Everyone's blogging, but is anyone reading?

That's partially the question I pose in a Quill & Quire feature in the April issue (just out on newsstands or by subscription, but ironically not available online) in Better Marketing Through Blogs.

Specifically, I talked to a number of Canadian publishers to find out whether they're trying to place reviews and promote their books through blogs. The answer was, not really, not yet.

A handful of small press publishers are interested in the medium, but the larger houses have yet to pick up on the potential. That may change: as I point out, in the United States several bloggers - Maud Newton (http://maudnewton.com/blog/), Moby Lives (http://www.mobylives.com/) and The Elegant Variation (http://marksarvas.blogs.com/elegvar/) - routinely receive review copies.

As well, a number of US bloggers have signed book contracts, including foodie Clotilde Dusoulier for her blog, Chocolate & Zucchini (http://chocolateandzucchini.com/).

The two most prominent Canadian blogs, at least in terms of literature, appear to be Bookninja (http://www.bookninja.com/) and Scribbling Woman (http://www.unbsj.ca/arts/english/jones/mt/), the latter recently named as a top-10 blog by The Guardian of London.

One blog with a ton o' potential, if all goes according to plan (dependent upon the receipt of funding) is a new litblog British Columbia-based online magazine The Tyee (http://www.thetyee.ca/) hopes to launch in April.

Not everyone believes the future of blogging is bright. Rolf Maurer, the publisher of Vancouver's New Star Books, told me, "Salon is always going to be a hundred times more important than even the most influential blog in the world."