2 postings in one: Doubleday Canada, and Ryerson University seminar for writers on strategies for getting published

"The Guardians" by Andrew Pyper,
published by Doubleday Canada

An imprint of Random House Canada, Doubleday publishes literary and commercial fiction titles and has a strong list of memoirs, social and political journalism, history, business, and sports books. Many of Canada’s finest and best-known writers publish with Doubleday, including Pierre Berton, Wayson Choy, Joy Fielding, Linda McQuaig, Nino Ricci, David Adams Richards, and M.G. Vassanji.

Doubleday is also proud to have nurtured the work of some of the country's most exciting new talents, such as Lynn Coady, Michael Crummey, Shree Ghatage, Camilla Gibb, Andrew Pyper, Michael Redhill, and Russell Smith.

Doubleday Canada maintains a Young Adult publishing programme that features such popular writers as William Bell, Douglas Cooper, Paul Kropp, Sheree Fitch, and Ting-Xing Ye.

Like many big publishers, Random House only accepts manuscripts submitted by an agent or by invitation.

On Saturday, May 7, 2011, Lynn Henry, Publishing Director of Doubleday Canada, will take part in From the Horse's Mouth, a panel discussion at Ryerson University moderated by myself, Brian Henry. (Full details here). At this event, you'll have the opportunity to ask all your questions and get the inside scoop on how to get your book published. Lynn will share the stage with literary agent Marilyn Biderman and Insomniac Press publisher Mike O'Connor.

"From the Horse's Mouth" will run 1 - 4 p.m. Ryerson students can register on-line here starting March 21.  If you're not a Ryerson student, reserve a spot by emailing brianhenry@sympatico.ca
Then on May 7, arrive 15 minutes early and bring a cheque or money order made out to Ryerson University for $94 (no cash or credit cards, please!), and we'll register you on the spot. (Yes, I know the Ryerson website says you can't register on the spot, but I do it every year, so don't worry.)  I'll let you know what room we're going to be in as soon as I know.

Lynn Henry (left) with author Gil Adamson

About Lynn Henry
In March 2010, Lynn Henry was appointed Publishing Director at Doubleday Canada where she oversees the acquisitions and work of the senior editors, provides vision for the overall list, and acquires a select list of her own books.

For the five years previous, from 2005 to February 2010, she was the Publisher at House of Anansi Press, where she acquired all the books for the list, managed the in-house staff and budget, and did hands-on editing for the press’s award-winning fiction list and the lead non-fiction, including the prestigious CBC Massey Lectures.

Anansi books published by Lynn include Rawi Hage’s multiple-award winning, bestselling first novel, De Niro’s Game, and Hage’s similarly lauded second novel, Cockroach; Peter Behrens’ 2007 Governor General’s Literary Award winner The Law of Dreams; Gil Adamson’s multiple-award winning, bestselling first novel The Outlander; Lisa Moore’s Giller-shortlisted novel Alligator and her bestselling, Booker Prize nominated novel February; Margaret Atwood’s award-winning, bestselling Massey Lectures, Payback; and Wade Davis’s multi-award winning, bestselling Massey Lectures The Wayfinders.

In all, books Lynn edited and published during her 5 years at Anansi were nominated for eight Scotiabank Giller Prizes (5 made it to the shortlist) and more than 20 Governor General’s Literary Awards (including 4 winners). All the books mentioned above, and many others, were sold internationally into numerous territories. Most recently among the books Lynn edited at Anansi, Kathleen Winter’s first novel Annabel was nominated for the 2010 Scotiabank Giller Prize and sold into numerous territories (including Cape in the UK and Grove Atlantic in the US.

Before joining Anansi, Lynn was the Associate Publisher for five years at Raincoast Books in Vancouver, where she oversaw the production of the Canadian editions of the Harry Potter books, and edited fiction by (among many others) Governor General’s Literary Award nominee Colin McAdam, and Giller Prize nominees Bill Gaston and Shani Mootoo.

Lynn has taught at the Simon Fraser University Summer Editing Workshop and the SFU Summer Publishing Workshop, and has been a guest lecturer at the Masters in Publishing Program at SFU and at many other undergraduate and graduate classes for writers. In 2007, Lynn won a Canadian Booksellers Association Libris Award for Editor of the Year, while Anansi Press won Publisher of the Year. In all, Anansi won Publisher of the Year three times under Lynn’s tenure (in 2007, 2009 and 2010).


Note: Besides "From the Horse's Mouth" at Ryerson, I also have a "How to Get Published" workshop coming up in Burlington on February 19 with agent Alisha Sevigny of the Rights Factory (see here).
For information on all of my creative writing courses and writing workshops, see here.