Giller Winner to Get Trade Edition: Copies of The Sentimentalist to be Available November 19th

Douglas and McIntyre have acquired trade paperback rights to Johanna Skibsrud’s debut novel, The Sentimentalists, which won the $50,000 Scotiabank Giller Prize last week.

After the winner was announced last Tuesday, there was much discussion and disappointment when it became apparent that the book was available for purchase pretty much nowhere. This was partly because the publisher of the book, tiny Gaspereau Press of Nova Scotia, is only capable of producing 1000 of their beautiful letterpress copies per week. After winning what has become one of the richest literary prizes in the world, there was no way Gaspereau could keep up with the demand.

“It was important to us that no copy of the book would say ‘Gaspereau Press’ on the spine unless it came directly from our own hands,” says Gaspereau’s co-publisher, Andrew Steeves, “that’s simply the way we work. But when Johanna won the prize it was clear that our method of printing and publishing books wouldn’t meet the demand. It was critical to find a partner who shared our values.”

Steeves said he felt Douglas & McIntyre was the obvious choice to help bring The Sentimentalists to a wider marketplace. “This alliance will ensure that our author’s accomplishment will be honoured, and that readers across the country will have ready access to well-made copies of the book.”

The first 30,000 copies of the Douglas & McIntyre edition of The Sentimentalists will be shipped from the bindery on November 19, less than 10 days after the Giller was awarded. Paper is on hand for an immediate reprint of 20,000 copies. The e-book is already a bestseller on Kobo and Douglas & McIntyre will make it available through other e-book retailers, including the Apple iBookstore, Amazon Kindle, Sony eBook store, eBooks.com and Barnes & Noble’s NOOK Store.

Gaspereau Press will continue to issue copies of its original edition, giving readers a choice of two quality editions of the book. In the meantime, readers keen to read a printed copy of The Sentimentalists will have to dig deep: at the time of this writing, Amazon.ca lists a single used copy for $1600.