Raincoast casts off sheep’s clothing

13 comments on “Raincoast casts off sheep’s clothing”

1. anan says:
   January 8th, 2008 at 12:56 pm

   “raised a mighty redwood of a middle finger to Canadian letters.”
   Harsh.

2. Monica says:
   January 8th, 2008 at 2:19 pm

   harsh, perhaps. But terribly appropriate.

3. Susan says:
   January 8th, 2008 at 2:24 pm

   Explain to me again why small publishers can “afford” to publish new Canadian fiction but multi-millionaires can’t???

4. ed says:
   January 8th, 2008 at 2:31 pm

   These people have no class, let them take their Potter money and fly to fuck with it.

5. Remi says:
   January 8th, 2008 at 3:02 pm

   I love how the director of the Assn. of Canadian Book Publishers would rather peddle the same sob story about how hard it is to publish books in Canada instead of showing some backbone and criticising Raincoast for their take the money and run attitude.

   Of course, they are only continuing to publish Harry Potter out of concern for the children. It almost brings a tear to my eye.

6. anan says:
   January 8th, 2008 at 4:06 pm

   What’s so weird to me, is the undercurrent of glee in the comments here, and at the Globe.
   “Oh that’s so sad for the arts (take that millionaire assholes!).” “The arts in Canada have suffered a blow (but I’m so glad the blow came down on these guys particularly).” Many Canadian businesses rely on goods imported from elsewhere, so it’s not just about Harry’s Britness, is it? Random’s list isn’t 100% CanCon; do we cheer for their downfall? Do the commenters only buy Anansi and Coach House when book shopping? What’s made people so pissy at Raincoast in the first place? That’s a genuine question.

7. Susan says:
   January 8th, 2008 at 4:17 pm

   What “downfall”? Raincoast simply made a decision to shut down the publishing part of their program because it was insufficiently profitable. They are still staying in business to rake in distribution dollars.

   I don’t think you understand the situation.A publisher who actually cared about literature would subsidize its publishing program with the megabucks garnered from Harry Potter. That’s why everyone is pissed off.

8. anan says:
   January 8th, 2008 at 4:40 pm

   Susan,
   Yes, you’re right, “downfall” was a bit histronic.
   I think though, Raincoast is a distribution outfit with a publishing program, not a publisher (though they did indeed make most of their money from publishing one author). Which authors/books did you read from the Raincoast imprint?

9. anan says:
   January 8th, 2008 at 4:43 pm

   Ha! I just reread my comment. I never said “downfall” in reference to Raincoast. I used it as a hypothetical in a different context.

   Also, no one “rakes in” money in distribution.

10. Ingrid says:
    January 8th, 2008 at 5:10 pm

    Note how Harry Potter is noted as not being part of their publishing program… what other publisher separates out one book or series from their program rather than allowing a bestseller to carry other books? Harry is an anomaly, but does Scholastic or Bloomsbury do the same thing? Its a distributor mentality, not a publishing mentality.

11. Rob in Victoria says:
    January 9th, 2008 at 11:46 am

    It’s not even a distributor mentality — it’s a “make the most money for the investors” mentality. You’re right – in any normal publishing house, the Rowling money would have subsidized a homegrown publishing program. Not the case at Raincoast, which, yes, I think is where much of the ire comes from.

12. James says:
    January 9th, 2008 at 9:18 pm

    Thank god, more people join the Vancouver unemployment pool… a few less competitors for real estate around here. Maybe my rent won’t go up so much in 2008.

13. book goddess says:
    April 4th, 2008 at 5:16 pm

    As a matter of interest and update on Raincoast-it’s looking kind of shaky for continued operations even as a distributor, from a recent conversation I had with their credit department. Watch this space.

Discuss