A small British Columbia publisher, Tidewater Press, is kick-starting a social media campaign aimed at Canadian book clubs that they hope will go big.

The CanLit Challenge aims to encourage book clubs to choose Canadian books for their reading selections and challenge them to read at least one Canadian book by Canada Day.

Lynn Duncan, the publisher of Tidewater Press in New Westminster, B.C., was motivated by the Booknet statistic that only 12 per cent of books sold in Canada are authored by Canadians.

The campaign starts March 1 and will run to June 30 on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Tidewater Press will make multiple weekly postings including trivia, recommendations, and tips for where to learn about Canadian books. Book clubs will be encouraged to post about Canadian books they have already read, Canadian books they’d like to read, or Canadian books they have chosen to read this year, using the hashtag #canlitchallenge.

All book clubs that participate in  the challenge will be entered into a prize draw at the end of June for six free copies of the Canadian book of their choice.

Duncan has reached out to the press’s network of book clubs and writers groups and she hopes booksellers and other publishers will do the same.