Dear Mark Carney.

I wonder if the Major Projects Office might be open to building a new Canadian Publishing Pipeline to bring our books to readers around the world.

People smarter than me will have to work out detailed formulas. But basically, the idea is to get publishers and writers pulling together.

We all know Canadian book publishers are on the ropes. The main reason is that they have too little money. They keep bringing out new writers but can’t afford to pay them more than a pittance. Those writers, when they get a chance, move on to big, foreign-owned houses. Yes, I did it myself. Here’s the thing: writers, too, like to eat.

But what if we built a new Publishing Pipeline? One that would enable Canadian publishers to offer competitive advances – for example, not $6,000 but $60,000 per book? And what if they had an additional $40,000 per book for promotion and distribution – to support book tours, for example, or buy access to Indigo endcaps and tables.

This pipeline would operate on top of and in addition to all existing programs.

How would funds be allocated? On a sliding scale based on annual revenues. Otherwise, no strings attached. No stipulations. No social engineering. No juries hovering over block-grant applications.

A small committee applies a simple formula. That committee could stand alone or be run, perhaps, through the Access Copyright Foundation.

Key mechanism: the money flows through Canadian publishers, but sixty per cent of all funds go to Canadian writers.

Let’s say the pipeline delivers $100,000 per book to the publisher. And 60 per cent of that, or $60,000, is to be relayed to the writer as an advance, leaving $40,000 for publishing expenses.

But this is where those smart financial folk swing into action. Currently, Canada’s Public Lending Right Program disburses almost $15 million per year. And thank heavens for that! Pleas for an increase are forever falling on deaf ears.

But what if we spent that same amount, $15 million a year, on operating this new pipeline.

Say a given publisher were to receive $500,000.  Of that, it would be required to distribute $300,000 directly to writers in advances. But given that total, a house could publish five books with advances of $60,000 each or ten books at $30,000 (call that the base bottom). Or two books at $150,000. Or any combination thereof. Suddenly, they become competitive.

Publishers already have skin in the game. They want to publish books that do well.

When they succeed, they get rewarded. Yup, this is what free-market publishing looks like.

Let’s build a pipeline to bring Canadian books to the world.

Merry Christmas to you! Sincerely, a Canadian writer.

(Painting of Lake Louise by Sheena Fraser McGoogan)