About CHB
Wondering who we are, or what we do? Looking for information on How to Submit to us? Well we’ve started to answer these questions – among others. If you don’t find your question answered here, drop us a line...
What we do
Orders, security and privacy See Order Info
Copyright, royalties, and tipping authors
Software, links, and technical stuff
Who we are
What does CHBooks do?
 Coach House Books publishes Canadian poetry, fiction, artist books and drama. We are interested primarily in innovative or experimental writing.
Preserving the best of the small press tradition, we produce finely designed and crafted books in limited editions with the author integrally involved in the process. Simultaneously, we are redefining the concept of publishing by offering texts online (see below).
Exploring the entire concept of the book object, several of our titles are not even books, according to UNESCO’s definition, because of their innovative formats. And returning to our origins in the original Coach House Press, we also produce ephemera of various kinds.
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Why does CHBooks publish online?
Coach House Books is the only publisher in Canada – and perhaps the world – to publish a substantial portion of its list online as well as in print. We believe in ‘full’ (rather than semi) publishing, and as such see electronic publishing not as a marketing gimmick but as a reality and a necessity. After all, publishing means to make public, and the internet has become an important public ‘space.’
 There are of course important advantages to electronic publishing. The internet allows millions of people around the world to access our site, and read authors whose printed books might never be sold in their local bookstores. Publishing online also offers multimedia and other features (like full colour images) that would be too costly to produce physically, if they are possible at all. Another clear advantage for readers is the ability to search a full text – or a full library – in seconds.
Of course we still print books as well, as both media have their advantages.
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Are online and print editions the same?
Yes and no. Obviously the basis for each edition is the same, but the different media mean different formats, and sometimes different content. Some of our authors have been very involved in creating distinct electronic versions by taking advantage of the multimedia (or other) capabilities electronic publishing offers. Likewise, some of our print editions contain material that would not successfully translate to the internet.
In other words, both editions tend to be unique, exploiting the advantages of the medium. So it’s best to read them both!
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Are authors paid for work online?
 We at Coach House are well aware that the question of remunerating authors for online publication is, well, a can of worms. It has always been a key part of the Coach House Books mandate to work towards the establishment of precedents for ethical digital publication.
For the time being, this means that we are championing the shareware ‘try before you buy’ paradigm, which relies on the goodwill of the Internet reading public to remunerate the authors of our online books via the Coach House ‘tipping system’. If you’re a regular visitor to this site, and you haven’t tipped any of our authors yet (you cheap bastard), please consider doing so.
As veteran users of the Internet, we are also sadly aware of the shortcomings of the shareware paradigm. Due to the massive influx of new users on the Internet in recent years, the spirit of goodwill and fair usage that inspired the shareware ethic has been trampled under the virtual feet of a public greedy for new forms of cheap (read ‘free’) entertainment. Accordingly, we have decided to actively seek other sources of payment for our writers. Of course, like conventional writers, they receive royalties for the print editions of their books, but we believe that the extra work and risk involved in embarking on an entirely new form of publication demands extra compensation.
Our ongoing plans include serious forays into the scary bureaucratic world of electronic lending and reproduction rights. When all we were was half-a-dozen writers with a website, these questions didn’t matter much, but we now have dozens of full-length titles online. We hope that this pioneering work will allow us to have some say in the discussions that determine when and how authors are compensated for digital publishing. Wouldn’t it be nice, for once, if the criteria came up from the grass roots, instead of down from the top?
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What is ‘Tipping the Author’?
Why does it say ‘Order and Tip’ on each page of an online book?
Well, when someone buys a book, or when a Canadian library has a book in their collection, the author of the work gets paid. We at Coach House Books believe this should be equally true for electronic texts. Regardless of medium, authors deserve to be paid for their work.
In addition to lobbying for electronic lending rights, we’ve instituted a system of tipping our authors. It’s a simple concept: when you read a book on our site, you can pay the author a royalty. Any tip you give goes directly to the author or authors you select (CHB does not take a cut). Well, what are you waiting for: tip an author now …
For more info, see Are authors paid for work online?
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Can I copy stuff from CHBooks?
In a word, no. All the work on this site is copyrighted. Copying or any other use of our material infringes on the rights of the author of the work. And authors deserve to be paid. See our Copyright page for details.
There is one exception though: our downloadable Digital Ephemera may be distributed free of charge, in keeping with the terms laid out on the Copyright page.
Of course you can link to our site.
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What software does CHBooks require?
Well, if you’re reading this, you might not need anything else. The main part of our site now uses Flash (4 or higher)
Most of our books can be read with just about any browser, but some do require newer versions. As a general rule we recommend a level 4 browser or higher.
Some projects use RealAudio, QuarkImmedia or Shockwave Flash. They are all labelled, and provide links to the necessary sources for the free software.
Coach House believes that literature is for everyone, that’s why we try to maintain a site accessible to all browsers and other specialty equipment like braille-readers.
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How do I link to CHBooks?
 We welcome links from other sites to CHBooks. If you’re interested, you can even use this little animated button on your page. You can copy it from here or link to it with the following code:
<a href="http://www.chbooks.com/"><img src="http://www.chbooks.com/images/chbutton.gif" width=100 height=40 border=0 alt="Coach House Books"></a>
If you decide to link to any page other than our homepage http://www.chbooks.com/ please be aware that pages have a tendency to move, so check your links occasionally to make sure they’re still good.
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Who is CHBooks?
Coach House Books is a collaborative operation involving our regular staff and an ever-changing number of people from the writing, artistic, and publishing communities. And we all do a variety of work. But our primary staff and duties currently consists of:
Publisher: Stan Bevington was the founder and the original publisher of The Coach House Press in 1965. He is also the sole proprietor of Coach House Printing Ltd, a printer of fine books for the book trade since 1965. He has won numerous awards for design and is a pioneer in the use of computer technology in the realms of design, publishing and printing.
Editor: Alana Wilcox is a freelance editor and writer, and the author of A Grammar of Endings (The Mercury Press, 2000). In addition to editing the fiction list, she holds the enviable position of general paperwork person.
Managing editor: Jason McBride is a freelance writer and filmmaker. At CHB, he is responsible for all general administration, including publicity, marketing, order fulfillment, and sundry mountains of paperwork.
Poetry editor: Jay MillAr is a writer, editor, publisher, and bookseller. He lives in Toronto with his wife Hazel and their two sons, Reid and Cole. He is the author of The Ghosts of Jay Millar (2000), and Mycological Studies (2002), as well as a number of privately published editions. See his biography for more information.
Designer: Rick/Simon has been with Coach House Press/Printing, off and on, since 1967. He is an associate with a few art collectives, creating video and print design with VideoCabaret; costume design, percussion and stilt dancing with Shadowland on the Toronto Islands; and production design and performance with Caliloo Company in Trinidad & Tobago and Art Acts in Cleveland, Ohio.
Editorial consultant: Darren Wershler-Henry is a writer, critic, and former editor at Coach House Books. He of two books of poetry, Nicholodeon: a book of lowerglyphs, and the tapeworm foundry, which was shortlisted for the Trillium Prize. Darren is also the author or co-author of five books about technology and culture, including FREE as in speech and beer and Commonspace: Beyond Virtual Community (with Mark Surman). His most recent book is The Original Canadian City Dweller’s Almanac (with Hal Niedzviecki). See his biography for more information.
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Who prints CHBooks’ books?
 All our offset books are produced by Coach House Printing Ltd, a Toronto-based printer specializing in fine, short and medium run printing – books, art catalogs, journals, posters, postcards and much more. Full pre-press and design service is also available. For more information or for a quote, please contact:
John DeJesus
Coach House Printing
(416) 979-2217 or
1 800 367-6360 outside Toronto
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