Shake-up for Cdn. book industry
TORONTO – Canada’s book industry is facing a major shake-up with news that a new company will handle some subsidiary rights deals for at least two major publishers, which will result in layoffs.
Random House of Canada and McClelland and Stewart both announced Tuesday that they’ve inked deals with the Cooke Agency International, a new offshoot of the Cooke Agency, a team of Toronto-based literary representatives working for more than 100 authors.
Both deals involve contracting out work on foreign subsidiary rights, permissions, and domestic book club sales to the Cooke Agency, which will eliminate departments in both publishing companies.
Random House said it could no longer justifying maintaining its subsidiary rights department, which seeks foreign-rights sales for a limited catalogue of titles.
Three employees were laid off: Jennifer Shepherd, vice president and director of rights and contracts; Ron Eckel, rights associate director; and Fiona Harvey, domestic rights associate.
Two McClelland and Stewart employees were laid off: Marilyn Biderman, vice president and director of rights and contracts; and Krista Willis, rights manager.
In a release, Cooke Agency president and co-owner Dean Cooke said the creation of the new company to work on behalf of Canadian publishers will allow rights agreements to be reached in a “more efficient and effective way.”
“In speaking to various publishers, it is clear that there are challenges in maintaining a foreign rights business, and that changes were imminent in the way publishers handle this business,” he said.
“We’re all getting on the same planes to go to the same places to sell a handful of titles. This is an area where success and strength can best be leveraged by a list of titles with greater range and depth.”
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