Canadian Convention: Optimism, Fired by Hot Authors
Beverley Slopen -- 7/6/98
The Canadian Booksellers Convention in Toronto, June 19-21, underlined several changes in the publishing landscape -- including the fact that Canadian titles are increasingly important in luring book buyers into the shops, and that there is a growing impact on the national scene from the West Coast.
Toronto, of course, is still the headquarters of the leading publishing houses, and of Chapters, the only large chain in the country, with 330 outlets. But Douglas &McIntyre, based in Vancouver, has proved it is possible to have a national presence 3000 miles away. Smaller, specialty publishers such as White Cap, Orca and Self Counsel have carved a place for themselves. Now, Raincoast, also in Vancouver, is a growing force in the national market.Raincoast has won respect of booksellers for the efficient cross-country distribution of its lines of practical and illustrated books. At the Toronto show, it announced the expansion of its Canadian list with the addition of the newly formed Malcolm Lester Books.
Raincoast was founded in 1979 by Mark Stanton and Allan MacDougall as a commission sales firm to sell McClelland &Stewart titles on the West Coast. When Avie Bennett bought M&S in 1986 and canceled all the commissioned reps, it looked like disaster, "but in fact, it set the stage for growth," said Stanton, who reported Raincoast's sales at C$23.5 million and climbing. Now Raincoast is not only distributing Malcolm Lester Books, it's one of 14 or so limited partners in the new venture launched this year by Lester, who has been in publishing for 31 years. "Malcolm publishes in areas that we don't, such as fiction, serious nonfiction, Judaica, even p try, which will diversify our list. And he's in Toronto, which extends our geographical reach," said Stanton.
Another firm making its debut at the trade fair was Kim McArthur with her fledgling enterprise, McArthur and Company. This past May 1, McArthur, who was president of Little, Brown Canada saw the company closed and the line shifted to H.B. Fenn, who distributes Warner Books in Canada. Within six weeks she secured Orion in the U.K. as a client to distribute its books here; acquired Canadian rights to Maeve Binchy's new novel; raised a total of about C$800,000 from assorted investors; snagged the cover of the show daily for Binchy's Tara Road; announced publication of about six new Canadian titles; and arranged distribution and fulfillment by HarperCollins Canada.
There has been a change, too, at Macmillan of Canada, which for the first time in seven years had a presence at the CBA. "We are shifting our emphasis back to our Canadian-originated trade list," said publisher Alison Maclean. "We've had an author at the booth every 90 minutes."
Among the 140 or so exhibitors at the fair, the sprawling booths of Random House Canada and Bantam Doubleday Dell Canada were still separate, but visitors could easily imagine the behemoth which will result from their union, and which will dominate Canada's English-language publishing scene. Both companies have active Canadian publishing programs that no one wants to see jeopardized. The principals of both subsidiaries reaffirm that the imprints and editorial functions will remain separate, and until the merger of the Canadian subsidiaries receives Canadian government approval, they will continue to bid against each other. But support services are expected to be reconfigured into a company with combined sales approaching C$100 million.
Another merged firm, Penguin Putnam, also had separate booths and separate identities. In Canada the firm remains Penguin Canada. Recently appointed president of the publishing division, Cynthia Good pointed to its lead title, The Titans by Peter C. Newman to support her claim that fall 1998 will be one of its strongest. The house plans a 100,000-copy print run of the book, priced at C$40, and has announced a C$100,000 ad campaign. Also driving the fall season will be a celebrity memoir by folk singer Murray McLauchlan, and a series of books on ideas, including Michael Ignatieff's biography of Isaiah Berlin.
HarperCollins Canada launched its Flamingo Canada line of literary fiction and serious nonfiction with great fanfare at the CBA. The seven titles include a new novel by Barbara Gowdy, The White Bone, and a biography of Margaret Atwood's early years, The Red Sh s by Rosemary Sullivan, plus a memoir by popular author Timothy Findley.
Canadian-owned houses announced robust lists. McClelland &Stewart reported a 40% increase in sales, attributable in part to its acquisition of the prestigious children's house Tundra Books. Last year, M&S had two books that topped nonfiction sales, a political memoir by former Canadian cabinet minister John Crosbie and a book by radio personality Peter Gzowski, in addition to continuing sales of novels by Margaret Atwood and Anne Michaels.
This year, Doug Gibson, publisher at McClelland &Stewart, has high hopes for The Love of a Good Woman, a collection of stories by Alice Munro, whose last book sold 37,000 copies in hardcover in Canada; it's not impossible that this new collection could top 50,000. And Gibson predicts huge sales for Ice Storm, about the catastrophic winter storm that paralyzed Montreal and parts of Quebec and Ontario last winter.
Jack Stoddart, who heads two firms, Stoddart and General Publishing, that publish their own titles and distribute a number of other lines, has a unique overview of the market: "We didn't have as good a year last year as other years. But it was because of our list, as opposed to the market," he said. Even so, in surveying the results of the other houses, he d sn't see an overall growth in the market yet. He points to the closing of a number of smaller outlets by Chapters, which exceeds the pace of the expansion of its superstores.
For this season, he is looking to two Canadian nonfiction titles to boost sales. One is on the Eaton family, owners of a chain of department stores across Canada, written by Rod McQueen, a bestselling business writer. The other is a gift book, Pierre Berton's Seacoasts, which is expected to sell upwards of 20,000 copies at C$50 each.
This year, as in many of the past 35 years, three names have driven Canadian book buyers into the stores: Berton, Peter Newman and Farley Mowat. This year, Key Porter will publish a new book by Farley Mowat, now 77, called The Farfarers, on the ancient seafaring people who traveled to the continent's northern shores.
Several industry sources commented on the importance of a strong Canadian list. Claude Primeau, president of HarperCollins Canada, noted, "Our Canadian catalogue is the first out the briefcase. It represents only 10% to 15% of our sales, but it enables us to follow with our imported titles."
Several participants, including Harold Fenn of H.B. Fenn, observed that while the mood was not as euphoric as at last year's show, people were still optimistic. "We had been down so long that the mood was especially high last year. I feel there is going to be improvement this year," Fenn noted, despite the fact that a year ago, Canadians paid C$1.40 for a U.S. dollar and this year it has risen to C$1.47.
Returns are another problem cited by all publishers. "We ran an average of 31% returns. I still think it is too easy to return books," said Fenn. Primeau at HarperCollins Canada, which cut off about 50 accounts that had excessive returns, said, "You do not pay your bills with inventory."
Jack Stoddart concluded: "There seems to be a lot of stability in the publishing industry. As long as we don't lose our bookstores in the transition in retailing, it will be terrific."
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