Stephen Henigan, writing for Geist Magazine, wonders if the current state of Canadian publishing will lead to complete destruction of the industry:
One agent asked me where I wanted to be in twenty years’ time. When I faltered in my reply, the agent said: “Of course, twenty years from now there won’t be any Canadian publishers. But there will be Canadians who write for American publishers. And I shall be representing them.”
Evidence for such? The continued ramification of the Chapters-Indigo merger, dwindling book stock, and less interest in reading as a whole, according to Hennigan, who continues on:
A nation without publishers cannot foster its own literary talent, record its distinctive experience of literary language, host aesthetic debates, thrash out its personal and collective demons, express its regional identities, teach its children their history or project its myths into the global ether. A nation without publishers loses the ability to define itself, and is destined to be defined by strangers and, ultimately, ruled by them. That is the sort of nation Canada may become.
(link via Maud Newton)