Alice Munro - Writing Her Lives

(Throughout, each side was estimating its real cost for the book versus their assumptions about those of the other; Macmillan assumed a sale of 10,000, while McClelland & Stewartthought 15,000 more realistic.) McKnight found this offer offensive and advocated going to arbitration. In the end Barber, who was handling the negotiations, persuaded Macmillan to accept a $40,000 payment, the return of the advance, and the 50–50 split of paperback monies contingent on Macmillan issuing all press releases. This was agreed to on April 16. There were details to work out, mostly connected to the publication of the paperback, but the agreement was signed and a public announcement made on April 29. The parties did not announce the amount Macmillan received but did say in the press release that it “was arrived at after extensive negotiation”; McKnight was quoted saying “The figure agreed to, plus the return of our advance and a share of the paperback income, made the settlement viable.” Barber was named as the initiator of the deal, and she “stated how delighted Alice Munro was with the professional manner of Macmillan in considering the sale of her contract.” Munro’s reasons for requesting the sale had “nothing to do with Macmillan’s performance as her publisher.” 24
    Munro’s and Barber’s comments notwithstanding, the immediate public reaction to the news of Munro’s move seemed to confirm McKnight’s concerns regarding Macmillan’s reputation. Writing in the
Toronto Star
Ken Adachi began his story by asserting that Gibson had “scored a coup by acquiring Canadian publishing rights to the work of Alice Munro from Macmillan.”
The Progress of Love
would inaugurate Douglas Gibson Books, a personal imprint of about ten books a year published by McClelland & Stewart, and Munro was quoted as saying she was following Gibson “because I have respect for his editorial abilities. But I’m glad there is someone like Doug in Canada.… He cares about books.” Adachi also reported that Hugh MacLennan and W.O. Mitchell, two other authors published by Macmillan, had signed with him. Macmillan, and McKnight’s comments on the sale, were relegated to the end of the story. The
Globe and Mail
, reporting the same information, did so under the headline “CanLit Luminaries Stick with Gibson.”
    Years before Munro encountered this situation, when
Moons
was just coming together and she needed to start looking for a Canadian publisher, Barber had expressed doubts about trade publishing atMacmillan. Gibson’s own move to McClelland & Stewart, and the decisions of Munro and other well-known authors to follow him, certainly did nothing to help Macmillan’s position. But for Munro, as she eloquently wrote in her letter to McKnight and said to Adachi, it was not about publishing; it was about the making of her books and the preservation of the ongoing relation she had established with Gibson. That she is still with him, five books later, confirms that mutual commitment. Such relations have been a hallmark of Munro’s career.
“I began to be almost a popular writer”:
The Progress of Love
    Even before the agreement between the publishers was finalized, McClelland & Stewart had set to work producing their edition of
The Progress of Love
. With Knopf handling the typesetting, the book was already in production in New York. Gibson and his colleagues had to confirm their contract with Munro, coordinate production with Knopf, and plan publicity. The contract was essentially the same one Munro had had with Macmillan (as regards advance and royalties), and McClelland & Stewart was able to offset from the Knopf typesetting, printing in Canada. For the first time, the U.S. and Canadian editions of Munro’s book would be published at effectively the same time, September 15 in the United States and September 20 in Canada – and Munro’s publicity tours dovetailed in September and October. British publication, this time by Chatto & Windus, followed in January 1987.
    As the first Douglas Gibson Book and one that came at a propitious moment in its author’s career,
The Progress of Love
received a considerable publicity push from McClelland & Stewart. Even before its acquisition was announced, in late April, they had arranged for 160 sets of bound galley proofs from Knopf’s printer. These were sent out well in advance of publication and made available to their salespeople. Meanwhile, Gibson had continued with his jacket