Saskatchewan Books Go Public is a marketing and promotional campaign designed to raise awareness for the vibrant book industry in our province. The SPG began submitting reviews of members’ books to weekly newspapers in April 2001, and began displaying highway billboard signs in November of the same year. Also in November, the SPG launched a weekly book show on the newly-born CJTR 91.3 Community Radio in Regina. The Books Go Public campaign featured an ongoing billboard display schedule, a sponsor for the radio show (Book & Brier Patch), and a newly redesigned website complete with an online bookstore.

The SPG produced the Saskatchewan Book Map roughly every two years from 1995 – 2007 in an effort to pair increased awareness of our members’ books with an educational feature that graphically displays where books are produced in Saskatchewan. Thanks to Tourism Saskatchewan and the Department of Highways and Transportation, we were able to include a tourism phase in our map, by using the current map of Saskatchewan as our backdrop. The Book Map has also been used as an interactive image on our website.

In 2008, the SPG shifted the focus of the Book Map (and the name – now we just call it the Book Poster) away from the books-on-the-map format to a highly visible themed poster featuring our book covers. Both “Saskatchewan’s Most Wanted”, SPG’s wild-west themed poster, and “Saskatchewan Books on Tour”, SPG’s rock star poster, have been well received by pretty much everyone, except for that one person, but that person has since recanted and says they LOVE IT! The Book Poster is distributed free to all the schools, libraries, bookstores, tourist destinations and tourism centres, museums, and speakeasies in the province.

PaperCuts is the SPG’s free distribution catalogue featuring new and forthcoming titles from Saskatchewan publishers. PaperCuts is being distributed with the Book Map to schools, libraries, tourist destinations, bookstores, and other locations, and is be available in digital format here.

In March of 2000, the SPG launched the Saskatchewan Sampler, a searchable online database of everything written or published in the province since 1905. The Sampler was a joint initiative of the Saskatchewan Writers Guild, the Saskatchewan Libraries Association, and the Saskatchewan Publishers Group. The Sampler has since become the Book Archive Database, and was updated every year until 2008. Currently, SPG is evaluating this resource.

All of these projects have dovetailed to raise awareness of Saskatchewan books. However, none of it would have been possible without the support of our funders and our partner organisations. The staff and membership of the Saskatchewan Publishers Group have worked tirelessly to help the world Discover Saskatchewan Books.