PUBLISHING IN A PANDEMIC
Smaller literary presses are in a tight bind
What’s a book launch with no book launch?
Or with no books? What’s a book launch if everybody is focused on something completely different — like, say, COVID -19?
The pandemic brought cultural production to an almost complete standstill. Montreal’s anglo publishers are hanging in as best they can.
“What it boils down to is that it’s really, really hard to sell books, and to let people who would be interested in those books even know there’s such a book,” said Linda Leith, of Linda Leith Publishing.
Among the challenges facing Quebec publishers: distributors, printers and bookstores were closed for varying lengths of time over the past three months (some bookstores still are); and events such as book launches and the all-important Blue Metropolis festival — which Leith founded in the late ’90s — have been cancelled.
“On top of that, there’s hardly anywhere you can get a book reviewed,” Leith said. “So all in all, it’s a tough slog right now.”
Leith had four English books and one in French released this spring (all currently offered halfprice on her website). All of them fell into a void.
Several events were planned for Quebec City journalist and author Raquel Fletcher’s Who Belongs in Quebec? Identity Politics in a Changing Society, looking at the treatment of Muslims in the province. None of
those took place, and sales have suffered as a result.
“It’s really hard to replace the launch period,” Leith said. “That’s when it’s exciting, a book is new and authors are happy to see it, show it to everybody, read from it and talk about it.”
She has more titles lined up for fall and next spring, which are all up in the air alongside a glut of releases by other publishers. There’s a real risk of fall books getting caught in a logjam as publishing houses try to push out releases before the end of the year, prompting the question of whether it might be better to put everything on hold indefinitely.
“We don’t want to launch more books into limbo if we can wait a couple of months to find a better
moment,” Leith said.
“I must say, it’s worrying from a financial point of view. Smaller literary presses like us are very vulnerable.”
Part of the problem is the financial burden placed on publishers, who must pay printing costs themselves and are responsible for unsold books. Bookstores can return unsold items, and have been doing so since the onset of the pandemic.
“It’s a huge financial loss for (publishers),” said Anna Leventhal, executive director of the Association of English-language Publishers of Quebec, who sees more trouble on the horizon.
“Even (with) physical bookstores (reopening), there’s going to be nowhere near the numbers of people shopping as before,” she said.
“And even if all the bookstores ... were packed full of people, things like readings, events and conferences — which garner important sales and visibility for authors — are not happening now, and that will continue to impact the industry down the line.”
Leventhal is heartened by “the book love out there” from readers who continue to support the industry in whatever way they can. She also points to independent bookstores such as Drawn & Quarterly, in Mile End, which offers curbside pickup and has teamed up with a bicycle delivery service to get books to Montrealers promptly and at a reasonable cost.
“It’s not that people don’t care about books now,” she said. “They care as much or more. It’s just that the distribution chain has several links that were already rusty and now are broken.”
Metonymy Press could be considered lucky, in that it had no releases scheduled for spring. But it has still seen important engagements for its authors cancelled, and is facing uncertainty regarding its busy list of releases for the fall and new year.
The publisher’s mandate is to “reduce barriers ... for authors whose perspectives are underrepresented,” in order to produce content relevant to “queer, feminist and social justice communities.”
Author Kama La Mackerel had several events planned leading up to the release of their book of poetry Zom-fam in the fall. An April performance at the MAI was cancelled, and an August tour of Canada, with stops in the U.S., is now in question.
What it boils down to is that it’s really, really hard to sell books, and to let people ... even know there’s such a book.
“We had a Zoom meeting yesterday to try to brainstorm what our potential virtual book launch might look like,” said Metonymy co-founder Ashley Fortier, who runs the company with high school friend Oliver Fugler.
Metonymy was hit by a record number of returns from bookstores in March, but has been encouraged by increased sales on its website, and being eligible for financial relief from the Canada Council for the Arts.
A poetry reading by La Mackerel, Powetik and Shanice Nicole planned at feminist book store L’euguélionne was moved online, June 18, in an effort to maintain real-time connections with readers. Books, after all, are more than just words on a page.
“Audiences are a pivotal part of how to engage with a work, particularly with small-scale stuff produced by artists at the margins,” Fortier said. “It’s really important for those people not to be pushed aside during a crisis like this.”
Simon Dardick has seen all kinds of ups and downs in the 47 years of Véhicule Press. Based out of the Roy St. home he shares with life and business partner Nancy Marrelli, the company has weathered every storm. He hopes that resilience will carry it through this one.
“Our way of responding to the situation was to use social media a lot,” Dardick said, “and to offer specially priced book bundles.”
Packages such as Véhicule’s Women Writers Bundle and National Poetry Month Bundle have helped prod people to buy a few books at a time, with discounts of up to 40 per cent.
“There’s been an incredible uptick in direct sales, web sales,” Dardick said. “It doesn’t replace bookstore sales, but it’s good for the morale. Our books are getting into the hands of readers, one way or another.”
That said, it hasn’t been easy. Apple S, Dimitri Nasrallah’s translation of Éric Plamondon’s novel inspired by Apple founder Steve Jobs and Silicon Valley, was scheduled to come out in early April but copies arrived only recently. Same goes for Rosalind M. Pepall’s Talking to a Portrait: Tales of an Art Curator.
An event planned for earlier this week at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts around Pepall’s book was cancelled, and may eventually take place online.
Véhicule has six titles due in the fall, including History Through Our Eyes, a collection of Montreal Gazette photographs from the past century, curated by Gazette editor-in-chief Lucinda Chodan and editorial page editor Edie Austin. Dardick hopes those books will get the attention they deserve.
“I have moments of depression,” he said, “but basically we’re trying to be optimistic. We’re working with good writers and just feeling good about that, and saying to ourselves, ‘We’ll work things out down the road.’”
I have moments of depression, but basically we’re trying to be optimistic . ... and saying to ourselves, ‘We’ll work things out down the road.’