The Association of Canadian Publishers (ACP) represents 115 English-language book publishers, located in all ten provinces and Nunavut. Our members are independent businesses, owned and operated by Canadians. Each year approximately 80% of the new books written by Canadian authors are published by our members and those of our francophone counterparts. This represents a great wealth of Canadian content that is highly regarded at home and abroad—all of it produced in Canada by Canadian companies.
We recognize the challenges authors face in today’s marketplace, and note that they are shared by Canadian publishers. A changing retail marketplace, downward pressure on pricing, a weakened copyright regime, and modest return on our investment in digital publishing have contributed to the challenges we face, but they have not changed our commitment to publishing new Canadian work and bringing it to market.
Canadian publishers continue to invest in Canadian writing, and in the work required to introduce Canadian books to the widest possible audience. We agree that authors, too, deserve fair return for their work; however, author contracts are negotiated by our members on an individual basis, and as an association representing a diverse group of publishers, we are unable to comment on the specific contract terms proposed by the Authors Guild, which are highlighted in the TWUC and CAA letters.
We look forward to working in continued partnership with TWUC and CAA in pursuit of a healthy, vibrant Canadian writing and publishing sector, and to bringing Canadian writing to readers across the country and around the world.