Halifax’s Nimbus Publishing Achieving Notable Growth
HALIFAX – Atlantic Canada’s biggest publisher has been named as one of 2017’s fastest growing independent publishers in Canada and the United States by Publishers Weekly.
Nimbus Publishing, which is the largest English language publisher east of Toronto, has experienced a 31 per cent sales growth between 2014 and 2016, releasing 48 titles this past year and hiring some new staff to help further expand their reach.
Nimbus general manager Terrilee Bulger says the reason for the growth was an increase in grant funding from the Nova Scotia government last year.
“That really allowed us to kickstart a number of things we wanted to do,” says Bulger
One of those things was hiring more people including editors and publicists. This has allowed Nimbus to do more in-house as well as expand its reach and marketing efforts.
“Because we were able to do more editing in-house, one of our editors is now focusing on doing international rights. So it’s allowing us to increase the number of books that we’re doing as well as do more marketing,” says Bulger.
Nimbus also now has an editor whose job is to find stories and writers from different communities.
“We’ve hired Shauntay Grant to do developmental editing,” Bulger says. “So she’s going to be looking for new projects, doing mentoring, doing more of the outreach into more diverse communities, which I think is innovative.”
The company has also hired an additional publicist based in Toronto as well as a digital marketing specialist who is focused on growing Nimbus’ online presence. Online marketing has been a tricky space for many publishers since they are still very much entrenched in the print world.
“Which is great. We’re not giving up the advertising in that world,” says Bulger. “But we’re also finding because we have this extra grant, we can try all these other innovative ways of marketing that we haven’t been able to do before.”
Exporting has also become increasingly important for Nimbus, though much of their market and books have ties to the Maritimes. The publisher has been starting to look into ways to grow their market. The company has attended international book fairs such as the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in Italy, The Ontario Library Association’s Super Conference and will also be attending New York’s Book Expo in May. Their new rights editor is also helping get more of Nimbus’ books printed in different languages and countries.
“As a regional publisher, [exporting] hasn’t always been our focus, because so much of what we do resonates really well in this region but doesn’t necessarily resonate beyond the borders,” say Bulger. “But the kind of books we’re doing now do have more international appeal, even though we’re still dedicated to doing Atlantic Canadian books. We’re taking our Atlantic Canadian books to a broader market.”
Some of Nimbus’ recent hits include Truth and Honour, a book about Dennis Oland’s murder trial, which was a national bestseller. Bulger says rights to some of their children’s books and fiction have been picked up internationally as well.
“We just signed a new agent for the Spanish, Portuguese, Latin American market and then we just heard today from another agent wanting to do our fiction in the Italian market,” says Bulger. “It’s really building.”
Though many of their authors and books are getting international interest, Nimbus is still dedicated to its Atlantic Canadian identity. Though region-centric books will always have a market, the key is to also find stories from Atlantic Canada that can transcend geography.
“A lot of books that we do, so for example, the Truth and Honour book, it has such an appealing story, but it happened here in Atlantic Canada,” says Bulger. “By focusing on the really appealing stories and writers from Atlantic Canada, they should be able to resonate. Not every book, of course … but sometimes it’s just the way we frame the title or the book cover. There are certain things that you can do that still appeal to our home-grown market but also a broader national and international market.”