SYDNEY — After publishing 50 books since 2012, Douglas Arthur Brown of Boularderie Island Press knows the business but he’s also a realist.
“It’s a complicated business,” Brown laughs. “And it changes every six months.”
Brown has seven of his own books to his credit including “Quintet,” the recipient of the 2009 Thomas Head Raddall Fiction Prize which was also short-listed for the Dartmouth Book Award. Another work, “The Magic Compass,” a children’s Christmas advent book, is part of The Atlantic Collection, a project by the Nova Scotia Department of Education that placed the book in every elementary school in Nova Scotia.
He got into publishing because he was interested in seeing if he could do a better job in putting out books than the companies he had worked with in the past.
“Personally, I had been reflecting on my own experiences dealing with publishers and realized that there are some books that I felt that I could have done better myself so one of the first things we did was we offered what’s called hybrid publishing of some of our titles,” he says. “The writer pays a certain amount and then the publisher pays a certain amount and then together we share sales. We did that initially and based on the success of that we moved into what is considered traditional trade publishing where we would actually commission a book and pay them an advance against royalties so it’s a combination of two things that we’ve done.”
With more mid-level authors choosing to co-publish, Brown found himself in a position that allowed him to help others reach their goals while running a successful business.
“The momentum started to build about three years ago and books were selling and I figured as long as books were selling, I’d continue. Of course, nobody expected COVID-19 this year and so two of those five books were actually scheduled to be published in the spring but because of COVID-19, the printers in Quebec were closed - everybody was closed. So, I was faced with preparing for five books for publication all at the same time and that brought us up to a total of 50.”
Even with COVID-19 problems, Brown is feeling confident about the industry’s future.
‘I think that we got in at the right time. I realize that changes were afoot and so basically that’s why I started the business. Plus, we could offer something that other publishers weren’t able to offer which is all of our editors. They have all been with us since we opened our doors and they themselves are professionally published writers. So, when they’re editing an author, they know what that author is up against. So, they’re not simply somebody who has an M.A. in English or whatever - they have an affinity with the delicate nature of bringing a book to fruition and that has worked really well for our writers.”
With 50 books now published, Brown doesn’t discount the possibility of 50 more.
“When you are a writer and if you are a publisher, there’s no expiration date. There’s no retirement so as long as I continue loving what I do, which I do because I love working with fellow writers, I can see myself doing this for another 10 years - absolutely.”
However, his own last book, “The Island Hoppers,” was published in 2015. He plans on writing other books although it may be some time yet before anything gets published.
“It has been on hold but I am working on a new manuscript when I find time but time is precious,” he admits. “And I am a slow writer so it usually takes me about five years to finish a new book so I am hoping in the next three years I will have something.
“I have to keep my hand in it in that sense to fulfil my own creative needs.”
Elizabeth Patterson is the culture reporter at the Cape Breton Post.
