Freehand Books is a new literary book publishing operation owned by Broadview Press. The new press will publish four books in 2008, and at least that number in each succeeding year. Freehand Books is dedicated to discovering and publishing new and established Canadian writers of literary fiction, literary non-fiction, and poetry. The list will appeal to discerning readers across Canada and around the world by combining excellent literary content with attractive book design. 

rob mclennan conducted this interview in the summer of 2008.

*

rob mclennan: How did you first get involved with Freehand Books, and what, as editor, is your particular mandate? What kinds of previous editing experience do you bring to your work with Freehand?

Melanie Little: Well, it's a bit of an odd thing. I was just going along, minding my own business, gearing up for another year of the usual scrabbling combination of writing and part-time teaching. I heard about the Freehand editorial position pretty much seconds before it was too late to apply.

rm: Right after Thomas Wharton's novel Icefields (1995) was announced as the first book by an Alberta writer to be part of the CBC Canada Reads, Rudy Wiebe talked about how, the previous year, there was only one book of fiction eligible for the previous year's Governor General's Award made by an Alberta publisher. How do you see Freehand working to expand that?

ML: God, that's an alarming tidbit, isn’t it? Literary Alberta has certainly felt the hole left by the demise of Red Deer Press's seminal fiction line, and though NeWest Press is doing wonderful things in fiction, there still aren’t nearly enough slots for the amazing pool of literary talent in this province. Certainly, Freehand's mandate to publish Canadian literary titles—fiction, creative non-fiction, and poetry—will, we hope, provide another much-needed venue for Alberta's stories and writers. 

But we don't intend to operate as a regional press. I personally see Canadian literature as a conversation that needs to at least be national, so it's very important to me that Freehand titles get noticed and read by readers, writers, and literature students and teachers across the country. At the same time, it's impossible to live in Alberta and not be plugged in to the thriving, challenging literary scene here. 

Though Freehand is reading unsolicited manuscripts, we're also actively scouting out talent, inviting people whose work we admire to submit to us. So far it's shaping up that about a quarter of our titles over the next few years are by Albertans. Given the enormous amount of competition, that's a pretty high ratio. In part this is a function of my awareness—and that of my editorial board—of Alberta writers, but mostly it's proof that Alberta writers are legion, are hungry, are strong. 

And yes, Freehand will stay 100% literary, so all of our titles will be GG-eligible books. Too many publishers are looking to commercial titles to beef up their sales, saying no to worthy literary contenders in the process. Is it really worth decimating a national literature to sell, say, 200 more copies of a book?

rm: Do you worry about the books having to prove their own financial merit? What kind of freedom has Broadview Press given you? I'm thinking about all the other publishers over the past fifteen years who moved heavily (and very publicly) into literary publishing and, after a few years of producing extremely interesting fiction, "suddenly" realized there was no money in producing such works, specifically Key Porter, Beach Holme and Raincoast (despite the fact that they have all that Harry Potter money), and either seriously cut back or eliminated altogether their fiction lines. Do you worry about such pressures at all?

ML: There is a very firm, long-term financial commitment to keeping Freehand a literary imprint, which does, in a way, mean that I can put literary concerns before fiscal ones. But Broadview Press has a responsibility to its shareholders, and I feel a similar kind of responsibility to Broadview Press. Certainly no one at Broadview is under the illusion that a literary imprint’s raison d’être is to make scads of cash, and for that I am very grateful. 

But yes, I do feel that it’s part of my job to choose books that people besides the author’s parents will be sufficiently intrigued by that they’ll drop $25 on them. And I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing. I don’t subscribe to the belief that challenging books don’t have the potential to attract large readerships in this country. The average reader is, I think, much smarter than some publishers give her credit for. 

But a challenging book has to be edited, marketed, and distributed just as rigorously, as exhaustively, as effectively as any other.