If you work in Canadian publishing, you’ve more than likely enjoyed the wit and original productions of Julie Wilson, aka Book Madam; if you’re an author, you may have been lucky enough to be interviewed by her in some irreverent or newfangled way. The force behind Book Madam & Associates and Seen Reading, and the co-founder of The Advent Book Blog, Julie describes herself as a “professional publishing fan.”

It’s this sensibility that has made Julie’s work so much more interesting than if it were just the product of an astute and tireless mind. She’s … fun! She inspires others to join her in her crazy yet amazingly effective online ventures, and makes it easy and exciting for us to find our way into books. She’s a social media whiz, which has helped her to become a major personality in a movement toward improving the conversation in this country about our brilliant writers.

As such, Canadian Bookshelf is hugely lucky to have Julie Wilson onboard as host and producer. Her work on the site will be divided between serving as:

• Point person for incoming news from the Canadian publishing industry—major releases, events, promotions, or other newsworthy goings-on … so long as they’re relevant and compelling for readers. If you’ve got stuff readers should know about, you’ll want to send it to Julie (email host(at)canadianbookshelf(dot)com).
• Cruise director for Canadian Bookshelf visitors/members. Julie is in the midst of designing totally cool, interactive, and of course novel content features for the site (Contests! Maps! Videos! Author interviews!).

Canadian Bookshelf is going to be one sticky site with Julie doing her thing, especially in cahoots with our new editor Kerry Clare.

Now, if only she liked cats …

Welcome Book Madam!