Their loss is our gain. While there are no more free lunches for American authors being wooed by Pepper, their famished Canadian counterparts may soon by lining up at his door. After six years as vice-president and senior editor at the Crown Publishing Group, Pepper, 42, is returning to his hometown of Toronto at the end of the month to take over the conjoined posts of president and publisher of McClelland & Stewart.
The appointment is fraught with expectation. M&S may be a storied Canadian institution, but it is flailing financially despite back-office support from a 25-per-cent ownership stake by the Canadian branch of Random House. Pepper, a bright fellow who sports a Rolex and a catholic interest, is supposed to be the silver bullet.
He's a youthful whiz on a fast track who ascended to VP and editorial director of Random House of Canada by acquiring and editing books such as Carol Shields's The Stone Diaries, before the parent company found a spot in its New York-based Crown division to see if he could survive in a bigger shark pond.
He proved an agile swimmer with a sharp snap of his own. While at Crown, Pepper published 70 to 75 titles, mostly non-fiction. Some were gentle missives, like a couple of quirky illustrative books by Bruce McCall, and Charles Siebert's current memoir A Man After His Own Heart. But the projects that made Pepper's name were forged with a savvy eye to potential headlines that would launch them up the bestseller lists.
Pepper, seen here outside Random House in New York, says he's going to be 'very involved in structuring, or restructuring,' the non-fiction side. (Neville Elder/The Globe and Mail)
Some of his greatest successes were screeds by pugilist-pundits from both sides of the television screen: curdled yelpers like Ann Coulter, the rabid blond dog of the right, and David Brock, a former member of the "right-wing conspiracy" who became a liberal poster boy.
The books helped contribute to the politically polarized culture in the United States, which may offer an unsettling glimpse of the effect Pepper hopes to have back in Canada.
"Editors sometimes are expected to rally 'round only one flag, and I think Doug showed you can do it with both sides, have fun and be successful," said agent Glen Hartley. The unusual balancing act was perfectly suited to Pepper, whose own political persuasions are buried, in the grand tradition of American publishing, somewhere deep under the brutal imperative to make his numbers.
"Things are so stratified here in the States, as to having to come down in such black-and-white terms on one side or another," says Pepper, ordering a glass of retsina. "I find that culture very alienating. I mean, it's good for book sales, because people almost vote with their buying of books. Whether it's Joe Conason, Al Franken, Michael Moore on one side or it's Ann Coulter or [Sean] Hannity on the other side, that really, really stratified culture just brings people to the table in a way that doesn't quite happen in Canada, for better or worse.
"I think Canadians are no less politically minded, in different ways," he says. "But I don't necessarily see any real programs out there that are publishing towards that." Pepper wants to back books that make news, that get the country talking, that create conversation. He points to Roméo Dallaire's memoir of the Rwanda massacre as an example of an unexpected newsmaker.
"I think there are a lot of very good non-fiction writers and journalists in Canada, and I think it's important that there's a house that really sort of specializes in that. Not only sitting there waiting for agents to come up with ideas and send proposals in, but watching the news and reading the newspaper and going to dinner parties and hearing what people have to say and then saying, 'Hey, there's a book here,' then finding the right writer for it.
"While I am the president and publisher and there's only so much time to actually edit the books, I'm going to be very, very involved in the acquisition of specific books," he says, adding a comment that might chill some M&S staffers. "I'm also going to be very involved in structuring, or restructuring, a non-fiction side of the house." He suggests there might even be another imprint, focusing on non-fiction. "Nothing says 'growth' like another imprint," he notes.
Pepper wants authors who could sell into other territories. This may lead The Canadian Publisher, as McClelland & Stewart calls itself, into books that aren't on strictly Canadian subjects. "It'll be emphasizing, as always, the Canadian writer," he insists, "and then as far as subject matter goes, we'll see. But it begins and ends, as far as I'm concerned, that The Canadian Publisher is all about The Canadian Author, and not necessarily The Canadian Subjects.
"I believe that borders have their purposes, but when it comes to art and when it comes to publishing, I do not want to be stuck in borders."
The cross-border traffic will go the other way, too. "Bringing Canada to the world, and the world to Canada," says Pepper, offering a pithy summation of the approach he expects to take. "I'm coming from six years here, and I have a lot of contacts and I've worked with a lot of big authors here who are not Canadian but are not necessarily writing about non-Canadian things. I think their books could sell very well in fiction and non-fiction." He says he'll likely continue to edit Jonathan Kozol, who is writing a book about racial segregation in American schools.
Pepper may be eager to face the challenges at M&S, but it's hard not to notice that he seems to get the most excited when talking about being in the middle of the scene down here. He'll miss the nutty competition that sometimes sends the prices of books skyrocketing at auction among houses.
"I like being in the fray, I love to win, I hate to lose this kind of stuff," he says, still showing pain over losing out years ago on Fast Food Nation, one of the first books he bid on at Crown. "But here, you can lose it, just -- boom!" He snaps his fingers. "When everyone's in there, you're battling away, you're at 150 [thousand dollars], someone's at 200, somebody else is at 250, and you're all jockeying it out, you're trying to figure out from your own house where you should be, and you're running the numbers, and then wham! Somebody comes in at 500 and boom! Off it goes.
"You know," he says, sitting back and taking a sip of retsina, "There's less of that in Canada."
He's looking forward to the changes, both professional and personal. He and his wife have a daughter who is turning 2 this summer. They just bought a six-bedroom home in Toronto, and it'll be nice to have a large backyard where she can run around rather than having to watch her every move at the playgrounds in lower Manhattan. Mainly, though, Pepper is curious to find out what it will be like to be able to follow his gut, to see if he can help rescue a legend in Canadian publishing.
"You can as an editor sometimes just get a little tired of asking everybody else's opinion," he admits. "It'll be nice to say, 'You know what? This is where I think McClelland & Stewart should go. These are the kinds of books we should have on the list' -- and then go for them and be able to work with smart people to get them. And not have to jump through a lot of hoops.
"If you make too many mistakes, you're done. If you have successes, well, you're everybody's hero."
