Vancouver publisher to print The Sentimentalists

A deal has been struck by Nova Scotia's Gaspereau Press to allow a larger company to print the novel that won this year's Giller Prize, CBC News has learned.

Gaspereau Press co-owner Andrew Steeves told CBC News Monday that a deal has been struck to allow Johanna Skibsrud's book, The Sentimentalists, to be published by Douglas & McIntyre of Vancouver.

Steeves said the company will initially print 30,000 copies of the book. The books should be on store shelves in a week's time.

"We've formed an alliance with a publisher Douglas and McIntrye, a Vancouver publisher, and if Gasperau wanted to be big, they'd be like Douglas and MacIntrye. They're our kind of people," he told CBC News.

Steeves said Gaspereau will also continue to print the book "at the rate that we produce it and the way that we produce it."  The company is able to turn out only about 1,000 copies a week.

"We've picked partners who have the same passion and same commitment to quality that we do even though we're doing it at the different end of the game," he said.

Steeves said Gaspereau normally likes to control what happens under its roof.

"But, you really have to pay attention to the exceptions in your work, and when something like this happens to an author like Johanna and her book, it's an exception," he said.

"It's time to kind of find a way to find an answer the particular problems and needs of that situation."

The tiny Nova Scotia publishing house, known for its handcrafted books, made headlines for being unable to keep up with the demand for the novel, which won the $50,000 Scotiabank Giller Prize last Tuesday night.

Gaspereau said that despite the Giller win and a flood of requests for The Sentimentalists, it was sticking to its policy of making its books locally with no outsourcing.

But on Thursday, Gaspereau co-owner Gary Dunfield said he and fellow publisher Andrew Steeves were considering several ways to produce the book more quickly.

The days and weeks following the Giller usually see a huge boost in sales for the winning book.