Mad River Publishing is a new publisher located in the picturesque southern Georgian Bay community of Creemore, and we believe we have a new philosophy of publishing and selling books. Mad River Publishing was established in March 2002 with two primary purposes: publishing writers from/in Ontario and/or on subjects about Ontario, while specializing in selling our books over the Internet.

In traditional publishing, the "pie" is cut in four slices. Publishers and the distributors take as much as 65-70% of the selling price, with chain bookstores getting another 25%. This leaves just 5-10% for the author. As a result, it is seldom economically worthwhile for anyone to even bother writing a book. And with distributors getting about 30%, even publishers are left with a very small margin after expenses. This explains why the Canadian publishing industry is on life-support and is generally unwilling to take a risk on unproven authors. We at Mad River Publishing believe that eliminating the distributors and marketing directly to the public will benefit our authors and ourselves, by making our slices much larger.

As well, we also have chosen to focus our efforts on promoting books about Ontario and with writers from Ontario. We see a real gap in Canadian publishing for those from this province, even though there are many terrific stories and writers here just waiting to be discovered. Because traditional publishers do not see unproven authors as viable, and focus on "best sellers", we are small and prefer to seek out niche markets. As a result, if you want to be rich or famous like Margaret Atwood or John Grisham, we're not for you ... although we might be able to give you a start.

If you have an idea or a manuscript you think is worth consideration, just give us a chance to be your publisher. Even if you're looking beyond us, we may be able to help you clean up your work. Mad River Publishing is for you!

If you want to read superior authors on topics that mean something to your life, or your neighbour on her family, Mad River Publishing is for you!

Mad River Publishing ... We have books you want to read!