'N 1978 it was just me, in

the second bedroom of the

undarave bungalow,”
Michael Burch wryly recalls
of the launching of a publish-
ing firm that will do $7.5 to
$8 million in sales this year,
not including a separate
direct-display marketing sub-
sidiary, Readers’ World
Books, that should turn an
additional $2 million.

~ By John Moore
_ Contributing Writer

“That puts us in the top 10 -
Canadian publishers,” Burch says
with understandable pride, though
he's quick to point out that he didn’t
do it alone.

" . As Whitecap Books grew, from *
its first. Warehouse.in 1983.and its
first five employees, into its more
commodious premises at 351 Lynn

”. Pl. to accommodate 20 employees,

_Burch stood by his commitment to
keep the firm on the North Shore.
“We have very, very good staff.
They're all North Shore people but
one, and he wants to move here.”
Though publishing/book marketing
‘is usually a notoriously “transient”

~ industry, Whitecap staff tend to stay:
- “Our head warehouseman had been

with us for.10 years,” Burch -

WHO TO CALL:

+, Community-Editor” . Entertdinment Editor,
~., Andrew MeCradie: Layne Christensen a

as STORIES |

ml
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RA ie a

Whitecap rides wave of success

observes, “And most of our staff
have worked together for at least
seven.”

Now a trim, fit 50, still playing
competitive tennis and soccer for the
Nor- Van Old Timers teams, Burch
was bora in a small village in north-
em Hampshire, not far from the
home of gardener/author David
Tarrant, though the two only met
through Whitecap Books. Coming to
Canada in 1969, Burch cut his teeth
in publishing with Methuen in
Toronto in 1971, promoting the first
Canadian tour of the Monty Python
comedy troupe.

Trained as a mechanical engineer,
he knew marketing was his real

, ‘strength and even sold forklifts for a

time, but the bookworm had bitten
- hard and deep.
His marketing savvy enabled him

‘to build’a solid non-fiction import- .

_and-resale base (cookbooks, garden-

ing books, children’s books,
Canadian calendars for the

‘Smithbooks/Coles chains) on which

the firm could expand, but it takes
more than mere “salesmanship” to
stay on the cutting edge of a highly
competitive market.

Burch has an intuitive sense of
how a book can be “remade” to take
off in a target market. He whips a
British children’s book off the shelf,
My First Atlas, and flips the pages.

“Great little book, colorful, intro-

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duce: kids to maps and geography.
But too European. We redesigned it
with half a dozen new pages on
Canada at the front." He hands me a
copy of My First Canadian Atlas —
it book | immediately want my son
to have.

He also shows me a French lan-
guage edition of children’s nature
author Diane Swanson’s Wiy Do
Seals Blow Their Noses? for the
Quebec market.

The creative drive of Burch and
marketing point-man Robert
McCullough is paying off in
Whitecap’s penetration of markets in
the U.K., Australia and most impor-
tantly, the U.S.

Whitecap now enjoys a close liai-
son with a Portland distribution firm
and a custom Sierra Club imprint of
Diane Swanson’s Safari Beneath the
Sea has just won the Orbis Pictus
Award for outstanding children’s
non-fiction in the U.S.

Publisher Colleen MacMillan
coincidentally entered the book busi-
ness in 1978, the year Burch set up
shop in his Dundarave spare bed-
toom. Having risen to the post of
editorial director of a Saskatoon-
based firm, she joined Whitecap in
1988 after meeting Michael Burch at
the Frankfurt Book Fair.

“Michael wanted to take some
time off to travel around Europe,”
MacMillan says. “He offered me the
job of taking care of the firm while
he was away. As it turned out, he
met another young woman at that
same book fair and married her. He
still hasn't found time to wander
around Europe.”

Yet MacMillan proved to be any-
thing but a redundant addition to the
payroll: she took over the firm’s

Canadian Publishing Program

See Room page 42

VIOLENCE COARSE SEX&

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Wednesday, May 10, 1995 - North Shore News - 19

faa

Sey

Aes

NEWS photo Mike Wakofietd

IN JUST 17 years, West Van resident Michael Burch has taken
Whitecap Books from a small-scale entarprise operated from the
second bedroom of his Dundarave bungalow to one of Canada's
top 10 publishing firms with sales of $7.5 to $8 million this year.

Y 147H

CU Ee At aaa Pe st oe?

a
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special day.
After all, everything she does for you is
first-class so why not treat Mom to The
Keg’s specialty... steak that’s grilled to
perfection. Just the way she loves it. And

while she’s savouring her steak, we'll
pamper her with warm smiles and

friendly service... because she’s worth it.
See you May 14th, at participating Keg
restaurants, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. fora
special lunch or from 4 p.m. on for
dinner. Reservations accepted

THE KEG:

132 West Esplanade
984-3534

MOTHER'S DAY ISN

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