A Conversation with Leigh Nash

Invisible Publishing

invisible publishing

is a “small, scrappy, and seriously good” (1) publishing company based in Prince Edward County, Ontario. I find their mission to build “communities that sustain and encourage engaging, literary, and current writing” (2) inspiring. Reading about the publisher’s mission and various initiatives left me wanting to know more about how Invisible succeeds at standing out in the industry. With a keen eye for design, Invisible’s book covers make this small publisher so unique and adept at capturing the attention of readers across Canada.

Leigh Nash

is the publisher of Invisible. She is the author of the poetry collection Goodbye, Ukulele (3), and enjoys reading tarot cards and practicing yoga in her spare time. Leigh was kind enough to chat virtually with me and answer a few of my questions.

Olivia Costa: One of the first elements of Invisible Publishing that I noticed when browsing your catalogue was your incredible design and attention to detail. You refer in the “what we do” section of your website to having a “DIY-done-right style;” what inspired you to have this approach, and what is the production process like?

Leigh Nash: All of our covers are designed in-house by our art director, the inimitable Megan Fildes! (4) Megan is one of Invisible’s founders, and she is 100% responsible for the press’ aesthetic, which you’ve rightfully flagged as flowing through to all parts of our publishing process. We work hard to make sure we’re doing right by our authors and their work, whether that’s crafting pitch-perfect cover copy or packing up orders with care or dreaming up hook-y promo schemes. I took over Invisible from founding publisher Robbie MacGregor in 2015, and so I inherited much of Invisible’s branding, and I’m a big subscriber of “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it!” Most of our production is done in-house by me and Megan (we do outsource editorial work on occasion), up to sending the books to print; we’ve also standardized a few things, like our trim sizes and font choices, which helps us to keep costs down, and gives our list its cohesive feel.

OC: Congratulations on becoming a Benetech Global Certified Accessible Publisher! (6) What is your approach to accessible publishing? 

LN: Thanks! We think books should be able to be enjoyed by all readers, and that’s what motivated us to pursue certification via a pilot project between eBOUND Canada (7) and Benetech. We make all our e-books in-house, so it was fairly easy for us to adapt our workflow to meet Benetech’s standards. E-books are made available to readers with different needs by really great organizations like the NNELS (8) and CELA (9), and we’re pleased to be able to contribute to and share the workload. We’re trying to lead by example: if a small firm like Invisible can make accessible e-books, then other publishers should be able to do that work too.

OC: You take a sustainable approach when producing your books. What does this approach mean to you, and how do you balance sustainable printing with the rising need for accessible e-books? 

LN: We try to be as sustainable as possible while recognizing that print books need paper (which means cutting down trees) to exist, and e-books need devices (built on technology that requires mining the earth) to be read! We don’t see one format as any more eco-friendly than another; they all have trade-offs. For print, we use Rolland Enviro paper (10) for our covers and interiors, and we print in small batches to meet demand, then reprint as necessary, which lets us avoid shipping tonnes of extra boxes of books around the continent just to end up pulping them. We also try to use as little plastic or tape as possible in our operations, and we pay for carbon offsets (an imperfect system, but better than nothing) for the emissions we can’t avoid.

OC: Your website features reading guides (11) that complement some of the books that you have published. How did you pick which books you wanted to create these guides for? How do you create these guides?

LN: These guides are written by a book’s author as a letter to potential readers—we ask our authors to write them, but they’re optional, which is why there isn’t a complete set. Not every promotional opportunity is a fit for every author! We envisioned the reading guides as a way to connect our authors with readers, and while we hope they’re useful to book clubs, we also use them in our media kit as part of the book’s promotional outreach.

OC: As a smaller publisher, how do you determine which books you choose to publish? Do you think that your audience looks for specific books from Invisible that they can’t find elsewhere?   

LN: The reality is that as publisher, I’m the one who gives projects the green light. We have a great crew of editors acquiring books, and they all have a good sense of personal taste, and an understanding of what makes an Invisible book. We’ve built an internal “strike zone” that we hold manuscripts up to for evaluation, and that helps us to decide the extent to which a manuscript is a good fit for us. I think we’re developing a bit of a reputation for publishing fun books and beautiful writing, but while our list is broad in what we publish, it’s small in quantity—we only do 10 titles a year—so we’ll always be a bit of a niche publisher.

OC: Invisible Publishing is a not-for-profit publisher: how does this business model differ from a “traditional” publisher?

LN: At Invisible, running as a non-profit is two things: first, a tax status (we don’t pay corporate taxes, but that also means we don’t get tax credits, so it’s a bit of a trade-off); and second, it means we take a collective approach to everything from acquisitions to promotion, and any money the company makes is reinvested in our authors and promoting their work. Our articles of incorporation keep us honest and working toward our mission, which, in addition to publishing books, is to support the work of emerging and under-published Canadian authors. Lots of for-profit publishing companies run in similar ways—we just decided to embrace the fact that independent publishing is more a labour of love than a money-making venture.

OC: You have a great holiday sale happening right now that benefits both authors and their readers. What is the process behind creating your creative campaigns?  

LN: We love a catchy promotion! There are couple of things that motivate us to think outside the discount box:

1. In the book business, there’s a lot of deep discounting and remaindering that happens, which tends to drive down the value of books. (Book cover prices haven’t really increased in two decades!) We don’t want to train readers to only buy our books when they’re on sale, because we think they’re still a really good deal even at full price. This means we have to find other ways to incentivize readers to buy our books, especially during Black Friday.

2. While we love a discount, at Invisible, we pay net royalties to our authors, which means if we put books on sale, we end up paying our authors less at royalty time, which isn’t cool. So that keeps us creative: what levers can we pull to entice readers to shop our titles other than discounting? Usually, one of us has an idea that we bring to the team, and then we all work to test the limits and refine it until it’s fit for public consumption. In addition to doubling royalties, we’ve also donated a percentage of our sales to other community-minded organizations, and offered limited-edition swag with book purchases.

The Canadian publishing industry would not be as successful as it is today without small publishers like Invisible who are dedicated to publishing the best books for their readers. Invisible Publishing’s design, sustainability efforts, and focus on their readership is what makes them one of my favourite small presses. I want to thank Leigh again for taking the time to answer my questions and share her insight and passion for publishing. 

1 | You can visit Invisible Publishing at invisiblepublishing.com, and follow @invisibooks on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

2 | Check out the “Who We Are” section of Invisible’s website at invisiblepublishing.com/about to learn more about their mission.

3 | Goodbye, Ukulele was published in September 2010 by Mansfield Press. mansfieldpress.net.

4 | Megan Fildes is the art director for Invisible Publishing and a freelance graphic designer. She runs her own store, Pin Action, where she crafts and sells hand-painted wood accessories. pinactionhfx.square.site.

5 | After stepping down from his position as publisher, Robbie received a master’s degree in Computer Science from Dalhousie University and now works as a cybersecurity administrator.

6 | Benetech’s Global Certified Accessible (GCA) certification verifies e-book accessibility and helps publishers create content that is accessible for all readers. bornaccessible.benetech.org.

7 | eBOUND Canada helps publishers advance their digital engagement by offering conversion, distribution, digital asset management, and research services. eboundcanada.org.

8 | As discussed in our conversation with Amanda Leduc, The National Network for Equitable Library Service (NNELS) makes books that are in accessible formats available to Canadian readers with print disabilities. nnels.ca.

9 | As we also discussed with Amanda Leduc, The Centre for Equitable Library Access (CELA) is a Canadian accessible library service for readers with print disabilities. celalibrary.ca.

10 | Rolland Enviro is a leader in high environmental standards as their paper is made with 100% recycled content to leave the smallest environmental footprint possible. rollandinc.com.

11 | Check out Invisible Publishing’s reading guides at invisiblepublishing.com/reading-guides.

olivia costa

is a writer, editor, musician, and avid reader of all things fantasy. She is the Publishing & Web Intern for The Ampersand Review of Writing & Publishing. She lives in Mississauga, where she studies in the Honours Bachelor of Creative Writing & Publishing program at Sheridan College.