Who says the dream of an independent Canadian publishing industry is dead?
Less than one week after the assets of Greystone Books were acquired by Heritage House Publishing, Douglas & McIntyre has been purchased by fellow British Columbia indie Harbour Publishing.
“Either Rob Sanders and I are nuts, or there is more life in this beast than people thought,” says Howard White, who founded Harbour Publishing with his wife Mary in 1974. “I prefer to think the latter.”
The deal includes the rights to the D&M name, the company’s back catalogue and all books under contract — 500 altogether, according to White. Authors who have published with Douglas & McIntyre include Johanna Skibsrud, Richard Wagamese, Wayson Choy, Douglas Coupland, and Will Ferguson.
White says Douglas & McIntyre will be run as a separate company.
“I don’t kid myself in thinking it’s not still a great loss, that D&M as it was constituted, is going to be no more,” he says. “But given that that happened, I think we’ve gotten as good a result as we could expect, with all those books staying in B.C. and two fairly solid presses committed to keeping the programs going.”
The deal still requires court approval, something White anticipates will happen in the next two weeks.
White says that Harbour “will be expanding [its] staff,” which currently boasts 12 employees. He anticipates the majority of the spring list will be published as previously scheduled, “provided we can reach satisfactory deals with the authors.”
Harbour Publishing is primarily known as a regional press, specializing in nature books, poetry, travel, and books about British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest.
White declined to reveal what he paid for the assets, but says there are no outside investors.
“It’s just something we just really strongly believe in, and feel needs to be done,” says White, who is an award-winning author himself. “And we’re in the position to do it. We probably could make more return on our money by putting it in the bank. But then I’ve always known that about publishing. But that’s not the point. The point is to keep Douglas & McIntyre going.”
In a statement issued on Wednesday evening, D&M co-founder Scott McIntyre said that “the successful conclusion of first the Greystone and now the Douglas & McIntyre asset sales confirms that the quality imprints of D&M are on a solid new path for the future. I am particularly pleased that both imprints will go forward under new British Columbia ownership with energetic ongoing publishing programs. It is a bonus that both will remain blessed by superior national sales and distribution support. In perilous times for independent publishers everywhere, this is very good news for our writers, for their books, for the legacy of D&M’s forty year publishing record, and for Canada.”
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