Acclaimed Canadian Publisher Downsizes In Attempt To Survive

One of Canada’s acclaimed small presses The Porcupine Quill, says it is radically downsizing in order to survive. The imprint blames book giant Indigo. “The press typically takes in $350,000 a year, $150,000 in sales and the remainder in public support, ‘but sales are dropping like a rock’. He blames the policies and practices of Indigo Books & Music Inc., the nation’s largest bookseller. He says that last year Indigo cut its orders dramatically, ordering only 2,797 units of his press’s 11-book list, which included critical favourites So Beautiful by Ramona Dearing and Emma’s Hands by Mary Swan. Meanwhile, Indigo’s returns of unsold books were 1,415, more than 50 per cent of its order. By comparison, in 1998, Indigo and Chapters (absorbed by Indigo in 2001) ordered 13,293 copies of the press’s books and returned 4,052, or less than 30 per cent.”