BookThug Sets Sights on Changing Its Name

Quill & Quire has a piece this week about Toronto publishers Jay and Hazel MillAr of BookThug, who are considering a change of the press's name, and a general rebrand, upon years of realizing that the use of "thug" is troublesome for many. The topic first came up at the 2014 AWP in Seattle. Sue Carter reports:

In January 2016, BookThug once again received demands to change its name when it became the target of a focused Twitter campaign (initiated by another, this time, Canadian, graduate student). Despite accusations that BookThug was not addressing the issue, actions were underway, albeit quietly. “We decided right from the beginning that we wanted to think about this, and we wanted to discuss it in-house, and we had meetings with key players within our organization, and even talked with other publishers in the industry,” says MillAr.

Through those discussions, the couple also realized that perhaps BookThug had outgrown its moniker. ‘“It’s a really great name for a scrappy upstart new kid on the block, punkish kind of press that really wants to push against the status quo,” says MillAr. “It’s interesting that all of this is happening during our 13th year of operation. Thirteen is coming of age, right? But 13 years in, having had books shortlisted for and with major awards, we have had this huge conversation about what literature is in this country. We’ve done the hard work that a young, punk, upstart thing should do, and now we’re kind of established.”

The reality, however, of being established as a recognized brand – especially in an industry that works many seasons ahead – is that a name change can’t happen overnight. And it’s costly, especially for a small operation on a shoestring budget.

“It’s a top-down, clear-across-the-board rebrand that’s going to involve our logo, our website, our social media,” says Millar. “What do we do with the 14 years of books that we have in the world that will exist and remain in print as BookThug books? There are so many different questions to solve still, and clearly we can’t reprint and reissue all of those books, so the only thing we can envision is that it will have to exist as an imprint of sorts. Every time we sit down we realize there’s one more thing that we hadn’t yet given thought to.”

To help facilitate the process and offset costs, BookThug received a grant from the Ontario Media Development Corporation to hire a rebranding specialist...

Read the full article at Quill & Quire.