A BRIEF TREATISE ON BOOK SELLING IN CANADA
Marc Côté makes the case for subsidizing the link between publishers and readers.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated existing problems in the entire retail bookstore sector to a crisis point, evidenced most recently by the announcement on June 23 of Indigo’s seismic losses on its fiscal year. This crisis has serious implications for Canadian cultural life. Without active and prosperous booksellers, the country’s readers will have difficulties discovering Canadian authored and published books.
Why does it matter that Canadian authors and publishers have thriving booksellers to reach the widest possible readership? It matters because Canadians want to read books by other Canadians, written for them, written about them. The non-fiction bestseller list of the last three weeks demonstrates this point, as the books addressing issues of racism in Canada occupy the top three positions. And Canadians still shop for their books in bricks-and-mortar stores, Canadian-owned stores — local independents, the shops in malls, or the superstores of Indigo.
Indigo’s announcement of losses raises the question: How does this important link connecting authors to readers fit into Canadian cultural policy? The answer, unfortunately, is that historically bookstores have been largely ignored by political parties when in power. In fact, cultural policy has been focused on production, with distribution a lesser priority, and the acquisition of books by the public not even on the table.
The basis of Canadian publishing policy has been Canadian authorship and Canadian ownership, because all those shaping public policy understand the necessity for homegrown literature.
Canadian-owned publishers are subsidized because the Canadian marketplace is dominated by foreign-published books. The More Canada Report revealed that Canadian books had lost 50 per cent of their market share from 1995 to 2015. With shrinking market presence come shrinking book sales and revenues — money that makes possible the discovery and nurturing of literary talents known throughout our country and abroad, including Michael Ondaatje, Margaret Atwood, and Cherie Dimaline. But what is the point of subsidizing production, when the books are not readily available for purchase?
Production without sales is pointless. And it is here that federal and most provincial governments have failed over 50 years of public policy to develop robust policies to ensure a viable link from writer to reader.
By and large, bookselling is not a highly profitable venture. In larger urban settings, where there are sufficient customers to make booksellers successful, the rents eat up any potential for profits. This is particularly true in Vancouver and Toronto, where major bookstores like Duthie Books and Pages have closed their doors. In smaller areas, the population is often insufficient to support the costs experienced by stores, even if they pay lower rents. Cities like Paris recognized several years ago that this was a serious problem — that city set out ways to ensure the continued existence of booksellers within city limits. Property taxes on buildings where bookstores are located were reduced. Some city properties were rented to bookstores at highly favourable rates. In Quebec, bookstores are accredited and a system of regulations makes them profitable. One of the regulations is that all public institutions are required to purchase books from accredited booksellers. To be accredited, a shop must have a minimum shelf space dedicated to books published by Canadian firms and written by Canadian authors.
Compare this with other provinces, where public libraries and school boards order many books from U.S. sources — even books published in Canada. Not only is this an economic problem, it’s an unnecessary assault on the environment, as such books are shipped from a warehouse in Toronto to a warehouse on the west coast of the U.S., then east to Tennessee and, finally, back into Toronto. This is not an abstract case; it really happens. Some library boards order exclusively according to the “hot lists” of U.S. library wholesalers, meaning that many Canadian authored books — and most Canadian published books — are not acquired by that library system.
What kind of a country are we that many of our libraries don’t as a matter of course carry the books we write and produce?
If a library is required to purchase from local stores, it will discover the wealth of Canadian books that should be on their shelves. Because it’s in these stores where Canadian books find their champions, where staff picks are frequently local authors or the nominees or winners of major Canadian prizes. These are the books that bookstore owners and clerks fall in love with and share their enthusiasm.
These are not the books sold by algorithms, impersonal computer programs. These are books sold by people who read them — people who live near to their stores, people who pay taxes in Canada.
While some bookstores may not want to be part of a regulated system that provides certainty of income, it’s likely that the majority of them would. Many, those that are eligible, have taken advantage of the federal government’s emergency assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some don’t meet the eligibility criteria, a situation that should be remedied quickly. Canada can’t afford to lose more bookstores, especially now, because between 1995 and 2015 we lost approximately 2,000 of them. And we certainly can’t afford to lose the largest bookstore, Indigo, which is eligible for only one loan program that charges rates of interest that would lead only to continuing losses. The federal government must step in with assistance now.
Assistance to all booksellers should be based on the philosophical principle underlying cultural policy: Canadian creation. Booksellers should agree to a minimum dedicated shelf and display space for Canadian books. Twenty per cent? Thirty per cent? The government should require Canadian ownership and it should provide financial incentives for booksellers to promote and sell Canadian books. A $2 rebate on every Canadian book sold?
For anyone reading this opinion piece who balks at the idea of government funding of commercial or industrial enterprises, it’s worth noting that in Canada the oil and gas industries are heavily subsidized. Other industries — including major-league sports — are also subsidized, as municipal and provincial governments build the arenas and stadiums for their use. Why should booksellers not benefit from enlightened government largesse?
But the case for the funding of bookstores doesn’t rely only on economic arguments. Bookstores are important as they often anchor neighbourhoods, providing necessary resources and expertise — think of the children’s bookstores, of which there are too few, and the place they occupy not just on the street, but in the imaginations and memories of their customers.
Bookstores are important, because they sell the cultural objects that feed and shape our souls; books and the stories they contain make us more human, they improve our ability to empathize, and empathy is the glue that holds societies together.
Canadian-owned publishers are subsidized because the Canadian marketplace is dominated by foreign-published books …
But what is the point of subsidizing production, when the books are not readily available for purchase? Marc Côté