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217 Miles From MoTown
The book publishing industry is arguably one of the most avidly
studied sectors of the Canadian economy. I call your attention, for
example, to a book entitled The Perilous Trade: Publishing Canada's Writers
-- a 450 page study written by Roy MacSkimming in 2003 in which the
author suggests, on page 260, that the Porcupine's Quill may well be
Canada's pre-eminent small press, which is very probably not true.
But it was nice of Roy to say that.
`Reading
Canadian: Youth, Book Publishing and the National Question, 1967-2000'
was a research paper commissioned by Heritage Canada and written by
Robert Wright of Trent University that was subsequently published by
Canadian Scholars' Press as Hip and Trivial: Book Publishing and the Greying of Canadian Nationalism .
Mr
Wright was candid in his approach, in admitting that his background was
actually in the recorded music industry, when he e-mailed me a
questionnaire that asked a lot of questions about book publishing. In
response I asked him to ...
Consider the case of a young(ish)
Canadian literary publisher who, in 1983, invested $5000 of his own
money in the career of a then-unknown poet and followed that up in 1987
with an additional $10,000 investment in that same author's first
collection of stories.
And what if the publisher were prescient? and improbably fortunate against staggering odds?
And what if the unknown poet eventually came to be recognized as one of the most celebrated novelists of her generation?
The poet was Jane Urquhart.
The publisher was me.
Given
the level of risk inherent in a publishing "investment" in an unknown
poet, and given the return on investment one might expect attached to
one of the most "celebrated novelists of her generation", imagine my
dismay when I discovered (in 1999) that my $15,000 investment, after a
dozen years, had depreciated to $8,309 -- the total sale price for an
assignment of contract to Storm Glass, Jane's first collection of stories and The Little Flowers of Madame de Montespan, a small collection of poems, when I sold both of the titles to McClelland and Stewart.
I
do not mean to suggest that the McClelland&Stewart offer was
niggardly, quite the contrary. I have every reason to believe that
Ellen Seligman went a goodly piece out of her way to be as generous as
she could, but still -- a loss of $6691 on an investment of $15,000
after a term of twelve years is not a good return. In any business.
Robert
Wright, in researching his paper `Reading Canadian' once suggested that
he thought the Porcupine's Quill was "kindalike" MoTown Records.
Though
it is true that Jane Urquhart once did sing a duet with tenor Michael
Burgess of the Broadway production `Les Miz' and apparently acquitted
herself surprisingly well, still, I am not persuaded that the author
Jane Urquhart is in any way commercially comparable to the singer Diana
Ross who sold several tens of millions of 45rpm vinyl recordings for
Berry Gordy before she left Tamla-MoTown for RCA.
Berry
Gordy Jr started Tamla-MoTown Records in 1959 with an $800 loan from
his family. In his first year of business a song called (appropriately
enough) `Money (That's What I Want)' by Barrett Strong hit #2 on the
Billboard R&B chart.
`Shop Around' recorded by the
Miracles sold one million copies for Tamla-MoTown in 1960, their second
year of business, and from 1961-1971 Berry Gordy went on to release no
fewer than 110 Top Ten hits.
In 1988 Berry Gordy sold Tamla-MoTown to the Music Corporation of America (MCA) for 61 million dollars.
The
Porcupine's Quill, at 68 Main Street in Erin Village, is still located
exactly 217 miles from Berry Gordy's original Hitsville USA office at
2648 West Grand Boulevard, Detroit, Michigan.
For a
four-and-half minute introduction to the intricacies of offset printing
hosted by Porcupine's Quill publisher Tim Inkster have a look at
YouTube.
Other videos include Four Colour Printing and Smyth Sewing.
The Devil's Artisan, #59
`Though an angel should write,
still 'tis devils must print.'
-- Thomas Moore, 1779-1852, Irish musician and songwriter
The Devil's Artisan (DA) first appeared in 1980 under the editorship of Paul Forage, William Rueter (University of Toronto Press) and Glenn Goluska, latterly of Coach House Press (Toronto) and currently print design consultant to Phyllis Lambert at the Centre for the Study of Architecture in Montreal. The magazine was founded `for the purpose of presenting to Canadian readers information on the craft of printing and bookmaking, on bibliographic and historic matters, and on communicative, sociological, and technical subjects related to printing.'
The focus of the journal has broadened somewhat, over the past twenty-five years, from an early technical interest in the craft of fine printing to its current role as `A Journal of the Printing Arts'. The magazine has, however, remained committed to its constituency — and hence is released in the spring at the Wayzgoose festival of the Book Arts in Grimsby on the Niagara peninsula, and in the fall at the Ontario College of Art & Design Book Arts Show on McCaul Street in Toronto.
The latest issue (Fall 2006) includes a piece by Gaspereau Press publisher Andrew Steeves in which he talks about Rod McDonald's Laurentian typeface, comparing it to Ehrhardt and Stempel Garamond, and interviews the typographer at his home in Lake Echo, Nova Scotia.
Novelist Derek McCormack introduces the wacky world of Ian Phillips and Grant Heaps' Pas de chance, named after a character in Le Livre Blanc by Jean Cocteau, to which DA editor Don McLeod adds a Preliminary checklist of the micropress (1990--2005).
Windsor bookseller Dan Wells (Biblioasis) talks about Caryl Peters' Frog Hollow Press (Victoria, BC) whose editor, Shane Neilson, moonlights as a medical practitioner in Erin Village. Wells also contributes a Checklist of Frog Hollow (2001--2006).
The keepsake laid in was printed letterpress in two colours onto book cloth by Don McLeod with technical support from Stan Bevington at the Coach House Press on bpnichol lane, Toronto, Ontario. The image is after a design by Ian Phillips for a book called Western Suit by Derek McCormack. The cover was printed offset by Tim Inkster at the Porcupine's Quill and features a poster designed by Ian Phillips for the Toronto Small Press Book Fair.
Available by subscription from the Porcupine's Quill, or single copies are also available in Erin Village at Renaissance, 60 Main Street.
A Sheaf of Accolades
The Porcupine's Quill takes great pride in the achievements of our authors.
This past year has seen an abundance of nominations and prizes recognizing
the outstanding quality of writing by many of the authors who choose to publish
with the storied shop on the Main Street in Erin Village.
Alcuin Book Design Award
A Brazilian Alphabet for the Younger Reader
P. K. Page (Honourable Mention -- Children)
Alberta Literary Award
In John Updike's Room
Christopher Wiseman (Winner -- W. O. Mitchell Book Prize)
Danuta Gleed Literary Award
Most Wanted
Vivette Kady (Finalist -- First Short Fiction)
ForeWord Magazine/Book of the Year Award
The Dodecahedron
Paul Glennon (Finalist -- Fiction)
Globe and Mail/The Globe 100
The Dodecahedron, Paul Glennon
Zero Gravity, Sharon English
Governor General's Literary Award
The Dodecahedron
Paul Glennon (Finalist -- English Fiction)
Leipzig Best Book Award
Looking for Snails on a Sunday Afternoon
Rudolf Kurz (Finalist -- Excellence in Book Design in Canada)
Ottawa Book Award
The Dodecahedron
Paul Glennon (Finalist -- Fiction)
Quebec Writers' Federation Award
He Claims He Is the Direct Heir
Lazar Sarna (Finalist -- A. M. Klein Poetry Prize)
The Sound of All Flesh
Barry Webster (Finalist -- Hugh MacLennan Fiction Prize)
Relit Awards
Hot Poppies
Leon Rooke (Winner -- Poetry)
The Sound of All Flesh
Barry Webster (Winner -- Short Fiction)
The Globe Top 100
Paul Glennon and Sharon English both on Globe Top 100
The Dodecahedron, a novel (of sorts) by Paul Glennon and Zero Gravity, a second collection of stories by Sharon English both appeared on the Globe & Mail's annual list of the Top 100 books reviewed in the Globe in 2006.
Both books were printed and published in Erin Village by Tim & Elke Inkster at the Porcupine's Quill, about which critic Philip Marchand has written: `In my sixteen years of reviewing Canadian literature for the Toronto Star, I have found that the Porcupine's Quill has upheld the most consistently high level of excellence in writing and publishing of any of the literary presses in this country. Its output alone would put Canada on a firm international footing in contemporary world literature.'
This is the fifth time in the past five years that the Porcupine's Quill has placed at least two titles on the Globe's prestigious Top 100 list, which is typically populated with books published by foreign multinationals.
Other Porcupine's Quill titles included on the Globe Top 100 in previous years include Always Now (V2) by Margaret Avison, Lines of Truth and Conversation by Joan Alexander, So Beautiful by Ramona Dearing, Emma's Hands by Mary Swan, The Rule of Last Clear Chance by Judith McCormack, A Tourist's Guide to Glengarry by Ian McGillis, Planet Earth by P K Page, Dr Swarthmore by Alexander Scala, When Words Deny the World by Stephen Henighan.
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