The Giller Prize is a big deal for small publishers
'We're now able to ensure that our books are much more widely promoted'
Of the five books short-listed for this year's Giller Prize, three of them are published by small presses.
If one of those small publishers were to win, it would be hard to overstate the impact. The Scotiabank Giller Prize — the richest prize in Canadian fiction — awards $100,000 to the winning author.
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A spot on the shortlist alone opens new doors for the writer and their publisher.
"It makes us better publishers," said Dan Wells, founder of Windsor's Biblioasis, which has two books on the shortlist, Samuel Archibald's Arvida and Anakana Schofield's Martin John.
"We're now able to ensure that our books are much more widely promoted, talked about and are available in quantities that are visible in bookstores."
That visibility will also mean a big spike in book sales for not just the winning book publisher, but all the publishers nominated for the prize.
"We know how hard it is to get readers interested," said Alana Wilcox, the editorial director at Toronto's Coach House Books. The local publisher's book Fifteen Dogs by Andre Alexis is on the shortlist as well.
Wilcox says publishing is a combination of "head and heart" and "you just have to hope you're right."
The Giller will be handed out Tuesday in Toronto. You can watch it on CBC TV at 9 p.m., follow along at CBC Books, and you can hear from the winner Wednesday on Metro Morning.