Recently, critic Steven Beattie reviewed a mystery novel that was written in the form of a screenplay (for a documentary being made about a murder) and accompanying emails / text messages. This is kind of stylistic experimentation that could be dismissed as nothing more than an updating of the epistolary novel, or as something new and daringly contemporary. Whether this debate happens remains to be seen, but I’d like to frame a discussion in terms that are rarely employed, the first being the specifics of literary production in Canada (Steven and I are both Canadian), and second a generalized attitude toward novel production in international publishing — that is, those novels which receive international acclaim and distribution.
Canadian novel production is considered almost exclusively the result of Canadian / québécois owned publishing houses. This perception seems logical enough on its surface, since, after all, who will publish books but book publishers? However, what outsiders to the scene tend not to recognize (and insiders are not eager to acknowledge) is Canadian books are remarkably unpopular among Canadian book buyers; the book and magazine industry used to have 25% of the Canadian market — it now has 5% … a decline that’s led some to claim Canadian publishing is « dead ». That characterization is clearly unfair ; Canadian publishing produces approximately 20,000 new titles a year. But its market share remains embarrassingly low, especially when compared to other countries. One publishing insider described the performance of the Canadian industry as being « the worst in the literate world ».
What, then, is to be done? How can Canadian books gain more of the share of the book market in their own territory?
(To be continued)
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