We’re back with another instalment in our series of posts highlighting how Canadian retailers and publishers are responding to social distancing measures and the changes put in place due to COVID-19. This week, our interview with Breanna Muir from University of Toronto Press!
University of Toronto Press (UTP) was founded in 1901, and is one of Canada’s leading academic publishers. UTP has published over 6,500 books, releasing approximately 200 new scholarly and general interest publications each year. They have published works by many notable Canadian authors, including Northrop Frye, Robertson Davies, Harold Innis, Marshall McLuhan, Yousuf Karsh, Carl Berger, and Dorothy E. Smith. The press is renowned for its excellence in publishing works in the fields of social sciences, humanities, and business.
1. How have you adapted your business in response to COVID-19? Are there particular initiatives that you’d like to share?
Fortunately, before COVID-19 required UTP’s Publishing Division to work from home, the Marketing team had been increasing our digital reach by creating more content to be shared online. The sudden turn of events brought on by COVID meant that we had to quickly become creative and adapt content to these new circumstances.
Many academic conferences for the 2020 season have been cancelled, or moved online, meaning that we have needed to quickly create a new model to promote our books virtually. For spring conferences, including the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians, the International Congress on Medieval Studies, and the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association annual meeting, we have designed Virtual Displays to promote our list on our YouTube channel. Some of these displays even include insightful discussion from our Acquiring Editors as they introduce their books, describe content, and promote the authors.
Along with Virtual Displays, we post “Staff Picks” every Monday on our blog to showcase what UTP books our staff are reading while at home. These blog posts not only promote our books, but they also make connections between content and the current COVID environment, and showcase how we are trying to pass time while at home. Our UTP blog has proven to be a valuable outlet not only for our staff, but also for our UTP authors. Over the past few months, our UTP authors have been contributing weekly posts about life in the time of COVID. One author in particular, Eileen Brown, co-author of Shift: A New Mindset for Sustainable Execution, has contributed an eight-part blog series looking specifically at how world leaders have failed or been overall successful at emergency organization during the pressures that the pandemic has created internationally, and at home. The blog has presented a terrific opportunity for our authors to engage with an audience, and promote their work, while in-person events have been put on hold.
At UTP we also understand that many of our staff are dealing with new stresses while working from home, either by maintaining social distancing guidelines, or trying to balance work and childcare. Because of COVID, employee well-being has become increasingly important, and will become a crucial topic of actionable discussion as we head back to the office. We have a number of books in our Rotman-UTP Publishing imprint that focus specifically on mental health and employee well-being, and we are currently promoting these books with an online digital marketing campaign and deep discounts on key backlist titles. Our hope is that these books will become valuable resources for employers when transitioning their staff back into the workplace in the new post-COVID environment.
2. Will you continue with any of these initiatives or business practices when brick-and-mortar bookstores reopen to customers?
We've always hoped to grow our digital footprint as a press, and imagine that many of these new promotional initiatives are here to stay. Not only does digital marketing extend our reach as a press, but it is also a much “greener” and environmentally conscious approach to marketing, which is something that is very important to UTP.
3. Have you noticed a shift in book-buying habits amongst your customers?
Certainly, in-person sales that would typically take place at large academic conferences, like the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, aren't going to happen this year. As a result, we’ve had to reach out to customers, many of whom are professors ordering course books for the next semester, through email. I think that ultimately libraries and academics are skeptical about planning ahead to the next semester right now, as enrolment is down and teaching will take a new digital direction.
We also just launched our biggest fall-winter catalogue ever which included the launch of a new trade imprint, Aevo UTP. All of our sales meetings and author meetings have become virtual and we’re looking at new and innovative ways to support retailers. We have seen an increase in purchasing of ebooks in the last couple of months. Many customers are also looking for ebooks for personal reading, research, or for course use. Every book we publish is available as an ebook through all ebook partners, so we're well positioned to provide our content seamlessly.
4. Have you experimented with new tools or technologies during COVID-19? Do you anticipate continuing to use these?
Zoom has become such an important tool for us, so much so that I can imagine using it post-COVID. Not only do we hold our office meetings and team coffee breaks over Zoom, it has also become a valuable and convenient tool to host meetings with authors and record interviews.
5. What is your biggest takeaway from working as a bookseller while physical-distancing measures have been in place?
I would say that being prepared to work from home, and having the technology in place to connect with team members, authors, and sales reps has been the biggest takeaway. I think in the post-COVID environment the Canadian book industry, and Canadian companies generally, will need to balance the safety of their employees with productivity, and this will mean making sure that everyone is adequately set up to work remotely.
BONUS: Are there indie booksellers or small publishers in Canada who are doing interesting stuff that you’d like to recognize?
I have always been impressed with Type Books in Toronto. Before the pandemic, Type, an independent book retailer, was famous for their beautiful storefronts and colourful window displays. Since the pandemic they've been organizing virtual launches on their Instagram account. Many of these launches have been in support of first-time Toronto-based authors, who've had to face the disappointment of not being able to tour their book. I’ve been very inspired to see so many publishers and book retailers come up with creative and flexible ways to promote Canadian authors.
Looking to support independent retailers in your area? Rocky Mountain Books' publisher, Don Gorman, has created a map of indie booksellers across Canada who are currently offering delivery and / or curb-side pickup.
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