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The Bibliophile: Taking chances

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Photo: A stack of freshly-packaged envelopes awaits mailing to booksellers. Next to it, a stack of recent and forthcoming Biblioasis books.

A quick Google search tells me that approximately 2.2 million books are published every year. I don’t know how accurate that number actually is, but it’s something I find myself thinking about a lot more these days. How can anyone ever keep up? How do you decide what book is worth your time and attention?

I started working at Biblioasis last November. It’s my first job in publishing. I’ve never really known what I wanted to do career-wise, but I’ve always liked being surrounded by books and hoped that whatever job I had would include large stacks of books on either side of me. I found the idea comforting as someone whose primary thoughts are about what books I’m currently reading and, more often, have yet to read. When I saw the job posting online, I sent in my application with a feeling that I probably wasn’t going to get it. But, to my surprise, they took a chance and hired me anyway. What I’ve come to admire most about independent presses is their willingness to take chances.

It’s been funny to see how it all works after having been just a reader for so long, who never thought about what goes into publishing a book. It involves a lot of hard work to lay the foundation so that a book has the best shot of finding its readers—and then a startling amount of, what seems to me, just luck that it eventually does. You can’t really predict the success of a book. I can’t yet anyway.

Now as a publicist my goal is to make you aware of our books. It’s a process that involves a lot of reading and rereading our upcoming titles to try and come up with the most interesting way to talk about them. That is the fun part. After that it’s a lot of emailing and sending copies out to reviewers, interviewers, booksellers, influencers, and hoping something resonates with them enough that they take a chance to—out of the millions of books being put out into the world and sent to them—read and recommend this one. This can be less fun because a lot of the time I don’t hear back, and that’s alright, no one can read them all. But it’s surprisingly exhilarating when I do get a response. I felt a genuine rush of excitement the first time seeing our efforts result in a prominent review, or from hearing booksellers enthusiastically champion one of our books. I’m generally not a very expressive person, so this did not show on my face or in my voice at all, but in my head I was doing cartwheels and fireworks were going off.

It can feel endless: the new manuscripts coming in, the reading, the pitching, the following up, the waiting. And it hasn’t even been a full year for me yet. What I’ve really learned these last few months is that every book published is its own miracle and that getting the right books to the right readers, by talking about what our books have meant to me in a way that might convince you to give them a chance, is a high that I’d like to keep chasing.

Ahmed Abdalla
Publicist

In good publicity news:

  • Lazer Lederhendler, translator of The Hollow Beast by Christophe Bernard, was announced the winner of the 2025 French-American Foundation Translation Prize in Fiction.
  • Let Me Go Mad in My Own Way by Elaine Feeney was reviewed in a number of outlets this week:
    • Irish Times: “An ambitious, thoughtful, nicely layered book.”
    • Irish Farmers Journal: “Rich in history and drama, Let Me Go Mad in My Own Way reveals the legacies of violence and redemption as the secrets of the past unfold.”
    • Irish Mail on Sunday: “Feeney’s astute lyricism makes for a marvellously engaging story of a woman on the verge.”
    • Irish Independent: “In presenting both a political and personal history, Feeney delivers a moving meditation on enforced female roles in Irish society both past and present, the heavy pall of grief and the unceasing encroachment of the past into the present.”
  • On Book Banning by Ira Wells received a starred review in Publishers Weekly: “Wells delivers a potent behind-the-scenes look at book banning in this standout account . . . a decisive and fascinating take on a hot-button issue.”
  • Near Distance by Hanna Stoltenberg (translated by Wendy H. Gabrielsen) was reviewed in Scout Magazine: “Nuanced, as well as touching, tense, and cringe-y at different turns, [Near Distance] contains all the stuff of a fraught mother-daughter relationship, impressively depicting its subtle, complicated dynamic.”

WE’RE HIRING: Now accepting applications for a full-time Publicity and Marketing Assistant!

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Publicity and Marketing Assistant

We are seeking a full-time publicity and marketing assistant. This position entails the promotion of titles to media, bookseller and media relations, overseeing social media campaigns, and assisting marketing staff with sales materials. But we are also in the process of rethinking all aspects of our promotion and marketing strategies and will be looking for someone who can think creatively and help us discover new ways to promote our authors and their books.

We are looking, especially, for someone who reads widely and well, someone who is, ideally, familiar with the types of books we publish and can understand and place them in a wider context. We are looking for someone who can talk and write about books intelligently and with enthusiasm and enjoys proselytizing on their behalf. A person who enjoys working with authors, discussing ideas, making things, someone who likes mail and isn’t afraid of heavy lifting: the real business of books is moving boxes from one place to another, and then back again.

Though we ideally are looking for someone to join us in our Windsor office, consideration will be given if the best candidate needs to work long-distance. Please make clear whether you are applying for an in person or remote position in your cover letter. 

Major Responsibilities:

  • read and think about our books
  • assist with national and international publicity strategies for 25+ books annually, including electronic pitches, review copy mailings, and related follow-up
  • assist in production of marketing materials, including tipsheets, early reading materials, author questionnaires, digital and print catalogues
  • assist in the writing of design briefs and cover copy
  • build and manage relations with key media throughout North America
  • build and manage relations with key booksellers throughout North America
  • write and update press releases and pitches
  • secure local media coverage for author events
  • organize author tours, launches, readings, receptions, and festival and trade show appearances
  • travel to the occasional book fair or conference in support of our books and authors
  • assist with the designing of promotional material such as postcards, bookmarks, posters, advertisements, and newsletters
  • oversee media updates on the press’s website
  • work in collaboration with sales representatives in both Canada and the United States so they are informed and enthusiastic about Biblioasis titles
  • interact with authors to strategize publicity opportunities and to execute promotional and publicity events
  • field author queries and help manage author relations, including travel arrangements
  • other duties as assigned

Knowledge, skills, and abilities required:

  • individuals must be extremely organized, detail-oriented, and self-motivated problem solvers
  • excellent reading skills
  • excellent written and verbal communication skills
  • excellent interpersonal skills
  • must have a high degree of creativity and the ability to think strategically
  • must be willing to work occasional evenings and weekends
  • computer skills include: Word and Excel experience required. Experience with Photoshop, InDesign, Acrobat, Filemaker an asset

Education and experience:

  • Bachelor’s degree in marketing, communications, English, art history, or related field would be an asset
  • experience thinking about and presenting books, whether in a professional capacity (e.g. in the classroom, as a bookseller) or more informally (social media) would be an asset
  • previous publicity or marketing experience would be an asset

All this being said, what we’re looking for is the best possible person for the job. We’ll be more impressed by what you’ve read and how you write and speak, by how you think, and where you’ve worked—including the automotive factory or shoe store—than where you went to school. Experience would be wonderful, but if you have all of the necessary skills, or even the potential and a willingness to learn, we can train you. We want a person who wants to be here and will do what it takes to make us better. Almost no one at Biblioasis started knowing that publishing could be a career: but we’re thrilled to have discovered it and love the shape it makes in a life. We want, most of all, someone who understands that too.

Salary Expectations:

Salary will be commensurate with experience but will most likely range from 38,000-45,000.

Who We Are:

Biblioasis is an award-winning independent publishing house based in Windsor, Ontario. We publish approximately 30 titles a year, including short fiction, novels, poetry, literary criticism, memoir, belle lettres, local and regional history, and general nonfiction. We are also the publishers of the critical journal CNQ: Canadian Notes & Queries and the annual Best Canadian anthologies and operate an independent bookstore in Windsor’s historic Walkerville.

To apply, email your resume and cover letter to Dan Wells at dwells@biblioasis.com by Friday, January 6, 2023. In your cover letter please tell us about three books that mean the most to you and why they matter. If you want to include something about why you want to work in publishing, and specifically why you want to work at Biblioasis, that would definitely be considered an asset.

THE SINGING FOREST, ON PROPERTY, THE AFFIRMATIONS, THE DAY-BREAKERS, HAIL THE INVISIBLE WATCHMAN, THINGS ARE AGAINST US, POGUEMAHONE: Media Hits!

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IN THE NEWS

THE SINGING FOREST

The Singing Forest by Judith McCormack (September 21, 2021) was highlighted during a book segment on CBC’s The Next Chapter. Author Wendy McKnight was on the show to recommend three historical fiction novels, including The Singing Forest! The conversation aired on March 26, 2022, and was replayed on March 28, 2022. You can listen to or read the full conversation here, where the comments about The Singing Forest start at 6:45.

Wendy McKnight says:

“I think I may have saved the best for last. I just found this book so beautifully written, even despite the fact that it’s at times very horrifying and upsetting. [Judith McCormack] does a really masterful job of weaving a story from present-day Toronto and then going back to pre-World War II Belarus … And so that idea that people can go through times and can still maintain their dignity and their sense of self is such a strong theme that it’s just so beautifully done.”

Get your copy of The Singing Forest here!

ON PROPERTY

Rinaldo Walcott, author of On Property (February 2, 2021), is being featured by the Writers’ Trust Amplified Voices campaign, an effort to highlight books that were published by BIPOC or racialized Canadian authors during the COVID-19 pandemic. A video conversation between Rinaldo Walcott and Canisia Lubrin was released today, where they discuss On Property. You can watch the full video conversation here.

Learn more about the Writers’ Trust Amplified Voices campaign here.

“So the challenge for the persistence of human life is how will we redistribute everything that has come out of the dread and the horror but also the intimacies of these encounters.” —Rinaldo Walcott

Order On Property here!

THE AFFIRMATIONS

The Affirmations by Luke Hathaway (April 5, 2022), was reviewed by Jackie Wong in The Tyee: “On Affirmations and Letting Life Change Us.” The review was published on March 23, 2022. Check out the full review here.

Wong writes:

“There’s something healing about watching people wrestle with and arrive on the other side of a long winter of the land and spirit, whether onscreen or on the page. Accordingly, Luke Hathaway’s The Affirmations is just the thing to read now as we defrost from another pandemic winter and notice the green buds on tree branches, a promise of renewal almost in spite of all we’ve seen.”

Order The Affirmations here!

THE DAYBREAKERS & HAIL, THE INVISIBLE WATCHMAN

The Day-Breakers by Michael Fraser and Hail, the Invisible Watchman by Alexandra Oliver (April 5, 2022), have been reviewed on Marrow Reviews by Catherine Owen. The review was published online on March 24, 2022. Take a look at the full review here.

Owen writes:

“Two new poetry titles from Biblioasis, as distinct as can be envisioned, apart from their attentions to the specificities of sound, reassure this reviewer that a variety of approaches to the motivations behind poetry persists. Alexandra Oliver’s Hail, the Invisible Watchman points to the validity of artifice in craft beyond emotion’s call (an Eliotian acolyte perchance?), while Michael Fraser’s stunning collection The Day-Breakers attends to how feeling exists within diction, inside an era’s particular lexicon of pain and triumph.”

Order The Day-Breakers here!

Order Hail, the Invisible Watchman here!

THINGS ARE AGAINST US

Lucy Ellmann, author of Things Are Against Us (September 28, 2021), was interviewed by Nahlah Ayed on CBC Ideas. The episode aired on Thursday, March 24, and was posted online earlier that evening. Listen to the full interview here.

From the interview:

Nahlah Ayed: We hear it everywhere, group chats, social media, political commentary: people are overwhelmed with not just what’s happening in the world, but also by the amount of information that we get about what’s happening in the world. How do you cope with the ‘too-muchness’ of everything?

Lucy Ellmann: Well, one way is to read 18th-century novels. Nineteenth-century will do, too. They’re very involving. They’re beautiful. They’re funny. They’re full of satire. A kind of thing that no longer exists. Almost no one understands satire anymore. I think it’s because, I don’t know, education doesn’t exist, I guess, or we just all lost our sense of humour.

I think you have to get back to humour and nature. And I think, taking a walk and getting away from the machines. But if you go for a walk, everyone else is still on a machine out there. So they need their machines forcibly confiscated when they leave their house so that at least outdoors, there’s some kind of community life where you actually face each other.

Order Things Are Against Us here!

POGUEMAHONE

Poguemahone (May 3, 2022) by Patrick McCabe has been reviewed by Kirkus Reviews. The review will be published online on March 30, 2022.

The reviewer writes:

“A searing family drama and bittersweet evocation of nostalgia for lost youth.

Irish novelist McCabe’s new work is a leap beyond his previous accomplishments in fiction; a sprawling, epic novel in verse, the book builds on the tradition of lyric poetry as a method of storytelling, shot through with a postmodern Beat sensibility. The tale begins in the present as narrator Dan Fogarty arrives at the nursing home where his sister, the mercurial Una Fogarty, lives. From there, the narrative quickly moves back in time to the early 1970s to a communal house in London’s Kilburn district, where the siblings spent their early adulthood among an endless parade of flatmates, besotted poets, and various other hippies and hangers-on. At the center of this bohemian gyre is the Scottish poet Troy McClory, and the anything-but-rosy romance between Troy and Una becomes something of a leitmotif throughout the story. Swirling around this torrid relationship, the book details the siblings’ childhood during WWII and their coming-of-age against the backdrop of the Vietnam War, while the lingering specters of alcoholism, mental illness, and suicide are never far from the margins of the text. Despite these bleak themes, the novel is not without its share of humor—early ’70s pop-culture references abound, and the Joycean linguistic play is a pleasure to read. Structurally, the book is a marvel; McCabe’s inventive use of enjambment and stanza layout push the boundaries of what is possible in narrative storytelling. The vernacular, drunken verse format may be daunting at first, but after a few pages the narrative develops a hypnotic rhythm, as if one is sitting on a barstool listening to the narrator unspool his story over a pint (or three). At this point, the reader has merely to hang on and enjoy the ride.

A moving saga of youth, age, and memory—by turns achingly poetic, knowingly philosophical, and bitterly funny.”

Order your copy of Poguemahone here!

HOUSEHOLDERS

Householders cover

Kate Cayley, author of Householders (September 2021), was interviewed by James Tennant for Get Lit CFMU.

The episode aired on March 24, 2022 and is available online here.

Get your copy of Householders here!