From page 28

they subsidize their book
publishing?

| don’t know, but | doubt it...
They're successful because they
have a market of 260 million peo-
ple and we’ve got a market of 26
million... the cost of producing a
book is substantially less than if
you're trying to produce 5,000,
which is your normal print run in
Canada. But that doesn’t mean
that if you’re only producing 5,000
books that you’re not making
money on them because many of
them do.

That’s why a lot of them make
sure they...can be sold in the
English-speaking world. Morley
Callaghan was considered a great
writer in many other parts of the
world before he got recognition in
Canada.

But that would be your oppo-
nents’ argument... that, why
should they be known elsewhere
and not be known here? There
should be more support from the
government for Canadian culture.
t think people thought you were
attacking Canadian culture.

| probably was in that sense. A

‘ bad book is a bad book, whether
__ it’s Canadian or nat.

Do your comments hit a sore
spot in that they dig up a truth
about a decline in reading in gen-
eral?

If anything there’s an increase in
reading, | believe.

Stats Canada came up with
some stuff around books just after
the story broke: And somebody in
here has been truthful, had a look

. at it and said 18% more books
were produced in Canada last
year...what he didn’t tell us is that
if you look at that increase it’s ali
in the scientific and educational
books, textbooks, not necessarily

‘in the trade books.

a Bing
© by The Rotar
: “af Van ICOUNET

| hope you understand I'm not
mad about any of this. It goes with
the territory. You stick your neck
out, you're gonna get il. I've en-
joyed it thoroughly. It got to the
point that I'd pick up the morning
paper and say ‘Oh goody, I'm not
in it today’!

if more people read books, say
20-30%, would that justify a sub-
sidy?

No. There’s nothing that does
justify a subsidy. Because the good
books are going to get published
anyway and the authors are going
to make some money.

So you're saying, if you can't
survive in the market then what's
the point in being spoon-fed?

Yes, you're not producing de-

cent stuff anyway.

Listen to this. (He reads a quote
from the Western Report):
‘William Hoffer... is... one of the
principle dealers of Canadian lit-
erature in the world. The Van-
couver bookseller says he has
40,000 volumes of Canadian liter-
ature in stock and he has a hard -
time selling them...According to
Mr. Hoffer, the Canadian Council
used to buy thousands of Cana-
dian books in an effort to support
the publishing industry, only to
end up storing most of them in

. warehouses. They tried giving

them away to prisoners, he notes,
but eventually the prisons stopped
accepting them.’

We should make a distinction
between books about Canada and
books by Canadian authors. When
you said Canadian books are not

f “wide enough interest’ did
you mean books about Canada?

Bad Canadian fiction is what I’m
talking about...It's like CBC — we
must have Canadian content. If
you put a bad half hour detective
story set in Toronto on it’s still not

_ FINANCING’

A POINSETTIA
WITH EVERY
PURCHASE

worth spending any money on..it’s
not a contribution to Canadian
culture.

Would you be in support of
other aspects of Canadian culture
heing subsidized?

If they took that other $18 mil-

‘lion for good Canadian children’s

books and for promoting the
whole subject of reading for kids
and giving people a love for books

~
Uy

Wednesday, December 11, 1991 - North Shore News - 33

Some books don’t make a contribution, says Cook

then { would say that is a useful
contribution when you consider
that one in 10 peuple in this coun-

ty can’t even read the newspapers.

How are you going to know
what is a “good” book to sub-
sidize?

That’s the publisher's responsi-
bility. If he’s in it to make a buck
he’s going to be a lot more careful
than he is if he says ‘Ah, this is

Canadian. | can get a subsidy.’

.. The publishers say ‘“Cana-
dians like Canadian books.” Of
course they do. They like GOOD
Canadian books... It’s a total
tempest in a teapot.

.. When you look at the actual
comment (to the committee) I’m
asking a question, I’m not making
judgments. Nobody's told me.

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