Indigo president resigns as profits fall in third quarter

After less than a year in the role, Tedford G. Marlow has resigned as president of Indigo Books & Music and resumed a senior position with U.S.-based retailer Urban Outfitters, where he has been named CEO.

The move, reported by U.S. business media last week, was confirmed by Indigo in its third-quarter results, which saw revenues increase slightly for the period ending Dec. 31 (to $353 million) and profits decline (to $24 million, down from $27 million for the same period in 2010). Marlow assumed the role of Indigo president in April, replacing Joel Silver, who now leads Trilogy Growth, an investment firm affiliated with Indigo’s majority shareholder, Trilogy Retail Enterprises.

Marlow’s tenure at Indigo was brief but controversial, at least among members of the book trade. Under his stewardship the retailer introduced a new line of lifestyle products that competed with books for floor space. Behind the scenes, Indigo imposed new terms that many publishers have struggled with, including a 4 per cent co-op surcharge on all books sold through the chain and a shorter turnaround time for returns.

Marlow also oversaw the sale of Indigo’s ebook division, Kobo, to Japanese software firm Rakuten, a deal that netted Indigo $146 million (U.S.) when it closed last month.

In its Q3 report, Indigo reported double digit increases in its gift, lifestyle, and toy lines, as well as marginal revenue increases at its Chapters and Indigo superstores (up 1.8 per cent) and its small-format IndigoSpirit and Coles locations (2.5 per cent). Online sales increased by 9.3 per cent compared to last year.

Indigo CEO Heather Reisman attributed reduced profits to “lower gross margins as a result of increased promotional discounts to drive print sales and increased sales of low margin e-readers.”

She added in a press release: “This margin impact has not yet been offset by expected growth in the gift, lifestyle, and toy businesses. The Company also recorded a $4.0 million non-cash asset impairment charge during the quarter. Excluding this charge, net profit increased $0.7 million.”

Kobo deal closes for $315 million (U.S.)

You have to give them credit for their dramatic sense of timing. Nearly two months to the day after news of Kobo’s impending sale to Japanese tech giant Rakuten became a buzz topic for publishing insiders at the Scotiabank Giller Prize gala, the Toronto-based e-reading company (formerly owned by Indigo) has announced the successful completion of the deal. The news comes a day after another foreign takeover of a Canadian book business, raising questions about whether there remains any willingness in Ottawa to enforce cultural policies meant to limit such transactions.

According to a press release sent out by Kobo Wednesday afternoon, Rakuten successfully acquired all outstanding Kobo shares for $315 million (U.S.). The deal was “completed following customary closing conditions, including approval under the Investment Canada Act.” The release also notes that Kobo’s management team will remain in place and continue to be headquartered in Toronto.

“The acquisition by Rakuten, one of the world’s leading Internet service and e-commerce companies, provides Kobo with a strong growth opportunity to expand its footprint into new and expanding markets,” the press release notes.

“While the transformation to digital reading is well underway, it is still in its infancy,” Kobo CEO Michael Serbinis is quoted as saying. “As a part of Rakuten, we will accelerate our growth internationally, bringing new products, a leading eReading experience and a world class catalogue to passionate readers everywhere.”

McClelland & Stewart acquisition by the numbers

Here are some key figures from Q&Q’s latest story on the acquisition of McClelland & Stewart by Random House of Canada:

100%
The share of McClelland & Stewart now owned by Random House of Canada

$0
The amount the University of Toronto received for transferring its majority share of M&S to Random House of Canada, according to a university spokesperson

$6 million
The total amount of federal grants received by M&S and its children’s publishing division, Tundra Books, from the Canada Council for the Arts (from 2000–10) and the Department of Canadian Heritage (from 2006–10)

$0
The total amount of federal grants M&S is now eligible to receive

You can read the entirety of the story here.

Random House of Canada acquires sole ownership of M&S

One of Canada’s most beloved and respected publishing houses, McClelland & Stewart, has been acquired by its part-owner, Random House of Canada.

M&S had been a wholly Canadian-owned company from its inception in 1906 until 2000, when chairman and owner Avie Bennett donated 75 per cent of the company to the University of Toronto and sold the remaining 25 per cent to Random House of Canada. Until today, M&S had technically operated as a separate and independent entity.

A press release from Random House of Canada notes the sale has cleared regulatory hurdles, which are meant to ensure that transactions involving cultural businesses are of net benefit to Canadians. “We are pleased to note that the needed regulatory approval has been obtained from the responsible authority,” the release states.

The press release also notes that Doug Pepper, who joined M&S in 2004, will continue in his role as president and publisher, and join the executive committee of Random House of Canada Ltd. Ellen Seligman, M&S’s executive vice-president and publisher of fiction, will also continue in her role.

Tundra Books, M&S’s children’s imprint, will become the Canadian children’s publishing program within Random House of Canada, headed by managing director Alison Morgan and editorial director Tara Walker. Doubleday Canada will continue its YA publishing program, the press release notes.

Random House of Canada president and CEO Brad Martin is quoted as saying: “Avie Bennett’s devotion to McClelland & Stewart has been a gift to Canadian authors and readers. His contributions to Canadian publishing and to our literary heritage are unparalleled. I thank Avie and also the University of Toronto for their stewardship and commitment to M&S. McClelland & Stewart is one of the world’s great publishers, and we are committed to making it even greater.”

Keep watching Q&Q for more coverage.

Gill, Westoll among Charles Taylor Prize nominees

Just as a pair of novels came to dominate the past fall’s literary awards season, so too has a pair of non-fiction titles, about tree-planting in the Pacific Northwest and a group of chimps living out their days in a Quebec animal sanctuary, emerged as the books to beat.

Eating Dirt: Deep Forests, Big Timber, and Life with the Tree-Planting Tribe (Greystone Books) by Charlotte Gill  and The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary: A Canadian Story of Resilience and Recovery (HarperCollins Canada) by Andrew Westoll (both of which were named Q&Q books of the year for 2011) led the nominations for the 2012 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-fiction, the shortlist for which was announced in Toronto Tuesday morning. Both titles are also on the shortlist for the $40,000 B.C. National Award for Canadian Non-fiction, which was unveiled last month.

The complete shortlist, as chosen by jurors Allan M. Brandt, Stevie Cameron, and Susan Renouf, is as follows:

• Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest by Wade Davis (Knopf Canada)
• Eating Dirt: Deep Forests, Big Timber, and Life with the Tree-Planting Tribe by Charlotte Gill (Greystone Books)
• The Measure of a Man: The Story of a Father, a Son, and a Suit by J.J. Lee (McClelland & Stewart)
• Afflictions and Departures by Madeline Sonik (Anvil Press)
• The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary: A Canadian Story of Resilience and Recovery by Andrew Westoll (HarperCollins Canada)

The winner of the $25,000 Charles Taylor Prize will be announced at a gala luncheon in Toronto on March 5.

Looking to secure online future, Joyland turns to print

What does an acclaimed online literary magazine do when in need of funds? If you’re Joyland, the short fiction “hub” founded by Emily Schultz and Brian Joseph Davis, one answer is to embrace a cutting-edge technology: the printed page. For the first time, a selection of stories published on Joyland’s website will appear in a print anthology delivered to your door for $10.95.

The first issue of the biannual Joyland Retro includes stories by Canadians Nathan Sellyn (Indigenous Beasts), Zoe Whittall (Holding Still for as Long as Possible), and Andrew Hood (Pardon Our Monsters), as well as authors Roxane Gay, Kevin Wilson, Ricco Siasoco, James Greer, Jim Hanas, Ben Loory, Erica Lorraine, Scott McClanahan, and Margaret Wappler. According to Joyland, all proceeds from the anthology will go to supporting its website and authors.

The anthology is a complement to Joyland’s line of ebooks, produced in partnership with ECW Press. It can be ordered direct or via Amazon.

Josef Skvorecky, author of The Engineer of Human Souls, dies at 87

The dissident writer and publisher Josef Skvorecky, author of 1984′s Governor General’s Literary Award–winning novel The Engineer of Human Souls, has died at the age of 87, according to media reports.

Skvorecky came to Canada in 1968 following the Soviet invasion of his homeland, Czechoslovakia. With his wife Zdena Salivarova he founded 68 Publishers, which provided a home for dissident writers including Vaclav Havel and Milan Kundera.

Skvorecky is also the author of The Cowards, The Swell Season, and Dvorak in Love. He is survived by his wife.

Charles Taylor Prize reveals first ever longlist

Since it was launched in 2000, the Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-fiction has traditionally been among the first major literary prizes celebrated in the new year.

Now, for the first time, organizers have revealed a longlist of titles under consideration, citing both “the large number of publishers’ submissions that are received each year” and “the opportunity to promote the best of these books in the all-important Christmas bookselling season.”

Selected from 115 submissions by a jury comprising Allan M. Brandt, Stevie Cameron, and Susan Renouf, the inaugural Charles Taylor Prize longlist is as follows:

• Something Fierce: Memoirs of a Revolutionary Daughter by Carmen Aguirre (Douglas & McIntyre)

• Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest by Wade Davis (Knopf Canada)

• The Patrol: Seven Days in the Life of a Canadian Soldier in Afghanistan by Ryan Flavelle (HarperCollins Canada)

• Eating Dirt: Deep Forests, Big Timber, and Life with the Tree-Planting Tribe by Charlotte Gill (Greystone Books)

• Nation Maker: Sir John A. MacDonald: His Life, Our Times Volume Two: 1867–1891 by Richard Gwyn (Random House Canada)

• The Measure of a Man: The Story of a Father, a Son, and a Suit by J. J. Lee (McClelland & Stewart)

• Facing the Hunter: Reflections on a Misunderstood Way of Life by David Adams Richards (Doubleday Canada)

• Why Not? Fifteen Reasons to Live by Ray Robertson (Biblioasis)

• Afflictions and Departures by Madeline Sonik (Anvil Press)

• The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary: A Canadian Story of Resilience and Recovery by Andrew Westoll (HarperCollins Canada)

• Bad Animals: A Father’s Accidental Education in Autism by Joel Yanofsky (Viking Canada)

For those keeping count, D&M Publishers, Random House of Canada, and HarperCollins Canada all have multiple nominations. Six of the 11 longlisted titles also appeared on the longlist for the B.C. National Award for Canadian Non-fiction, which announced its shortlist last week.

The Charles Taylor Prize shortlist will be revealed Jan. 10, with the winner, who receives $25,000, being announced March 5.

Canada Reads announces non-fiction nominees

The first ever non-fiction edition of CBC Canada Reads features five titles that chronicle everything from a cross-Canada musical tour, a woman’s harrowing experience in an Iranian prison, the hunt for a Siberian tiger, a coming-of-age story steeped in South American radical politics, and Canada’s national pastime, hockey.

Three of five nominees are titles published in the past five years; the most recently published title is Carmen Aguirre’s Something Fierce (Douglas & McIntyre), a Q&Q 2011 book of the year.

The finalists, with their celebrity defenders, are as follows.

• Prisoner of Tehran by Marina Nemat (Penguin Canada), defended by Arlene Dickinson
• Something Fierce by Carmen Aguirre (Douglas & McIntyre), defended by Shad
• The Tiger by John Vaillant (Vintage Canada), defended by Anne-France Goldwater
• On a Cold Road by Dave Bidini (McClelland & Stewart), defended by Stacey McKenzie
• The Game by Ken Dryden (Wiley Canada), defended by Alan Thicke

Foran, deWitt add GGs to literary accolades

Two of the most high-profile winners of the 2011 Governor General’s Literary Awards have already won major literary prizes this season.

Charles Foran won the non-fiction prize for Mordecai: The Life & Times (Knopf Canada), which last month won the inaugural Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for non-fiction and, earlier this year, the Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-fiction. In total, Foran has earned $130,000 in prize winnings for his biography of the late Montreal author (and two-time GG winner for fiction). Foran is also in the running for the $40,000 B.C. National Award for Non-fiction, which will be handed out in 2012.

This year’s fiction winner is Patrick deWitt, whose comic Western, The Sisters Brothers (House of Anansi Press), also won the $25,000 Rogers Writers’ Trust Prize for Fiction.

In children’s literature, veteran author Christopher Moore won the text category for his non-fiction book From Then to Now: A Short History of the World (Tundra Books), and the prize for illustration went to Cybèle Young for her picture book Ten Birds (Kids Can Press).

Despite the mild controversy surrounding this year’s poetry shortlist, the prize went to Phil Hall’s Killdeer, one of three titles from alternative Toronto publisher BookThug. The drama prize went to Erin Shields for If We Were Birds (Playwrights Canada Press).

The French-to-English translation prize went to Donald Winkler for Partita for Glenn Gould (McGill-Queen’s University Press), by historian Georges Leroux, who won this year’s French-language non-fiction prize.

Each winner received $25,000 from the Canada Council of the Arts. Now in their 75th year, the awards were announced Tuesday morning in Toronto.

Keep watching Q&Q for more coverage.