News

Montreal Fair Highlights French, English Publishing Differences
Leah Eichler -- 12/13/99

The 22nd Salon de Livre--the French-language book fair held in Montreal every year--highlighted the unique position in which Canadian French- language publishers find themselves.

For one, all books and material are in a language that is definitely not the lingua franca of North America. Aside from pockets of French speakers across Canada, Quebec is practically an island of its own, with its closest publishing ties to European countries such as France, Switzerland and Belgium. Furthermore, the usual tensions between French and English Canada cannot be ignored, and collaborations with English-language Canadian publishers are few and far between.

"They [English-language and French-language publishers] interact very seldom," Dahlia Riback, projects officer of the Association of Canadian Publishers, told PW. "The market is very different, the reader is very different and you're publishing in a completely different language."

Jean Bernier, literary director of Les Editions Boreal, concurs, and although he believes that the major obstacle facing French-language publishers is their finite number of readers, he noted that the only way they can reach English Canada is through translation rights. "We sell English translation rights... but we are mainly focusing on expanding into the European market," Bernier said, lamenting the little influence French-language publishers have on the U.S. market. "Everybody wants to get into the U.S. market, but it's a hard market to break into," he added.

Others are more optimistic about opportunities in the U.S. Marc Leberge, president of the publishing house Trecarre--now part of Quebecor Inc.--predicts that interaction with the U.S. is the future of publishing in Quebec. "We know we can't get around it," Leberge told PW. "Obviously, [our foremost obstacle is that] our publishing language is French, so the minute we want to set foot outside of Quebec, we need to turn everything around. When we package our product, we have to do it in both languages." Leberge said that the house's most common buyers outside Quebec reside in France, Belgium and Switzerland. Since many French-language publishers are not keen on breaking into the English-language market, the key is to find an English-language partner.

The separation between French-language and English-language publishers is felt on both sides of the Quebec border. Riback admits that although ACP is a national organization, only a handful of Quebec publishers choose to join. "Primarily we [ACP] are here [at the Salon] to have a presence. It's not an 'in your face, we're here, get used to it' presence. It's more of a message that we want to participate."

But Riback is quick to acknowledge that Quebec publishers and even the Salon itself, which allows in the public, work quite differently from their counterparts in English Canada. "This is really a French experience. It is not an English experience. We are not necessarily trying to break into the French market, but there are opportunities for translation."