for Canadian Heritage last year. We’ll post a link to the complete study shortly. For the moment, many thanks to all who attended for your participation and your interest in the project. It was wonderful to get some direct industry feedback on the study, not to mention some excellent discussions around the changing marketplace for books in Canada.

Monday, January 14, 2008

Take Your Ideas to the Spa: Made to Stick

Ever had that sinking “duh, no kidding” feeling when you get into a business book you thought looked interesting and find it just endlessly repeats things you already know? We have, lots of times, which is why we’re making a point to single out a title that is really helping us in our work: Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, by Chip and Dan Heath.

As you might guess, the book is about communicating in a way that makes people care about and remember what you’re saying. Appropriately, its jacket cover is neon orange, with an embossed image of silver, crinkled electrical tape smack-dab in the middle of the title.

We aren’t attesting that everything between the covers of Made to Stick is novel and practice-changing; much of it is very commonsensical and second nature among the best journalists and communicators. But the lessons and tips in the book are exceedingly well delivered and entertaining. They resonate and challenge you the next time you’re hit with a stack of boring statistics or seemingly mundane information and charged with making things interesting. They’re made to stick.

The So What Test

For example, when we’re faced with a press release assignment these days, we can’t help but recall the following excerpt on the importance of conveying a piece of information people will give two hoots about. Sounds simple, but often press releases are bogged down in information the issuing organization insists be prioritized. In our experience, these are not always the same thing.

The excerpt relates screenwriter and former journalist Nora Ephron’s experience of the impact her high school journalism teacher had on her decision to pursue that field.

Ephron’s teacher announced the first assignment. [The students] would write the lead of a newspaper story. The teacher reeled off the facts: ‘Kenneth L. Peters, the principal of Beverly Hills High School, announced today that the entire high school faculty will travel to Sacramento next Thursday for a colloquium on new teaching methods. Among the speakers will be anthropologist Margaret Mead, college president Dr. Robert Maynard Hutchins, and California governor Edmund ‘Pat’ Brown.’

The budding journalists sat at their typewriters and pecked away at the first lead of their careers. According to Ephron, she and most of the other students produced leads that reordered the facts and condensed them down into a single sentence: ‘Governor Pat Brown, Margaret Mead, and Robert Maynard Hutchins will address the Beverly Hills High School Faculty Thursday in Sacramento ... blah, blah, blah.’

The teacher collected the leads and scanned them rapidly. Then he laid them aside and paused for a moment.

Finally, he said, the lead to the story is ‘There will be no school next Thursday.’

‘It was a breathtaking moment,’ Ephron recalls. ‘In that instant I realized that journalism was not just about regurgitating the facts but about figuring out the point. It wasn’t enough to know the who, what, when, and where; you had to understand what it meant. And why it mattered.’

There are so many stories out there competing for attention. The only way to rise above them is to connect your information with the real concerns and fascinations of your target audience. For a little inspiration, try Made to Stick.

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Lessons from Orwell: Don’t Gum Up the Works When You Write

There are relatively few works of art, and/or genius, which stand the test of time. George Orwell’s 1946 essay, Politics and the English Language, is one such gem. If you haven’t read it, treat yourself; it is a classic example of how a good writer can take any subject and make it interesting. It is also packed with brilliant advice for how to write compellingly.

Orwell wrote the essay because he thought the English language had declined into “slovenliness.” He urged his readers to take corrective action—to fight back against puffy and meaningless phrases and constructions.

For this post, I’ve extracted a few bits from the essay I found the most helpful. At the end of the post, you’ll also find a downloadable PDF containing a list of substitutions for sluggish phrases that’s handy to have kicking around when you edit your writing (or someone else’s).

Identifying the Villains

Orwell was particularly offended by the following enemies of good writing:

• Staleness of imagery and lack of precision: What Orwell called a “mixture of vagueness and sheer incompetence.”
• Dying metaphors: Metaphors that have “lost all evocative power and are merely used because they save people the trouble of inventing phrases for themselves.”
• Verbs turned into phrases: Such as “render inoperative,” “make contact with,” “give grounds for,” “serve the purpose of.”
• A tendency away from concreteness: Orwell was referring here to a fear of just saying what we mean to say and instead dressing a sentence up in fatuous and pretentious language.

A Summary of the Offenses

In this passage from the essay, Orwell summarizes his objections:

Modern writing at its worst does not consist in picking out words for the sake of their meaning and inventing images in order to make the meaning clearer. It consists in gumming together long strips of words which have already been set in order by someone else, and making the results presentable by sheer humbug.

The attraction of this way of writing is that it is easy. It is easier—even quicker, once you have the habit—to say In my opinion it is not an unjustifiable assumption that than to say I think ....

[But people who write this way show] that they are not interested in the detail of what they are saying.

How to Escape the Trap

Orwell included a helpful little list of questions for the writer interested in communicating meaningfully to ask himself:

1. What am I trying to say?
2. What words will express it?
3. What image or idiom will make it clearer?
4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?
5. Could I have put it more shortly?
6. Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly?

Cutting Out the Ugly

To see how Orwell’s list of questions can help make a sentence clearer, consider the following:

Before: “It should be noted that the we are not in a position to take into account the employee’s special circumstances for this application.”
After: “We cannot, in this case, consider the employee’s special circumstances.”

Before: “For the purpose of putting into effect the changes, we will hire a contractor in the very near future.”
After: “To implement the changes, we will soon hire a contractor.”

Practice Makes Perfect

Even Orwell admitted that descending into lazy writing is all too easy to do. Today, as in 1946, we are surrounded by overstuffed, pretentious writing that passes for the norm. Norms tend to seep into everything, despite our best intentions.

So don’t despair if you look at your writing and see a few villains rearing their insidious heads. Go back over your piece if there’s still time, and weed out as many as possible. If it’s too late or otherwise impossible to do this, just try to think “Orwell” the next time you sit down to write.

Here’s that list I mentioned: SimplerWays_TR.pdf

Thursday, November 22, 2007

A Little Help from Our Friends

We’ve worked on lots of other companies’ websites, but this was our first serious plunge into creating our own. We came up with the design and copy, while Susie and Travis from Hop Studios made the whole thing happen (i.e., all the tricky programming, design refinements, and behind-the-screens magic).

Not only were Susie and Travis pros at the technical side of things, they got the idea of what we were aiming for and helped us nurture it along. Just as important, they’re great people who are fun to work with. We highly recommend them.

We’d also like to thank all our clients who wrote testimonials about what it’s like to work with Turner-Riggs. You’re busy people, and we appreciate your having made the time to help us out. We’ll look at them every day—we might even frame them!

Muchos gracias, all.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Writing Web Copy that Gets Read

When you’re creating content for the web, your job is to make it easy for visitors to your site to (1) want to read your stuff, and (2) read your stuff.

In other words, content should be both interesting and well presented (i.e., geared to the unique way people absorb textual information on web pages).

Writing Interesting Content

Writing interesting content makes it easy for visitors to want to read your stuff. Interesting content is:

• In plain language, with no pretentious words or marketese
• Relevant to your target audiences (i.e., think about their interests as much as your own)
• Written with flair and personality, using strong, active structure and verbs (see ”Knockout verbs” at blogthecat.ca)
• Typo free and grammatically correct

Presenting Content to Best Effect

Every time I write web copy, I remember three percentages I got from Jakob Nielsen:

1. 79% of users scan the page instead of reading word for word
2. Reading from computer screens is 25% slower than from paper
3. Web content should have 50% of the word count of its paper equivalent

The implications of these percentages are huge. To make it easy for visitors to read your stuff:

• Use short sentences
• Break text into short paragraphs—many more than you would use when writing for print
• Rely frequently on bulleted and numbered lists
• Make sure your text comes across in short line lengths (like newspaper columns)—anything longer than three inches is too long
• Scatter subheads liberally throughout each page or entry
• Bold particularly important words or phrases (but don’t overdo it)

I could go on and on, but I won’t. I’m writing for the web, after all.

Monday, November 19, 2007

To the Blog!

Welcome to the Turner-Riggs blog, where we’ll be talking about anything and everything that interests us professionally and that we think might help our clients and colleagues. We’ll be referencing our own experience, linking to others’ examples and points-of-view, and generally providing a forum for ideas on marketing and communications.

Our goal: posting nuggets of knowledge once a week. The likely reality: a slightly more flexible schedule, with nuggets intact. Sometimes Craig will post, sometimes Kiley will. On really good days we’ll combine forces.

We look forward to sharing our ideas with you. We hope you’ll respond to them whenever you can with your comments, questions, and arguments.