Talonbooks:
Publishing from the Margins
The DOC Revises Its Program
Beginning in 1984 the impact of the Canadian Book Publishing
Development Program (CBPDP) was analyzed, and a new program was formulated. The
analysis showed that, while the previous program had to be credited with
"sustaining a number of firms through a difficult economic period, [...] the
undirected nature of much of the funding has meant that the CBPDP has had little
long-term effect" (Masse 1986).
The DOC sought to remedy these shortcomings by introducing a series of industrial
grants aimed at improving "the ability of Canadian publishers to finance
themselves and grow within their own domestic market" (Masse 1986). Where funds
from the previous program had been used by most publishers to supplement Canada
Council (i.e. deficit) funding, the new industrial grants were to be allocated on
a project basis. They had a subtext of (in Karl Siegler's words) "encouraging
people to diversify into what the DOC considers to be more profitable books"
(Siegler 1991), segments of the marketplace which they may have no real interest
or expertise in. One side effect of this diversification was that less time would
be available for small publishers like Talon to devote to the areas which they
were already covering better than other publishers.
Despite these reservations with the new program Talon has diversified on a small
scale into coffee-table format books, beginning in 1988 with the publication of
their award winning book on the Stein River, and later with their 1990 book of
photographs by Leonard Frank . The underlying goal of this diversification
though, was to move Talon's half-time promotion person into a full-time position
in order to be better able to promote a larger list of literary titles.
The market for literary titles, for culturally significant works, has remained
relatively stable over the period of Talonbooks' existence . In recent years
however, Karl has seen Talon's literary competitors "either dropping like flies
or changing their programs and diversifying into non-literary books. [...] If
Anansi isn't doing its eight to ten titles a year, if Malcolm Lester isn't doing
his twelve Canadian titles a year, and if Thistledown and Coteau and Turnstone
and so on are diversifying into children's books, [...] then I'm going to [...]
step in and acquire the literary shelf space that they're vacating" (Siegler
1991).
Talonbooks currently has three full-time staff members: Karl Siegler handles the
editing and the business side, and supervises production; Christy Siegler is the
office manager and looks after order fulfillment; Michael Barnholden is in charge
of advertising, marketing and promotion. Talon currently has production done by
freelancers. Their eventual goal is to acquire the appropriate technology and
bring production back in-house, with a fourth staff member and with financial
assistance from the DOC's industrial grant program.
Karl's plans for the coming few years see Talon expanding their output from the
current ten to eleven titles a year to fifteen to eighteen titles a year. His
commitment to "a literary life" remains as strong as ever. Talonbooks may be
publishing from the margins, but they intend to work to make those margins
bigger.
Talonbooks: Publishing from the Margins. © April, 1991 Michael Hayward
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