A pair of Sudbury journalists is extending their expertise to the world of books with a new publishing house for Northern Ontario writers.
This spring, Laura Gregorini and Heather Campbell launched Latitude 46 Publishing, named for Sudbury’s geographic parallel and designed to publish new and established authors throughout the North.
“We’re both writers,” Gregorini said. “I think we are in tune to the issues and the stories of our community and of the North, so we see that as an extension of what we already do as wordsmiths.”
Latitude 46 offers editorial and marketing support to authors seeking to get their work into print. To be eligible for the publisher’s services, authors must either call the North home, or feature it in their work. Gregorini looks after author relations, while Campbell helms the business and production side of things.
The company’s first project is a short story anthology. Now that the Aug. 31 deadline has passed, the pair will go through the task of reading all the submissions and whittle them down to the chosen stories.
Though Latitude 46 has admittedly low overhead — the pair largely work out of their homes — Gregorini and Campbell put up the startup capital for a website and other expenses on their own. To be eligible for funding through the Canada Council for the Arts, the publishing house has to have published at least four or five quality literary volumes.
“They have to contribute to the cultural landscape of the country, and we want to do that,” Campbell said. “That’s the kind of thing I’d love to see happen, that we find that writer here in Northern Ontario that just happens to wow the world.”
The publishing industry is experiencing drastic changes in how it brings literature to the world. Following the merger of two of North America’s big publishers, Penguin and Random House, Gregorini believes aspiring authors will be looking for alternatives to getting their work in print, as the bigger names will be printing fewer small volumes.
“I think gone are the days where an author can make a living being an author, writing books,” Gregorini said. “They have to find other avenues of revenue.”
Neither Gregorini nor Campbell is a stranger to taking a creative approach to publishing, however. As working journalists, they have each carved out a non-traditional career, of which writing comprises a big part.
Originally from Toronto, Campbell relocated to the North 20 years ago to raise her two sons, and has worked in communications, public education, and for non-profit organizations, but freelance writing has remained a staple.
Gregorini, meanwhile, was born, raised, and received her education in Sudbury, and worked as a full-time journalist until the long, unpredictable hours interfered with her ability to raise her young family. But she’s also maintained her skills with lots of freelance work in the city.
Publishing seemed the logical next step for both, especially after former Laurentian University professor Laurence Steven shut down Scrivener Press following his retirement this past spring. The small, Sudbury-based publishing house had operated for more than two decades, bringing Northern Ontario writing into the spotlight.
Latitude 46 is now in the process of securing reprinting rights on titles that were published under Scrivener, but is also seeking out its own authors.
“We do have established authors here in the North, but I know there are other people who are writing and creating stories, and we’d like to hear from them,” Gregorini said.
Latitude 46’s primary goal is to nurture writers and contribute to the cultural economy of the North.
