P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY .

C O M

Special
Report
2015

An In-Depth Look at the Year in

Canadian Publishing
Inside

We highlight more than 50 adult and childrens books

A look at changes in distribution
The pros and cons of the decline of the loonie
How changes in copyright laws are affecting publishers

CANADIAN CHILDRENS BOOK CENTRE AWARDS

TD BANK GROUP AND THE CANADIAN CHILDRENS BOOK CENTRE

ARE PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE THE FINALISTS OF THE

2015 TD Canadian
Childrens Literature Award
The TD Canadian Childrens Literature Award honours the most
distinguished book of the year. Two $30,000 grand prizes are awarded,
one for a book in English and one for a book in French.
ENGLI SH-LAN G U A G E F I NALI STS

Any Questions?
written and illustrated by
Marie-Louise Gay
Groundwood Books
978-1-55498-382-7 (hc) $19.95

A Brush Full of Colour:

The World of Ted Harrison
written by Margriet Ruurs and
Katherine Gibson
Pajama Press
978-1-927485-63-7 (hc) $22.95

From Vimy to Victory:

Canadas Fight to the Finish
in World War I
written by Hugh Brewster
Scholastic Canada
978-1-4431-2461-4 (hc) $19.99

Morris Micklewhite
and the Tangerine Dress

The Night Gardener

written by Christine Baldacchino

illustrated by Isabelle Malenfant

Puffin Canada
978-0-670-06772-5 (hc) $19.99
978-0-14-318997-8 (pb) $11.99
978-0-14-319198-8 (eBook) $10.99

Groundwood Books
978-1-55498-347-6 (hc) $16.95
978-1-55498-350-6 (eBook) $16.95

written by Jonathan Auxier

FR ENCH-L AN G U A G E F I N A L I S T S

Lautobus

Pablo trouve un trsor

Papillons de lombre

written and illustrated by

Marianne Dubuc

written by Andre Poulin

illustrated by Isabelle Malenfant

written by Agns Grimaud

Quand jcris
avec mon cur

Le voleur
de sandwichs

Comme des gants

978-2-924332-01-6 (hc) $19.95

ditions Les 400 coups

978-2-89540-640-2 (hc) $17.95

Dominique et compagnie
978-2-89686-998-5 (pb) $17.95

written and illustrated by

Mireille Levert

written by Andr Marois

illustrated by Patrick Doyon

ditions de la Bagnole
978-2-89714-101-1 (hc) $24.95

ditions de la Pastque
978-2-923841-26-7 (pb) $18.95

THE TD CANADIAN CHILDRENS LITERATURE AWARD IS ADMINISTERED BY THE CANADIAN CHILDRENS BOOK CENTRE.
FOR MORE INFORMATION AND FOR JURY COMMENTS, VISIT WWW.BOOKCENTRE.CA OR WWW.TDREADS.COM

Canadian Publishing 2015

Canadian
Publishers
Hold Steady
In 2015
Most houses report flat sales for the
first six months of the year
By Laura Godfrey

ost Canadian publishers are reporting

that sales through the
first six months of
2015 are steady, compared to the first half
of last year. The reports from publishers
align with data from BookNet Canada.
CEO Noah Genner says that, based on
BookNets panel of stores, unit sales of
print books were down approximately
1% through the end of August, compared to the same period in 2014. One
reason for the flat sales has been the lack
of a massive breakthrough title, Genner
says, although Harper Lees Go Set a
Watchman and E.L. Jamess 50 Shades
follow-up Grey did very well, and Paula
Hawkinss The Girl on the Train and
Anthony Doerrs All the Light We Cannot
See were standout titles. The latter was
a huge boon to Simon & Schuster Canada,
which is having a good year so far,

according to president Kevin Hanson.

President and CEO Brad Martin says
sales at Penguin Random House Canada
were up about 2% in the first half of
2015, while returns were
down 12%. Martin says the
company is expecting a big
fall season, with the publication of literary icon
Margaret Atwoods new
novel, The Heart Goes Last,
and other projected hits
from Canadian authors.
Sales are also up at HarperCollins
Canada, a publisher that lost its longtime president and CEO, David Kent,
at the end of 2014 as part of a restructuring effort. Iris Tupholme, who has
been promoted to senior v-p and executive publisher, says last fall was especially successful in terms of major
awards: three of the six books shortlisted
for the Giller Prize were HarperCollins

titles, and the Governor Generals

Award winners in both fiction and nonfiction were published by HarperCollins.
Almost everything in our world has
changed, and one of the things Im most
proud of is that despite these huge
changesmany things that are part of
our daily life changedwe have probably the best list coming in the next
year, Tupholme says.
Firefly Books, Touchwood Editions,
and the kid lit publisher Annick Press
report first-half sales about equal to
the first six months of 2014, while
Vancouvers Talonbooks was down by
about 10%. Edmontons NeWest Press
and Victorias Orca Book Publishers, on
the other hand, were up about 10% over
last year. Orca publisher Andrew
Wooldridge expects a big fall season,
with the publication of the Secrets series,
seven simultaneously published books
aimed at girls, in the same vein as their
bestselling Seven series for boys. Theres
a real vitality in Canadian publishing
right now in terms of the kind of stuff
thats being produced, Wooldridge
says. Its pretty amazing.
Vancouvers Arsenal Pulp Press had its
best year ever in 2014, and in 2015 sales
continue to be solid, publisher Brian
Lam says. The standout title has been
Raziel Reids YA novel When Everything
Feels Like the Movies, which won last

Based on BookNets panel of

stores, unit sales of print books
were down approximately 1%
through the end of August, compared to the same period in 2014.
years Governor Generals Award for
Childrens Literature, and this February
was a finalist on Canada Reads, the
CBCs annual battle of the books.
Meanwhile, the National Post ran an
opinion piece decrying the book, about
a troubled queer teenager, as a valuesvoid novel. According to Lam, that
scandal really ignited sales for the book,
and its now in its fifth printing, with
W W W . P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY. C O M

Canadian Publishing 2015

about innocence, and
Theres a real vitality in Canadian
also just putting down
your computer and
publishing right now in terms of the
your tablet and doing
kind of stuff thats being produced.
something with your
hands, he says. It
Andrew Wooldridge, Orca Books publisher
doesnt require a lot of
last year expressed disappointment, but
thought. University of Regina Press, in
not necessarily surprise, that the event
Saskatchewan, is getting involved in the
would not go on. The fair was widely
trend, too, with a marketing initiative
seen as not attracting enough guests over
that will see it release a coloring page
its three-day run. Publishers who spoke
available to download for freefor many
to PW cited a number of issues with last
fall titles and previous bestsellers.
years event, such as the Santa Claus
One event Canadian publishers wont
Parade happening the same weekend,
be seeing this fall is the Inspire Book
the $15 entry fee for the public, and the
Fair, a massive consumer fair that
high cost for publishers to rent a booth,
debuted in Toronto in November 2014.
as well as the concern that the fair was
Organizers announced in February that
potentially taking away business from
the event would not be continuing
local bookstores during the crucial prebecause they were not able to secure a
Christmas season.
timely commitment from exhibitors
Linda Leith, founder of Linda Leith
regarding their participation for a
Publishing and of Blue Metropolis,
second year.
Montreals annual international literary
Many publishers who participated
festival, says it is a great pity that the
Inspire Book Fair didnt succeed.
Canceling it after one year is such a
waste, and I think it should have been
given another chance, and that it would
have found its audience, she says. I
dont think you can expect it to emerge
fully fledged in year one.
But Canada did gain an unexpected
literary event in 2015: the first annual
Canadian Authors for Indies Day, on
May 2, modeled after the Indies First
campaign in the U.S. Spearheaded by
author Janie Chang, the event attracted
692 authors, who visited 123 stores
across the country for events meant to
raise the profile of indie bookstores.
BookNet Canadas Genner says that participating stores saw an average 18.5%
increase in sales following the event, so
there was definitely an effect on the
stores we monitored. Mark Startup of
OUR GREATEST NATURAL RESOURCE? OUR STORIES. CONNECT WITH CANADA.
the Retail Council of Canada says it was
a wonderful event across the entire
RIGHTS CANADA - NOW AVAILABLE ON THE CANADA STAND
country. The feedback we got from
booksellers in our community was exceptionally positive, he adds. The event is
VISIT THE CANADA STAND
JOIN OUR MAILING LIST
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scheduled to take place again next year
on April 30.
FBF 6.0 A11
bit.ly/Rights_Mailing
bit.ly/RightsCanada_Fall2015
sales of about 25,000 so far. (Torontos
Coach House Books, whose sales were up
about 30% this year, also reported a
major boost from Canada Reads, as its
And the Birds Rained Down by Jocelyne
Saucier was also a finalist.)
One unexpected trend that has popped
up in Canada is the rise of the adult coloring book, which Dundurn Press publicist Jim Hatch calls the weirdest trend
in the universe. That didnt stop
Dundurn from getting in on the trend
itself. All the Libraries Torontoby
Toronto artist and urban geographer
Daniel Rotsztain, who made illustrations of all 100 Toronto public library
branchesis set for October. Arsenal
Pulp Press is publishing two of its own
adult coloring books next spring: The
Yves Saint Laurent Coloring Book and The
Jean Cocteau Coloring Book. Lam hopes to
appeal to the Peter Pan market
adults seeking to return to the simpler
times of their youth. I think its all

www.facebook.com/LivresCanadaBooks

@livrescabooks

www.livrescanadabooks.com

Canadian Publishing 2015

Publishers Find
Mixed Bag in
Falling Loonie
Exports are up, but local pricing
is getting complicated
By Laura Godfrey

ith the Canadian dollar

having sunk to 75 U.S.
by mid September
the lowest its been
against the U.S. dollar
in more than 10 years
publishers north of the border are
struggling with how to price their
books, many of which are still priced at
parity. The impact of the falling loonie
isnt all bad, however, as publishers that
have significant sales to the U.S. are
seeing a huge boost in revenue as a result
of changes in the exchange rate.
On our export sales into America, its
fabulous, says Sarah MacLachlan, House
of Anansi Presss president and publisher. For Groundwood, our childrens
list, 50% of that business comes out of
America, so the falling loonie is beneficial to us in that way.
Montreals Baraka Books, Victorias
Orca Book Publishers, and Vancouvers
Greystone Books all say they have had
increased revenue from the U.S. Its
wonderful. Its huge for us, Greystone
publisher Rob Sanders says. Were
paying a bit more for books we print
6

outside of Canada, but those are only

the color books. Everything else we do
print in Canada. Our revenue coming in
from the United States and beyond is
really helpful.
Many publishers, however, are reluctantly considering adjusting their
prices if the loonies downward trend
continues, as it is predicted to do.
Torontos Coach House Books already
made the move earlier this year, and
Arsenal Pulp Press, NeWest Press, and
Linda Leith Publishing are pondering
making the change.
If the current exchange rate does continue, I think were going to have to
revisit pricing, Arsenal publisher Brian
Lam says. I know we have had inquiries
from some Canadian retailers
about our pricing. We cant
increase prices, so we have to
reduce prices, because were
always getting pressure from
sales reps and booksellers to
be as competitive as possible.
Simon & Schuster Canada
president Kevin Hanson
believes that the currency

P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY S E P T E M B E R 2 1 , 2 0 1 5

fluctuation is a huge deal, as all

importers, including the bookstore
chain Indigo, are seeing their costs rise
quickly. So the question is, can you
transfer the 20% in new costs to the consumer? And the answer is, not so fast,
Hanson says. Domestic publishers are
neutralized. But the reality is that 70%
of all books sold in Canada are imported
from the U.S., so core business costs have
just gone up.
The exchange rate also can have a big
effect, depending on what share of a
publishers books are printed in Canada
versus the U.S. and abroad. Brad Martin,
president and CEO of Penguin Random
House Canada, says that the vast
majority of the companys Canadian
books are produced in the U.S., and, as a
result, production and fulfillment costs
have risen 30%. It is also experiencing a
negative impact on its distribution lists
since pricing on backlist titles reflects a
higher Canadian dollar.
Taryn Boyd, of TouchWood Editions,
and Chouette Publishings Simon
Payette both say theyve seen a considerable increase in the price quotes theyre
getting from printers in China, where
some of their books are printed. Mosaic
Books, which also prints some books in
China, has reverted to having more
books printed in Canada, according to
managing director Matt Goody.
Sandra Kasturi, copublisher of
Torontos ChiZine Publications, has also
noticed increased costs for attending
conferences and other industry events in
the U.S. Just paying for BookExpo
America, with the actual cost of it after
the exchange rate, I had to go sit on my
fainting couch with the smelling salts
afterward, she says.

..

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Canadian Publishing 2015

PRH Canadas Physical

Consolidation Makes
The Merger Complete
Some worry that having all of the
megapublishers divisions under one
roof will mean less market diversity
By Laura Godfrey

his summer, two years after

the merger of Penguin Canada
and Random House of Canada
was finalized in July 2013,
more than 200 employees left
the publishers longtime separate headquarters and moved into a new
Front Street office in downtown Toronto.
The new office, which consists of two and
a half floors in a tall building with windows overlooking Lake Ontario, features
an open-concept design. Although there
are private meeting rooms throughout
the office, everyone, including Penguin
Random House Canada president and
CEO Brad Martin, has a desk out in the
open. We had so many offices before that
it felt closed off, says Tracey Turriff, v-p
publicity and senior v-p corporate communications. And I think the brightness
makes a difference. We purposely
designed it so that people were working
by the windows.

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P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY S E P T E M B E R 2 1 , 2 0 1 5

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Canadian Publishing 2015

Martin admits that staff was apprehensive about the open concept, but he
says people almost immediately made
use of the open spaces. Bookshelves are
distributed throughout every floorin
the reception area, in the meeting rooms,
and on peoples desks. In the section
where Penguin Canadas editorial staff
works, little touches of orange abound
on the walls and the furniture to keep
with the iconic Penguin feel.
Ive been in the business a long
timeIve gone through operational
integrations that have been horror
shows, Martin says. But this was unbelievably smooth. It allowed us to continue to do the jobs we were hired to do,
in terms of running our business.

Fewer Choices?

Now that PRH Canada is under one roof,

others in the industry have expressed
concerns that this monumental merger

will mean fewer bids for

authors and agents looking
for a home for their titles.
Sarah MacLachlan, president
and publisher at House of
Anansi Press, speculates that
books that might previously
have garnered multiple bids
from Penguin and Random Brad Martin
House separately will now
just get one.
Howard White, publisher and
cofounder of Harbour Publishing, says
he has already experienced agents
coming to him after theyd had a book
rejected by PRH Canada because the
publisher had a similar title in its collection of imprints. It may be a bit
early to tell, but I think the degree of
choice that was available to Canadian
writers from some of those joined companies has diminished, so this is causing
authors and agents to look to some of the

major independents like ourselves with new interest,

White says. I mean, thats
looking at it very selfishly,
but it doesnt shape up as
good news for Canadian
authors. I do regret the loss
of variety and choice.
PRH Canada president and
publisher Kristin Cochrane
says, however, that some books might
still receive bids from different divisions
within the company. Martin also says
there is little reason to worry about a lack
of competition: In the past it was
Penguin, HarperCollins, and Random
House; now its Harper, Simon &
Schuster, and Penguin Random House
that are bidding for the big books. S&S
has really come into its own as a publisher in the last two and a half years, so,
in a sense, S&S has stepped into the role
that Penguin had as well. No, I dont

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W W W . P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY. C O M

Canadian Publishing 2015

think the authors or agents should be
concerned about that.
Earlier this year, Martin had caused
some Canadian authors alarm when he
said in an interview with the Globe and
Mail that he was not interested in a
book that is going to generate less than
$100,000 in revenue unless the editor or
publisher has a compelling vision for the
book and/or the author.
But a few in the industry, such as
Andrew Wooldridge, publisher of Orca
Book Publishers, have defended the comment. When youre dealing with a company that size, and youre dealing with
the shareholders, I think thats perfectly
acceptable, Wooldridge says, adding
that it might give indie publishers the
opportunity to sign midlist authors they
wouldnt otherwise have snagged.
Annick Press cofounder Rick Wilks
says the strategy is fair enough, but
may cut a lot of writers loose, which
he also believes could help smaller pub-

lishers. Our approach is to really work

Each of those publishers reports to
closely with writers and develop their
me, Cochrane says. And really the idea
work, and this may create some opporis that I, along with a few colleagues who
tunities for us to do that, Wilks says.
work across the imprints, am very
If theyre not in that $100,000 cateinvolved in key acquisition decisions, as
gory, there may well be more people
well as the execution of campaigns. But
who will be more keen to get a lot of
there is editorial autonomy in shaping
attention, to have a lot of time spent
the vision of the list as well as acquiring
curating their work.
for it.
Back at the new PRH Canada office,
Martin, who was with Penguin Canada
what used to be separate teams in departfor more than a decade before he joined
ments such as marketing, publicity, proRandom House of Canada, says bringing
duction, and design are now working
the two companies together was easier
together on all Penguin Random House
than expected because people have
books. However, each of the
known each other within the
18 individual imprints
publishing industry for a long
from McClelland & Stewart
time. Culture only grows
to Tundra Books to Appetite
organically, Martin says.
by Random Househas its
You have to prepare the field
own publisher, with an ediand let it happen, because you
torial team that works in colcant force it or it tends to go
laboration to acquire projwrong. So I think we have a
ects that fit the imprints
good seedbed laid, if I might
Kristin Cochrane
mandate.
use a farming analogy.

10 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y S E P T E M B E R 2 1 , 2 0 1 5

Reading helps us know whats going on. Join us in doing

something for reading at nationalreadingcampaign.ca

Canadian Publishing 2015

E-book Sales
Level Off
By Laura Godfrey

-book sales have leveled off for the most part in

2015 to date, continuing a trend that began last
year. According to BookNet CEO Noah Genner,
figures from the organizations consumer panel
show that e-books now account for about 17% of
industry salesthe same as at the end of 2013.
Genner believes that the shrinking price differential between
print and e-books is likely a reason for the slowing growth. I
think that digital sales are going to continue to grow, but
theyll grow at a much more controlled pace than they had in
those first few years, he says.
Robin Philpot, president and publisher of Quebec-based
Baraka Books, says his e-book sales have maintained at between
10% and 20% of company revenue over the last few years,
which you dont sneeze at, but its still not what people
expected it to be. He adds that people still want paper books,
theres no doubt about that.
HarperCollins Canada and Penguin Random House Canada
both report that e-book sales now represent 15%16% of their
overall sales, a number virtually unchanged over the past two
years, while Simon & Schuster Canada and ECW Press say the
format represents 20% of revenue.
Childrens publishers, especially those who print lots of illustrated picture bookssuch as Pajama Press, Second Story Press,
and Owlkids Booksreport that e-books accounted for less
than 10% of revenue. Weve been slower into the e-book
market than we might otherwise have been because of the complications and costs of doing fixed-layout e-books for picture
books, says Owlkids Books publisher Karen Boersma. There
isnt much of a demand for it in the retail market, frankly.
One publisher doing very well with e-books is ChiZine
Publications, Torontos indie publisher of dark genre fiction,
whose e-books represent about 50% of overall sales. Copublisher
Sandra Kasturi says ChiZine has offered e-books alongside print
books since its 2008 launch and was one of the first publishers
to offer a free e-book to any reader who buys the print version.
We publish genre fictionsci-fi, fantasy, and horrorand
these are genres traditionally associated with nerds, Kasturi
says. And nerds are smart, embrace new technologies, and like
gadgets. So its possible that we have a higher nerd quotient in
our readership than more mainstream publishers.
12 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y S E P T E M B E R 2 1 , 2 0 1 5

Canadian Publishing 2015

New from

University of Toronto Press

Changes to
Canadian Copyright
Law Continue to
Hammer Publishers
Report finds steep drop in licensing
revenue at educational publishers,
and trade publishers report declines
as well
By Leigh Anne Williams, with reporting
from Laura Godfrey

The Last Mile

Creating Social and Economic

Value from Behavioral Insights

by Dilip Soman
The Last Mile takes a deep dive
into the psychology of choice,
money, and time and presents
practical advice on how behavioral
science lessons can be applied to
business, retail, and government.

The Inequality Trap

Fighting Capitalism Instead of

Poverty

by William Watson

ccording to a new report, changes to Canadas copyright law have had devastating effects on educational publishers and will ultimately contribute
to a decline in the quality and quantity of content
available to students. Trade publishers say they,
too, are feeling the impact.
When the government updated Canadas copyright law in
2012, changes such as antipiracy measures were welcomed by
the publishing industry, but there was also a great deal of concern
over the expansion of an exemption for education. Previously,
materials could be freely reproduced for the purposes of criticism, private study, research, or news reporting, but the new law
added education, parody, and satire to the list of permitted uses.
That same year, the Fair Dealing Guidelines were adopted by
the Council of the Ministers of Education, the Association of
Universities and Colleges of Canada (now called Universities
Canada), and Colleges and Institutes Canada. According to the
guidelines, it is fair to reproduce up to 10% or one chapter of
a published work as well as newspaper and magazine articles
without compensating the author. Using this interpretation,
teachers and professors could then compile course packs from
multiple sources and distribute them to their students without
paying any royalties.
Access Copyrighta nonprofit that acts on behalf of authors,
visual artists, and publishers to administer the reproduction of
works in Canada (except Quebec)reports that since the
implementation of the guidelines, all public elementary and
secondary schools outside Quebec and numerous postsecondary
educational institutions have ceased paying royalties for the
copying of published works. Access Copyright commissioned

In The Inequality Trap, William

Watson makes a bold argument
that if we respond to growing
inequality by fighting capitalism
rather than poverty, we may end
up both poorer and less equal.

Big Pharma, Women,

and the Labour of Love
by Thea Cacchioni
In this fascinating book, Thea
Cacchioni investigates the lack
of science behind female sexual
enhancement drugs and how the
medicalization of female sexuality
affects womens lives.

utppublishing.com

continued on p. 16

W W W . P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY. C O M

13

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And another star on the

horizon from Puffin
COMING
JULY 2016
IN THE U.S.

WHEN SANTA WAS A BABY

Linda Bailey
Illustrated by Genevive Godbout
9781770495562 | Ages 3 7

PW
penguinrandomhouse.com

AWESOME IS EVERYWHERE
by Neil Pasricha
9780670069330 | Ages 3 5

To order, contact your Penguin Random House sales representative or call 1-800-733-3000.

Canadian Publishing 2015

continued from p. 13

PricewaterhouseCoopers to assess the

economic impact. That report was published this summer, and it paints a dire
picture both for publishers and Canadian
students, predicting that some small and
medium-sized publishers will be forced
out of the educational publishing market
by the loss of this licensing revenue.
Licensing income from the K12 sector
has been nearly eliminated, according to
the report, which estimates that large
educational publishers would need to
produce an additional C$24 million in
sales (about 18%) each year to make up
for lost licensing revenue. Oxford
University Press, one of the largest educational publishers in Canada, closed its
K12 publishing division in early 2014,
citing the guidelines and the resulting
loss of revenue as a major reason.
Nelson Education has just been sold
to a new group of financial investors, but
CEO Greg Nordal says concern over the
copyright issue was perceived as a bar-

CASTRO
Reinhard Kleist
A graphic novel on the
life of Fidel Castro.
Destined to be a classic.
Library Journal (starred)

rier to investment when Nelson was

seeking to sell the company earlier this
year. He notes that the changes have had
a minimum seven-figure impact on our
bottom line every year since 2013.
Trade publishers do not have it much
easier. The Fair Dealing provisions
really are a problem, says Rick Wilks,
director and cofounder of Annick Press
in Toronto. We know our books are
being photocopied, and were cautious
about some kinds of publishing because
of that, he says, mentioning collections
of plays as an example of one type of book
that Annick has stopped publishing.
Some of our illustrated nonfiction
breaks down into chapters on particular
issues, and we know that some of those
chapters just get photocopied.... Theyve
gone from an important source of revenue to zero.
Andrew Wooldridge, publisher of
Orca Book Publishers in Victoria, British
Columbia, has also seen the effects first-

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SUITE FRANAISE
Emmanuel Moynot
A stirring graphic novel based
on the extraordinary book
by Irne Nmirovsky.

Distributed in the US by Consortium | Distributed in Canada by UTP

hand. We sell a lot to schools and libraries,

and were running across situations
where content is not being purchased,
but borrowed. Wooldridge agrees
with the reports prediction that the
long-term effects of the changes will lead
to a decline in the quality of educational
resources available to Canadian students.
The danger, he says, is that companies
that create curriculum specific to Canada
wont be able to afford to stay in business. Were going to end up with
Canadian schools buying their educational content from the U.S., and were
going to end up with a U.S. curriculum in
our schools if were not careful.
The report predicts that the effects
will be similar in the postsecondary
market once current licensing agreements expire at the end of 2015. It projects that the expected cessation of
licensing for the use of parts of works
would represent a loss of approximately
C$30 million per year in payments to
content producers.
Were obviously a huge supporter of
Access Copyright, says Brad Martin,
president and CEO of Penguin Random
House Canada. We dont agree with the
institutions that suggest that they
should be able to use copyrighted material free of charge. As a trade publisher,
he says, PRH is not affected to the same
extent as academic publishers, but he
notes that, We know what we used to
get as an income from Access Copyright
is down by about 50% in 18 months.
Arsenal Pulp Press publisher Brian
Lam says the changes have hit smaller
presses particularly hard. A lot of our
titles adopted at the college and university level are in course packs, and thats
where our authors work is most vulnerable, he says. Theyre taking that work
and then not having to pay for it, in the
name of fair use.
Although the amended law will be
subject to a five-year review in 2017, the
next developments may happen in the
courts. Access Copyright filed a copyright lawsuit against Torontos York
University, and a trial date has been set
for May 2016.

Once Upon a Line...

Where do stories come from? Where do ideas begin?

An exquisite gift book from the award-winning author/illustrator of Alphabeasts

Wallace Edwards
The colorful, absurd, detailed illustrations feature a fantastical array of charactersmany of
them anthropomorphic animalsin an intriguing style that defies easy classification.The artwork is captivating, finding the pen stroke is challenging, and the text will spark some animated
conversation.Kirkus Reviews
Children will unquestionably
enjoy the interactive nature of
the book and how it openly
invites them to make the stories their own. Perhaps most
importantly, Once Upon a Line
allows children to recognize
that even the grandest of ideas
often begins from something
rather smallHighly
Recommended.
CM Magazine
The latest visual feast from
Wallace Edwards is designed
to spur the imaginations of
young readers (and older ones,
too)....theres no shortage of
silliness here to inspire
raucous bedtime yarns
Quill & Quire

ISBN: 9781927485781 | Picture Book Ages 6+

Written and illustrated by Wallace Edwards
Publication Date: October 15, 2015

Wallace Edwards
Distributed in the U.S. by Ingram Publisher Services 844-749-4861
Distributed in Canada by UTP Distribution 800-565-9523

info@pajamapress.ca

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Canadian Publishing 2015

UTP Is the Winner

In the New Canadian
Distribution Landscape
University of Toronto Press has moved to
fill the void left by HC Canadas exit from
the distribution business
By Laura Godfrey

hen HarperCollins
Canada announced
last November that it
would be getting out
of the Canadian distribution business, it
set off a succession of changes in the publishing landscape. Ultimately, University
of Toronto Press emerged with the most
new business, as four of HC Canadas
former distribution clientsDouglas &
McIntyre, House of Anansi/Groundwood
Books, Greystone Books, and New Society
Publishersannounced in March that
they were moving their Canadian distribution to UTP.
UTP also picked up new clients such
as the literary press Biblioasis and U.S.
publisher Career Press this year, and
thanks to the increased business, the distributor announced in May that it would
start offering an optional free-freight
program on all Canadian bookstore
orders over C$300. Many publishers
believe that a larger margin for the bookseller will lead to larger orders, says
Hamish Cameron, UTPs v-p of distribution. More than 15 client publishers
have signed up so far for the free-freight
option, which went into effect earlier
this summer.
Arsenal Pulp Press in Vancouver,

British Columbia, has been distributed

by UTP for five years, and publisher
Brian Lam says the free-freight option
has been an important change. We
talked to a number of booksellers here in
B.C., and they actually told us that they
were only ordering my books as special
order, because the cost of the books
including freight was just too onerous,
Lam says. Now bookstores can add our
books to an Anansi or Greystone order
and get the free-freight option.
Rob Sanders, publisher of Greystone
Books, another West Coast press, says
the transition from HarperCollins to
UTP was not easy, but he says he is now
very happy with the new arrangement
in particular the free freight. That was
critical for us because wed been involved
in it at HarperCollins. And we believe in
being able to get books across this
country to booksellers equally, Sanders
says. That was one of the only reasons
we would consider going [to UTP].
In addition, this summer UTP hired
two new full-time staff members who
had formerly worked in distribution for
HarperCollins: Chris Balkissoon came
on as warehouse operations manager, and
Jacqueline Courtney joined as client services representative. And, in August,
UTP picked up one more client, kids

Canadian Publishing 2015

publisher Annick Press, which will officially move from Firefly Books to UTP
in January 2016. Annicks U.S. distribution and sales, meanwhile, will be handled by Publishers Group West. Annick
Press hugely complements our childrens
list of client publishers. Its been a very
good year for us, Cameron says.
One negative for UTP is the impending
loss of longtime client Kids Can Press,
the largest Canadian-owned childrens
publisher (and home of Franklin the
Turtle). According to KCP president
Lisa Lyons Johnston, the company will
move its sales and distribution to

Hachette Book Group as of February

2016. UTP doesnt offer sales representation (most of their clients are represented by Ampersand), and Johnston says
the move was a strategic decision to grow
the business in the U.S.
Its definitely a blow to lose Kids Can,
because they are the foundation of our
childrens list, Cameron says. But it was
a global decision on their part that relates
more directly to their sales and marketing
representation. Kids Can has been with
UTP since the 1980s, when they were a very
small company. But look on the bright
side: we have space for more publishers.

Two New EnglishLanguage Imprints

Coming Out of Montreal
By Laura Godfrey

wo Montreal companies
English-language publisher
Baraka Books and Frenchlanguage publisher ditions
de lHommeare launching
new imprints to showcase
Quebecs writers in translation for the
English-language market.
Robin Philpot, president and publisher
at Baraka Books, says the new imprint QC
Fiction will focus on Quebec-based
writers in their 20s to 40s and publish
about four translated titles per year.
Headed by the literary translator Peter
McCambridge, who hails from Ireland
but moved to Quebec a decade ago, the
imprint is scheduled to launch in March
2016 with a book from ric Dupont.
We realized that Quebec has a big
book culture, and we have a large number
of young fiction writers who are in their
20s to 40s whose books do not come out
in English, Philpot says. ric Duponts

works are consistently bestsellers, yet

Bestiairewhose English title will be
Life in the Royal Court of Matanewill be
his first to appear in English.
Meanwhile, French-language publisher
ditions de lHomme will be getting into
the translation game with its new imprint
Juniper Publishing. Since it falls under
the umbrella of Quebecor, the largest
book publisher in Quebec, the Juniper
imprint aims to publish an impressive
2025 mostly nonfiction titles each year.
Most of the time, we will try to publish them simultaneously in French and
English, which will be a great innovation and opportunity for us, ditions de
lHomme v-p Pierre Bourdon says.
Of those annual titles, 1012 are
expected to come from Quebecor-owned
consumer magazines such as Canadian
Living and the Hockey News, while another
1015 will be translations of ditions de
lHommes French titles.

Canadian Publishing 2015

Book Marketing in 2015

Publishers try new technology and new kinds
of author tours to lure readers
By Laura Godfrey

ith competition for

bookstore shelf space
as fierce as ever and
the Inspire Book Fair
gone for good, publishers are looking for
new ways to reach potential readers.
Simon & Schuster Canada, for example,
is taking the show on the road to promote a sports memoir by Tie Domi,
billed as hockeys most prolific fighter.

The tour for former NHL enforcer

Domis Shift Work, cowritten by sports
reporter Jim Lang, will take the form of
a portable museum in an expandable
double-trailer truck, aka the Domimobile. The truck will travel with the
athlete in November to about 15 Canadian
cities, including a stop at the Air Canada
Centre hockey arenahome of the
Toronto Maple Leafsplus a detour down
to New York City. The portable museum

20 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y S E P T E M B E R 2 1 , 2 0 1 5

will be filled with memorabilia and

videos from Domis life.
Torontos Dundurn Press is reaching
readers by selling e-books directly
through its own website using BitLit
technology. It just makes it a bit of an
easier experience for our users, so they
can buy e-books and print books all in
the same place in a secure atmosphere,
says Sarah Beaudin, Dundurns webmaster and marketing designer. It also
gives us an opportunity to do things like
offer special promotions. Dundurns
titles will still be sold through thirdparty vendors such as Kobo, Amazon,
and iTunes, but this new option allows
it to keep readers on its website.
Meanwhile, ECW Press is getting into
the audiobook production business in
response to feedback from librarians that
Canadian audiobook titles are sorely
underrepresented in their catalogues.
Were going to work collectively with
other publishers, were going to create

Canadian Publishing 2015

them ourselves, and were going to distribute them ourselves, president and
publisher Jack David says. ECW has
worked out an agreement with the performers organization ACTRA to provide
voice actors, and in 2016 hopes to come
out with a list of 100 audiobook titles
across a variety of Canadian publishers.
David says the books will be available
through Audible.com and libraries,
among other places.
President and publisher Kristin
Cochrane says one of Penguin Random
House Canadas new marketing campaigns
involves a speaker series called Hazlitt
Presents, which focuses on in-the-headlines subjects. Over the course of the
winter, as the Ebola crisis was getting
front-page news, we started talking about
the fact that we publish many writers who
are doctors, who have been in Mdecins
Sans Frontires, whove been to South
Sudan, whove been through Africa, who
are very much on the front lines of some-

thing like the Ebola crisis, Cochrane

says. One Sunday in February,
the publisher attracted a
sold-out crowd for a discussion called The
Borderless Plague: A
Conversation About Ebola
and Its Global Ramifications,
featuring two authors at the
Toronto Reference Library. We were able
to bring public education to this really
important issue, Cochrane says. And the
plan is to do it again on October 26 with
From Within, in which journalists and
PRH Canada authors Gwynne Dyer and
Farzana Hassan will discuss the realities
of radicalization in the West, according
to the events description.
Second Story Press is combining technology with print books to give readers a
more immersive experience. For the nonfiction book Witness: Passing the Torch of
Holocaust Memory to New Generations
created in partnership with the organiza-

ANANSI PUBLISHES VERY GOOD BOOKS

tion March of the Livingthe publisher

has used Digimarc technology and
placed invisible watermarks on
the pages of the book, allowing
readers who download an
app to scan the page and
bring up videos and information about the people
theyre reading about.
Kids Can Presss new marketing initiative is meant to be an antidote to the pink
aislewhere girls toys go by default in
toy storesand empower young readers.
This year, their new Girls Can campaign
curates a collection of titles that feature
strong female characters, from Lana
Buttons Willow Finds a Way to Elizabeth
Sunebys Razias Ray of Hope. Kids Can is
also building a website to host teachers
guides developed specifically for these
books. People say they dont want pink
things, but they do want products that
speak to girls, says marketing director
Naseem Hrab.

WWW.HOUSEOFANANSI.COM

Canadian Publishing 2015

New Canadian M.F.A.

Enhanced by
Pace Partnership
Kings College puts nonfiction writers in touch
with publishers in New York and Toronto
By Leigh Anne Williams

he University of Kings
College in Halifax, Nova
Scotia, has a fledgling creative
writing M.F.A., launched in
summer 2013, that focuses
exclusively on nonfiction and
is the only program of its kind in Canada.
The first graduates from the program say
its new affiliation with Pace University
in New York City helped make their
introduction to the U.S. publishing
world a positive experience.
Modeled on a program offered by
Goucher College in Maryland, the two-year
low-residency M.F.A. is ideal for students
who are continuing their careers while
completing their degrees. Each academic
year, students attend classes in Halifax for
two weeks in August and then spend a
week in January in either Toronto or New
York meeting with people working in
various roles in the publishing industry.
During the rest of the year, they work
remotely with the schools mentors to
produce a publishable manuscript by the
end of their second year.
Executive director Don Sedgwick says
the program is going like a rocket. He
notes that it took about five years for him
and Kings professor and author Stephen
Kimber to put together the program,
which was championed by Kelly
Toughill, director of the Kings College
School of Journalism. Sedgwick says

theyve been gratified to be able to select

about 20 high-caliber students each year,
many of whom are already established
writers and journalists working for
Canadas national newspapers, the CBC,
and other media outlets.
The first class graduated in May, and
Sedgwick says at least three students
already have literary agents and others
have received requests for proposals from
publishers. He also reports that publishers in Canada have been tremendously supportive. Penguin Random
House sent Pamela Murray to be an
editor-in-residence for one week last
year, and HarperCollins sent the awardwinning nonfiction author Andrew
Westoll to be an author-in-residence The
programs advisory board includes highprofile publishing professionals such as
Anne Collins, publisher of the Knopf
Random Publishing Group at Penguin
Random House Canada.
One of the programs attractions is the
immersion in the Toronto and New York
publishing scenes. The first year, the
students went to Toronto and met nonfiction editors at HarperCollins and
Random House, literary agents, publicists, and professionals at Kobo.
While planning the New York experience, Sedgwick approached Manuela
Soares, a faculty member of Pace
Universitys Master of Science in

22 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y S E P T E M B E R 2 1 , 2 0 1 5

Publishing program. Soares says she saw

the program not as competition, but as
something that was potentially complementary and a good introduction to
Paces programs. We also offer certificates, for example, in book publishing,
Soares says and if you were a were a
writer having done an M.F.A. and wanted
to know more about how to get your own
work out there, you could do a certificate
with us. In the fall of 2014, the schools
formally formed an affiliation and Soares
helped Sedgwick make arrangements to
use Pace facilities when his students visited in January 2015. Pace alumni and
adjunct professors were among the professionals the students met.
Graduate Pauline Dakin, a senior producer for CBCs current affairs broadcasts
in Nova Scotia, says the week in New
York was remarkablewe heard from
well-known, well-established bright
lights of publishing in narrative nonfiction, but then we also got to hear from
people who are kind of new and more
cutting edge and doing different things,
so there was a full breadth of experience
presented to us in the publishing world.
She adds that it opened doors to the U.S.
publishing industry that often seem to
be closed to Canadian writers. Weve
had people who have been very generous
and said, Heres my email, heres my card,
feel free to be in touch, so we have that
ability to reach out to people, she says.
People at Pace, people in the industry,
agentsthe whole realm of the industry
was represented there at one time or
another through the week.
Dakin is not the only member of her
cohort to have found the time at Pace
enriching. New York was a dream come
true for me on a variety of levels, says
Genevieve Cole, of Seattle. Don pulled
out all the stops in terms of the people
that we were able to meet and engage with
about publishing and writing. We opened
the week with Lewis Lapham and we ended
the week with Adam Gopnick. She adds
that even though she is a U.S.-based
writer, the trip to New York was still
vital: Its the center of the publishing
world, and it was just very energizing.

Canadian Publishing 2015

POETRY

Hot Fall Adult Titles

From Canadian Houses

Poet Christian Bk, whose 2001 book

Eunoia won the Griffin Poetry Prize, is
releasing a living poem 10 years in the
making. The Xenotext, Book 1 (Coach
House) was created by translating a poem
into a DNA sequence and implanting
that into the genome of a bacterium,
which reads his text and creates another
poem in response.

A selection of big adult books publishing in Canada

between August 2015 and January 2016

COMICS

By Laura Godfrey

FICTION

Patrick deWitt follows up the success

of his Governor Generals Award
winning novel Sisters Brothers with
Undermajordomo Minor (Anansi), a
comedic fable about a man named Lucy
Minor who takes a job at a foreboding
castle in the far-off town of Ox.
Lawrence Hill is back with his first
novel since his bestselling The Book of
Negroes. The Illegal (HarperCollins
Canada) tells the story of a marathoner
forced to flee his fictionalized homeland
for a wealthy nation called Freedom
State. It was inspired by the stories of
undocumented refugees.
In Margaret Atwoods futuristic novel
The Heart Goes Last (McClelland &
Stewart), a married couple escapes poverty by moving to a strange town where,
each month, citizens alternate between
being prisoners and being guards.
Rush drummer/lyricist Neil Peart and
author Kevin J. Anderson team up again
for Clockwork Lives (ECW), the followup to their steampunk adventure
Clockwork Angels. The new novel is meant
to accompany the brand-new Rush album
of the same name.
Meadowlark (NeWest), the debut
novel of Wendi Stewart, is about a family
who are the victims of a terrible accident.
After their car falls through the ice on
Rainy Lake in Ontario in 1962, six-yearold Rebecca is saved by her father, but
her mother and baby brother dont survive. Rebecca is haunted by their memory

but finds solace in two new friendships.

Ian Flemings James Bond novels have
entered the public domain in Canada,
and ChiZine Publications is taking
advantage of the fact by publishing
Licence Expired, a collection of 19 short
stories featuring 007, edited by Madeline
Ashby and David Nickle.

Irne Nmirovskys 2004 novel Suite

Franaise, about a village in France during
the 1940 German invasion, has been
adapted into a graphic novel with art by
Emmanuel Moynot. The new version,
published by Arsenal Pulp Press, focuses
on Storm in June, part one of the twovolume novel.
Fans of Jane Austen will enjoy Udon
Entertainments new manga version of
Austens matchmaking comedy Emma,
part of its Manga Classics series, which

Talonbooks

Words That Matter

The United States of Wind

Daniel Canty
Translated by Oana Avasilichioaei
Mixing road narrative and philosophical memoir,
The United States of Wind follows Daniel Canty, wind
seeker. Aboard a Ford Ranger tted with a weathervane
and wind cone, he surrenders to air currents. The adventure
leads him from the Midwest to Chicago, into the wind tunnel
linking the Great Lakes, through the Rust belt, only to veer
off into Amish pastoralia.
Biography & Autobiography: Literary / $16.95 / 192 pp

Tales of the Emporer

Jack Winter

Tales of the Emperor combines ancient historical

conjecture, recent archaeological fact, and contemporary
social and political awareness. The book is based on the life
of Chin Shihuang Di (c. 246-210 B.C.), the First Emperor,
he who unied China, gave it his name. Birth to death his
story is told in a thematic rather than a chronologic fashion.
Fiction: Historical / $19.95 / 264 pp

Find us on Facebook and Twitter

www.talonbooks.com

W W W . P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY. C O M

23

Baraka Books

Canadian Publishing 2015

gggggggggggggg

The Complete
Muhammad Ali

978-1-77186-040-6 | 446 p | $29.95

Ishmael Reed

NONFICTION

a must-read. PBS Book View Now

twelve solid rounds of writing stands
above its competition.
Ron Jacobs, Counterpunch

DAVID GIDMARK

Speak to Me
in Indian

Shane Bearskin and Theresa Wawati are united by a profound love

and a visceral attachment to their cultural heritage. Both have
experienced the challenges facing so many young people from
indigenous communities. They are now studying in Montreal.

David Gidmark has captured the aching beauty of life and the
passionate longing for freedom that breathe hope in human beings
everywhere.

Speak to Me in Indian

David Gidmark

Do you miss your children? he asked gently.

And it seemed as soon as the last syllable reached
her ears, her eyes welled up with tears. Shane reached
across the seat, pulled her to him and put his arm
around her.
With tears flooding her eyes, she began, I think
of them all the time. Its like my heart was torn out
every day. You dont know how hard it is.

A Novel
David Gidmark is the author of ten books. Born in Winsconsin, he
has lectured on the birchbark canoe throughout the world, including
at the Smithsonian Institution. He lives in Maniwaki, Qubec.
$19.95

www.barakabooks.com

DAVID GIDMARK

isbn 978-1-77186-053-6

Speak to me.couv.indd 1

978-1-77186-053-6 | 206 p | $19.95

ggg

Speak to Me
in Indian,
A Novel

2015-07-29 11:52

The aching beauty of life

and the passionate longing for freedom.
ggg

Claude Lacaille

gles against Pinochets neo-liberal

So much courage and solidarity,
Christianity truly faithful to the
ves, and stirs ones admiration.

ere shedding blood simply because they defended

tatorship, opposed rapacious policies and economonsoled the downtrodden, and breathed new hope
into a people who desperately needed it. Their
as practising what they preached, the preferential
e poor.

icist, and was a missionary from the 1960s through the

When Chilean authorities prevented him from returning
ustice and freedom. He lives in Trois-Rivires, Qubec.

Nicaraguan diplomat, politician, and priest of the

Minister for Foreign Affairs in Nicaraguas Sandinista
ised by Pope John Paul II and suspended in 1985. Pope
t 2014. In 2008-09, he presided over the United Nations

co Prize awarded by the Canadian Literary Translators

he YA novel Break Away, Jessie on My Mind. He lives in
$24.95

isbn 978-1-77186-039-0

REBEL PRIEST in the Time

in the Time of Tyrants
MISSION TO HAITI, ECUADOR AND CHILE
Foreword by Miguel dEscoto, M.M.

REBEL PRIEST IN THE TIME OF TYRANTS

le witnessed close up the oppression and poverty

dor, and Chile where dictators and predatory impeLike other advocates of liberation theology, he saw
to join the resistance, particularly against Chilean
tor Augusto Pinochet. But Popes John Paul II and
didnt see it that way.

978-1-77186-039-0 | 232 p | $24.95

Le Devoir, Montral

Rebel Priest

Claude Lacaille

of Tyrants

Mission to Haiti,
Ecuador and Chile
Claude Lacaille

Translated by Casey Roberts

2015-05-14 14:37

(a) wonderful testimony inspired

and inspiring pages.
Miguel dEscoto Brockman, M.M.

Rights Available
info@barakabooks.com
514-808-8504
Distributed by IPG

takes beloved works of fiction and faithfully adapts them in detailed manga style.
Based on his six-minuted animated
film of the same name, Vincent Marcones
The Lady ParaNorma (ChiZine) is an
illustrated story about a strange, lonely
woman who can hear the voices of ghosts
and longs for companionship.

www.barakabooks.com

Historian Margaret MacMillan follows

up her bestselling The War That Ended
Peace with Historys People (Anansi),
which looks at men and women who
have changed the course of history
through leadership and risk taking.
As mass shootings proliferate in the
U.S., gun control remains a pressing
issue. Arms: The Culture and Credo of
the Gun by A.J. Somerset (Biblioasis)
explores the rise of homegrown terrorists
and mass shootings. Somerset is a journalist, gun collector, and former soldier.
In the slender volume The Inequality
Trap: Fighting Capitalism Instead of
Poverty (Univ. of Toronto), economics
professor William Watson takes on the
issue of inequality, arguing that sometimes its actually good, as it rewards
hard work and innovation.
Tiger researcher and documentary
filmmaker Sooyong Park spent much of
his life following and learning about
Siberian tigers. In Great Soul of Siberia
(Greystone), he tracks three generations
of Siberian tigers living in remote southeastern Russia.

COOKBOOKS

Quebec pop star Marilou started a blog,

Trois Fois Par Jour, to improve her relationship with food after struggling with
anorexia. She then turned that into a
French cookbook that sold more than
200,000 copies, with photographs by
husband Alexandre Champagne. The
English translation, Three Times a Day,
is due out this fall from House of Anansi.
The bestselling Best of Bridge series,
which features comforting, easy-to-make
recipes, is back with Best of Bridge
Home Cooking (Robert Rose). This will
be the last installment from the founders

24 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y S E P T E M B E R 2 1 , 2 0 1 5

of the series, and it includes contributions

from the three women to whom theyve
passed the mantle.

MEMOIR

In October, Canadians will vote in a new

prime minister, and Tom Mulcair, leader
of the New Democratic Party, is one of the
candidates. His memoir, Strength of
Conviction (Dundurn), recalls his middleclass upbringing and his involvement in
major federal issues over the past several
decades.
Also from Dundurn, Austin Clarkes
Membering is a collection of vignettes
about the Giller Prizewinning Barbadian
authors immigration to Toronto in the
1950s and his life as a writer.
In her first work of nonfiction, This
Is Happy (Doubleday Canada), Camilla
Gibb describes an upbringing touched
by mental illness (her fathers and her
own), a beloved spouse who leaves her
when she is four months pregnant, and
her efforts to forge a new family.
Broadcaster and musician Wab Kinew,
who hosted the CBCs literary competition Canada Reads in 2015, writes in
The Reason You Walk (Viking Canada)
about his attempt to reconnect with his
aboriginal father, a residential school
survivor who was diagnosed with terminal cancer.
Brian Bretts Tuco (Greystone) is a
biography of the authors African grey
parrot, Tuco, and an examination of the
relationship between humans and birds,
and of Bretts feelings about suffering
from a rare disorder that delayed puberty
for him until he was in his 20s.

SPORTS

Former NHL enforcerand penalty box

regularTie Domi shares his thoughts
on his hockey career and on life after his
2006 retirement in Shift Work (S&S
Canada), cowritten by sports reporter
Jim Lang.
Hockey Hall of Famers talk about
their greatest NHL opponents and most
underrated players in The Toughest I
Ever Faced (Firefly), by sports writer
Steve Milton.

Canadian Publishing 2015

Whats Big in Canadian

Childrens and
YA Publishing This Fall
A selection of big kids books publishing in Canada
between August 2015 and January 2016
By Laura Godfrey

FICTION

Mlanie Watt, the creator of Scaredy

Squirrel, is back with a new kind of distressed creature in Bug in a Vacuum
(Tundra), a 96-page picture book about a
bug that is suddenly sucked into a vacuum
cleaner and goes through the five stages
of grief. The book features a combination
of watercolors, acrylic, and Photoshop,
and includes minimal text, as the bug
tries to come to terms with his new dark
and dusty situation. I think everyone is
going to go through some event that they
didnt count on, that they didnt want to
happen, Watt says. Its about dealing
with a situation where we feel out of control. Ages 59.
Everyones favorite bald toddler learns
to stand up for himself in Caillou and
the Big Bully (Chouette), written by
Christine LHeureux, illustrated by Pierre
Brignaud, and created in consultation
with an early childhood specialist. Its a
subject thats been touching a lot of kids
and parents, says Chouettes Simon
Payette. By addressing it as early as possible, we hope it will prevent things from
getting worse. Ages 24.
Bestselling author and professional
positive thinker Neil Pasricha, who
brought us The Book of Awesome, has
written his first picture book, Awesome Is
Everywhere (Puffin Canada). Using only
their fingers and their imagination, kids
are invited to zoom out to see the Earths

big picture, and zoom right in on the

minuscule details of the grains of sand at
the beach. Ages 46.
Groundwood Books has a new picture
book series from writer Maureen Fergus
and illustrator Carey Sookocheff called
Buddy and Earl, which marketing manager Fred Horler describes as funny,
sweet, and simple. Buddy the dog is
intrigued when his owner brings a box
carrying a small, prickly creature into
the house. Buddy is told not to touch the
box, but what is he to do when the creature, Earl the hedgehog, invites him on
an imaginative pirate adventure? Slated
for 2016 in this series are Buddy and Earl
Go Exploring and Buddy and Earl and the
Great Big Baby. Ages 47.
In comic book artist Willow Dawsons
first picture book, The Wolf-Birds
(Owlkids), two hungry ravens in the
woods team up with a pack of wolves to
find fooda real-life symbiotic relationship that many aboriginal hunters have
observed and reported. Its simple, its
lyrical, its beautiful, and it doesnt shy
away from the harsh realities of animals
hunting and killing each other, says
Owlkids Books publisher Karen
Boersma. Ages 58.
Rebecca Hainnu and Qin Lengs picture
book A Walk on the Shoreline (Inhabit
Media) tells the story of a boy named
Nukappia visiting his familys campsite on
the shoreline. As he walks along with his
W W W . P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY. C O M

25

Canadian Publishing 2015

uncle, he learns that the shoreline is actually an elaborate ecosystem thats home to
clams, char, and shore grasses. According to
Inhabit Media publisher Neil Christopher,
this is one of the ways the authors are
weaving traditional Inuit knowledge into
childrens stories. Ages 57.
Evan Mundays third entry into his
Dead Kid Detective Agency series,
Loyalist to a Fault (ECW), sees goth girl
October Schwartz gather up her dead
friends to investigate the 1783 death of
Cyril Cooper, around the time of Canadas
earliest British settlers, the United
Empire Loyalists. However, a ghost pirate
throws a wrench in their plans when he
steals evidence. Ages 912.
From ChiTeen, the YA imprint of
Toronto-based genre publisher ChiZine,
comes Mags Storeys paranormal love
story Dead Girls Dont. When students
keep turning up dead at Rosewood
Academy, Liv tries to figure out whos
behind itand as it turns out, being able
to talk to the dead isnt as useful as youd
think. Its really charming and funny,
with supernatural elements and a touch
of romance, and its really fast paced
with lots of murders, says ChiZines
copublisher Sandra Kasturi. Ages 1318.
Three years ago, Vancouvers Orca
Book Publishers simultaneously published seven adventure books for boys,
featuring popular YA authors from Eric
Walters to Shane Peacock and Norah
McClintock. This September, the publishers Secrets series features seven
brand-new books, by authors such as
Kelley Armstrong and Kathy Kacer,
about seven orphan girls who must find
their own way after their orphanage
burns down. The books, set in 1964, are
linked but can be read in any order.
Ages 1216.
In Kim Firmstons YA novel Creep
Con (James Lorimer), Mariam decides to
dress up as her favorite manga character
at a fan convention, but when a boy
dressed as her characters love interest
tries to physically force himself on her,
she has to find a way to escape his attention. These are the kinds of experiences
that are difficult to talk about with kids

but that are happening every day, says

Lorimer promotions manager Emma
Renda. Ages 13up.
The Iron Road was a movie and TV
miniseries about the Chinese workers
who migrated to Canada in the 1880s to
build the transcontinental railway, and a
teenage girl named Li Jun (Little Tiger)
who disguised herself as a boy to get work
and find her long-lost father. Dundurn
Press is publishing a novelization of the
adventure talewritten by Anne Tait,
the films producer, and Franklin the
Turtle creator Paulette Bourgeoiscalled
Li Jun and the Iron Road. Its a tragic
story, that there were that many deaths to
build a railroad, says Tait. But there also is,
I think, unexpected humor. Ages 1215.

NONFICTION

The real-life origins of that tubby

little cubby all stuffed with fluff are
revealed in Finding Winnie: The True
Story of the Worlds Most Famous Bear
(HarperCollins Canada), written by
Lindsay Mattick, the great-granddaughter of the veterinarian who named
the original bear more than 100 years ago
(after the city of Winnipeg). The book,
with illustrations by Sophie Blackall, is
a very exciting project for us, says
HarperCollins Canadas Iris Tupholme.
Ages 47.
When is the right time to have those
difficult conversations with your children? Orca Book Publishers is helping to
get things started with a new series called
Just Enough: Difficult Topics Made Easy,
by child psychologist Jillian Roberts.
The first in the series, illustrated by
Cindy Revell, is called Our First Talk
About Birth and uses a Q&A format to
gently introduce facts. Orca publisher
Andrew Wooldridge, who has a five-yearold son himself, says future books in the
series will focus on topics such as death,
cultural diversity, and separation and
divorce. Ages 36.
If your kids find it difficult to catch
the bus to school every morning, just
show them The Way to School by
Rosemary McCarney, head of aid agency
Plan Canada and Canadas ambassador to

26 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y S E P T E M B E R 2 1 , 2 0 1 5

the U.N. Using minimal text and real

photographs of children across the world,
the book shows how some kids have to
travel by boat, across mountains, and
even through disaster zones just to get to
school and get an education. Ages 69.
Toronto Star politics columnist and
author Edward Keenan gets into the
childrens publishing game with The
Art of the Possible: An Everyday Guide
to Politics (Owlkids), including illustrations by Julie McLaughlin. The book
takes the view that everyone, even kids,
is a politician in some way, shape, or
formtheyre affected by politics and
able to play a part in them, says Owlkids
publisher Karen Boersma. The book
timed perfectly for upcoming elections
both in Canada and the U.S.takes a
complex topic and makes it kid friendly
without oversimplification. Ages 1014.
When Michel Chikwanine was five, he
was kidnapped from his school in the
Congo, forced to become a soldier, and
made to shoot his best friend. He eventually escaped, but the experience stayed
with him long after he moved to Canada.
Chikwanine collaborated on his graphic
novel memoir, Child Soldier (Kids Can),
with writer Jessica Dee Humphreys, and
moving illustrations were provided by
Claudia Dvila. Its about understanding the perspective of a child going
through this terrible experience, which
many children are unfortunately forced
to go through all across the world,
Chikwanine says. The book is part of the
publishers CitizenKid series, focusing
on complex global issues. Ages 1014.
Kathy Lowinger, former Tundra Books
publisher, has written a narrative nonfiction book about Ella Sheppard, a black
girl who joined a group of fellow former
slaves in the U.S. in the 19th century.
They started a traveling choir to raise
funds for the Fisk Free Colored School,
which they founded to help educate
other black children. Give Me Wings:
How a Choir of Former Slaves Took on
the World (Annick) touches on the
American Civil War, the Emancipation
Proclamation, and the Underground

Railroad. Ages 11up.

New Picture Books

from Kids Can Press

Publishers
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KidsCanPress.com
We acknowledge the assistance of the OMDC Book Fund, an initiative of Ontario Media Development Corporation.

Inspiring
Canadians
one book at a time

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