Dundurn returns to a partial in-office work; foresees hybrid model in the future
Moving to a hybrid model that sees staff come into the office once or twice per week provides opportunities to save money and decrease the company’s footprint.
Hachette’s announced purchase of Workman makes an already uneven playing field even more slanted
As big North American publishers become ever bigger, authors lose opportunities to place their work and readers lose the chance to avail themselves of riskier books.
Carolyn Forde named chair of the International Visitors Programme at the Toronto International Festival of Authors
As the incoming chair, Forde wants to extend what has been successful about the IV Programme in the past while also adding new initiatives.
Penguin Random House is the latest publisher to feel the burn from a marquee author’s reputational flame-out
Publishers are increasingly relying on morals clauses to shield them from blowback should an author’s bad behaviour become public scandal.
Bruce Walsh steps down as publisher at Anansi as staff prepare for a return to their Toronto office
As Walsh takes time to focus on his health, the staff at Anansi will be working to bring the fall list to market, while also making tentative moves back to a more public work environment.
Ashley Audrain’s thriller The Push is the top seller for the first half of 2021, according to BookNet Canada
Total unit sales were up year-over-year for the first part of 2021, with juvenile/young adult sales in the lead, followed by adult nonfiction, and adult fiction.
Casey Plett and Cat Fitzpatrick team up to launch new feminist publisher LittlePuss Press
“We’re not an all-trans press,” says Fitzpatrick. “We definitely understand ourselves as a feminist press run by trans women.”
While mainstream publishers wage internal wars, a new upstart threatens to import online polarization into the print sphere
The potential for importing internet and cable news level divisiveness into publishing appears more dangerous than the tradition of publishing across the political spectrum.
Opposition grows to proposed Penguin Random House merger with Simon & Schuster
The potential combined market clout of two major multinationals provides potential negative results for independent publishers, authors, and readers alike.
On beginning the year with cautious optimism
Notwithstanding the real challenges last year presented, there is good reason to be hopeful about the robust longevity of the literary ecosystem.