Canadian writer Rebecca Eckler is launching an independent publishing house that aims to platform female voices.
The Toronto author and journalist announced Monday that RE:books Publishing has lined up a slate of seven books that fulfil the imprint's mission to make reading feel like fun rather than a chore.
Eckler says the success of her weekly RE:books newsletter, which has more than 35,000 subscribers, has shown that there's an appetite for titles that prize entertainment over lofty notions of literary merit.
The former National Post columnist says she returned to school in 2020 to learn about the business side of publishing.
Eckler says she found the highfalutin tastes of the publishing industry weren't connecting with many book buyers who gravitate to genres such as romance and thrillers.
Eckler says she decided to invest in her own imprint that would buck staid publishing practices to tap into the demand for stories by female writers.
"My tag line is: 'What's read is good, and what's good is read,'" Eckler said by phone Monday. "I would love to see more female voices. And I would like to see people be less snobby about what people read."
Having covered topics ranging from relationships to motherhood in 10 titles, Eckler said she's ready to trade in her pen for a behind-the-scenes role supporting rising talent as a publisher and editor.
RE:books won't be bound by traditional book release schedule, she said, which tends to cluster new titles by season. That will also make the publishing house less reliant on big-box booksellers, Eckler added.
"I'm just going to release books when they're ... ready. And whenever I want to," she said. "There's many, many other places that people buy books that are not in your traditional bookstore."
RE:books is set to publish its debut title, "I Married a Thrill-Seeker," a memoir by Danielle Kaplan about dealing with her adrenalin-addicted husband's antics, on Nov. 22.
RE:books is also hosting a summer writing contest to find a new author to add to its roster.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 18, 2022.
Adina Bresge, The Canadian Press
