It's been quite a ride for Ms. Edugyan. A finalist for both the Man Booker Prize and the Roger Writers' Trust Prize, it was announced this morning that Half-Blood Blues is also one of the six finalists for the Giller Prize!

Both Half-Blood Blues and The Beggar's Garden have been named finalists for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize. Congratulations!

Double congratulations are in order for Esi Edugyan, whose novel Half-Blood Blues (Serpent's Tail, UK; Thomas Allen Canada) is shortlisted for the 2011 Man Booker Prize and longlisted for the 2011 Giller Prize.

Congratulations are also in order for Michael Christie. His short story collection, The Beggar's Garden (HarperCollins Canada) was longlisted for the 2011 Giller Prize.

Anne McDermid and Associates, Ltd. is pleased to announce the launch of dropCapLiterary, a consultancy service for authors seeking advice and instruction on marketing, promoting and selling their work in the new digital age.

dropCapLiterary provides professional help to writers to meet the changing demands of the publishing industry and the literary marketplace. With the author, we will develop a customized strategy, which may include any of the following services:

-Building and enhancing an author’s online platform
-Developing an online marketing strategy tailored for each book, targeting key sites and augmenting an author’s online interaction
-Managing ebook and enhanced ebook rights, if they are not or no longer controlled by a print book publisher
-Determining marketing strategies for ebooks
-Collaborating with print publishers regarding a writer’s ebook rights to maximize sales

“Reading, writing, bookselling and publishing are changing rapidly; new reading technologies and new publishing platforms are helping to transform the ways in which writers connect with readers. It is vital that writers make the most of the opportunities that are out there, and dropCapLiterary is poised to help us do just that.” – Kate Pullinger, winner of the Governor General’s Award for The Mistress of Nothing

"The world of ebooks and epublishing has more questions than answers, and hopefully more potential than peril for the working writer. To have a team of experts on one's side, with the whole of the virtual world at their disposal, is a blessing indeed." – Robert Wiersema, author of Before I Wake and Bedtime Story

“dropCapLiterary offers new and empowering opportunities for writers. Instead of being the very literate serfs of the vast publishing empires, the new digital frontier offers writers more of a position to call our own shots.” Susan Swan, former head of The Writers' of Canada

Quill & Quire article on dropCapLiterary www.quillandquire.com/omni/article.cfm

The Shatzkin Files: Changing the Publishing Ecosystem www.idealog.com/blog/agents-have-to-do-it-but-their-new-service-offerings-change-the-publishing-ecosystem

Michael Christie and Jessica Grant named among the 12 Canadian writers to watch by CBC Books.