Iconic Sask. publisher closes shop as it faces bankruptcy

REGINA Faced with bankruptcy, Coteau Books has let go of all its staff and halted operations in a decision that the former board president said the company did everything it could to avoid.

“We had reached a point where our liabilities were larger than our assets,” said Joanne Skidmore, former president of the board of directors for Thunder Creek Publishing Co-operative, which was operating as Coteau Books.

“We tried a number of things and had plans for other ways to raise more money, but we had gotten to the point where we could not carry on ... We decided that we had to shut down.”

The longtime Saskatchewan publisher is now entering into bankruptcy protection. Its four staff members were laid off on Feb. 7.

Coteau Books was founded in 1975 by Moose Jaw authors Bob Currie, Barbara Sapergia, Geoffrey Ursell and Gary Hyland. When the company first began, the publishing industry was very “Toronto-centric,” said Skidmore, and authors outside of the city found it difficult to get their works published.

Over the next 45 years, Coteau Books published more than 500 titles — including poetry, fiction, drama, non-fiction and young adult literature — by Saskatchewan authors. Some of the notable authors it has helped foster are Sharon Butala, Lois Simmie, Dianne Warren and Connie Gault.

But right from day one Skidmore said the company has felt the financial pressure. While the decades have been full of ups and downs depending on book sales and the amount of grant money received, the industry has always been a challenging one.

She particularly noted the difficulty of getting their books into stores with the dwindling number of local, independent sellers and the rise of national bookstore chains. Coteau Books also struggled to transition toward electronic publishing on top of paper publishing — a struggle Skidmore said publishing houses across the country have been experiencing.

Skidmore said it has been “extremely difficult” to watch Coteau Books head toward bankruptcy. She said the former board of directors did everything it could to save the company before accepting it could not continue.

“These problems are complex,” she said. “We deeply regret having had to come to this point, but we tried everything we could and it didn’t work.”

With very few literary presses left in the province, Skidmore said Coteau Books’ closure will leave a hole for local creative writers. While she is optimistic authors will continue to find ways to have their works published, Skidmore said nothing can replace a local publishing house promoting local writers.

“To have a publisher that’s located right in the province and publishes people from here and yet distributes their work around the world, that’s very special. And that will be lost,” she said.

“It really hurts to have something that has been a part of the cultural fabric of the province for 45 years need to shut down.”

An insolvency trustee has now taken charge and will determine what should happen with the remaining books and the office to officially shut down operations.