Yes, the carelessness and contempt implicit when prominent politicians select U.S. branch publishers has infuriated me for years. I felt it reached a peak when Jagmeet Singh chose Simon & Schuster for his "Love & Courage: My Story of Family, Resilience, and Overcoming the Unexpected" published in 2019. I wrote to him at the time:
"I was pleased to see your new book today when I visited Chapters Indigo.
"I was VERY disappointed to see that you chose as a publisher Simon & Schuster, 100% U.S.-owned, and a subsidiary [at that time] of CBS Corporation.
"As if that was not bad enough, they choose also to print the books they publish in Canada with printers in the United States, when we have many fine and reasonably-priced Canadian book printers.
"Surely a Canadian publishing company, particularly a BC-based publisher, would have been a far better choice for your work."
And with all the best of intentions, here we are, writing on Substack which is headquartered and controlled in San Francisco. To its credit, Substack rebuffed a purchase/takeover offer from Elon Musk, yay, and partnered with Spotify which was founded in Sweden but trades on the NY stock exchange. We are so linked, not only to the US, but also globally!
So where does the CC, Provincial, Society and Arts Councils grants fit into all this? What percentage of the Cdn book trade do they fund?
Maybe Trumpsterism is a blessing though we might have to think for ourselves? If that is even possible? Or is it just Liberal thought-washing, a bit of election breast beating?
Don't even get me started brother. There is no economic or cultural reason to tolerate postnational corporations in sectors with a glut of domestic Canadian capacity.
If we're meant to take the supposed threat of the American bogeyman seriously, then let's begin with low-hanging fruit like books. There are hundreds of Canadian owned firms that could replace the output of the postnational corporate publishing entities. Nobody would notice if they were kicked out tomorrow. Overnight, it would remove the "need" for millions currently spent on incoherent and ineffective publishing subsidies. It's one of the most obvious moves to play for a government interested in decoupling what can be decoupled from the US without risking serious material harm. Nobody ever died directly from lack of book. Whereas I don't want them screwing with food in this way...
I suspect that the Carney Liberals are just cynically using Trump's erratic nature as an excuse to dole out favours to their warmongering, postnational corporate friends. So far that's what I'm seeing. Using the fear of Trump to justify what Canadians would otherwise find unjustifiable.
Elbows Up is a tawdry, nationalist façade covering over what amounts to the Liberals doubling down on neoliberalism while somehow finding limitless funds for militarism and state surveillance/security. Carney certainly isn't acting like the US is a threat, so we shouldn't be buying into the fake nationalism of liberal elites.
Problem is that authors can't live on what Canadian readers and publishers will pay them. Many good non-fiction authors are bowwing out, leaving the field to hacks, hobbyists and academics.
There are other policy levers that could be pulled to address author compensation. That's probably the easiest piece to solve if we had a coherent industrial policy beyond "Let postnational corporate behemoths direct everything".
Yes, the carelessness and contempt implicit when prominent politicians select U.S. branch publishers has infuriated me for years. I felt it reached a peak when Jagmeet Singh chose Simon & Schuster for his "Love & Courage: My Story of Family, Resilience, and Overcoming the Unexpected" published in 2019. I wrote to him at the time:
"I was pleased to see your new book today when I visited Chapters Indigo.
"I was VERY disappointed to see that you chose as a publisher Simon & Schuster, 100% U.S.-owned, and a subsidiary [at that time] of CBS Corporation.
"As if that was not bad enough, they choose also to print the books they publish in Canada with printers in the United States, when we have many fine and reasonably-priced Canadian book printers.
"Surely a Canadian publishing company, particularly a BC-based publisher, would have been a far better choice for your work."
Unsurprisingly, I received no response.
Classic NDP. 😆
And with all the best of intentions, here we are, writing on Substack which is headquartered and controlled in San Francisco. To its credit, Substack rebuffed a purchase/takeover offer from Elon Musk, yay, and partnered with Spotify which was founded in Sweden but trades on the NY stock exchange. We are so linked, not only to the US, but also globally!
So where does the CC, Provincial, Society and Arts Councils grants fit into all this? What percentage of the Cdn book trade do they fund?
Maybe Trumpsterism is a blessing though we might have to think for ourselves? If that is even possible? Or is it just Liberal thought-washing, a bit of election breast beating?
Good article!
Oh boy. The shameless hypocrisy never ends.
Don't even get me started brother. There is no economic or cultural reason to tolerate postnational corporations in sectors with a glut of domestic Canadian capacity.
If we're meant to take the supposed threat of the American bogeyman seriously, then let's begin with low-hanging fruit like books. There are hundreds of Canadian owned firms that could replace the output of the postnational corporate publishing entities. Nobody would notice if they were kicked out tomorrow. Overnight, it would remove the "need" for millions currently spent on incoherent and ineffective publishing subsidies. It's one of the most obvious moves to play for a government interested in decoupling what can be decoupled from the US without risking serious material harm. Nobody ever died directly from lack of book. Whereas I don't want them screwing with food in this way...
I suspect that the Carney Liberals are just cynically using Trump's erratic nature as an excuse to dole out favours to their warmongering, postnational corporate friends. So far that's what I'm seeing. Using the fear of Trump to justify what Canadians would otherwise find unjustifiable.
Elbows Up is a tawdry, nationalist façade covering over what amounts to the Liberals doubling down on neoliberalism while somehow finding limitless funds for militarism and state surveillance/security. Carney certainly isn't acting like the US is a threat, so we shouldn't be buying into the fake nationalism of liberal elites.
Problem is that authors can't live on what Canadian readers and publishers will pay them. Many good non-fiction authors are bowwing out, leaving the field to hacks, hobbyists and academics.
There are other policy levers that could be pulled to address author compensation. That's probably the easiest piece to solve if we had a coherent industrial policy beyond "Let postnational corporate behemoths direct everything".
I agree. Right now, our book landscape is starting to look like our domestic movie industry. Yes, we have one. And no one cares.
Another stinger! Bravo sir
This should be the topic of the first question the next time any reporter gets near to Carney
I doubt much from "Elbows Up" will flow back to Manhattan but you make a good point.
"Click this link to make the above map come alive."
Page not found (error 404) Wow. Impressive.
Thanks for noting!