Assembly Press, the County’s own literary publisher, established in 2023, will partner with one of Canada’s longest standing poetry presses, Brick Books. Established in 1975, Brick is based in Kingston.

Each press will maintain independent imprints and follow their own editorial policies. Publishers Leigh Nash for Assembly and Alayna Munce for Brick have agreed to amalgamate their back of house operations, making sales and distribution more efficient. Additionally, becoming a larger publishing entity means greater eligibility for grants and other funding sources, as well as a stronger presence in the book market.

Assembly publishes about ten titles per year—an eclectic mix of fiction, nonfiction and poetry. Brick Books puts out about seven—exclusively poetry.

Ms. Nash talked about this moment as a part of a larger movement in Canadian literary publishing: “I think publishing, like everything else, is cyclical, and I think what we’re seeing right now is not quite the end of a cycle, but the start of a new cycle.

“Back in the 1970s, nobody was publishing Canadian writers. There was no real sense of the appetite for it. But in the last 50 years things have changed so dramatically. There are so many more people writing; there are hundreds of presses across the country, ranging from people working at their kitchen table to full-fledged corporations. 

“And I think all those owners that started their companies in the 1970s are reaching a certain age. And the industry’s changed. There’s a lot more to do. There’s never been more books published.”

Assembly Press has both a local and an international presence. Some of their titles are County specific, some, like Bindu Suresh’s The Road Between Us, long-listed for the Giller Prize, are by Canadian authors, while others are by authors from the U.S., Britain or Norway.

Bringing together two presses means many things, including stability. “Our sales are higher, we have more predictable revenue, because a press is only as good as its backlist.”

And this stability will allow each publisher to do what is most important, supporting authors. Both presses are author-centered, notes Ms. Nash. “We try to partner with our authors help them see the vision for their book, but we also try to teach them a little bit about how publishing works and set them up for success throughout their career, no matter what stage they’re at.

“The goal is not to reduce the space for writers to be published! The goal is to reduce the expenses on the back end, which is really important. And I think that’s why people have seen this as a good news story. We all truly believe it is.”