History

McArthur & Company is a Canadian-owned and operated publisher and distributor of quality Canadian and international fiction and non-fiction for adults and children, based in Toronto.

It was founded in May 1998 when Time Warner closed Little, Brown Canada, the company Kim McArthur had started in Canada and run since 1987. McArthur found initial investors, hired most of the LBC staff, bought LBC backlist inventory and author contracts from Time Warner and started the new company three weeks after the closure.

In its first fourteen years, the company has had 75 bestsellers, 25 of them #1 bestsellers evenly split between Canadian and international authors. Its authors have been shortlisted for 25 Canadian awards and have won 7 of them. In 2009 Kate Pullinger's The Mistress of Nothing was awarded the Governor General's Award for Fiction. In 2003, we had two authors shortlisted for the prestigious Governor General's Award for Fiction (Jean McNeil's Private View and Edeet Ravel's Ten Thousand Lovers).

Canadian authors published by the company include Giller-nominee Nancy Huston, Governor General Award-nominee Kathy Page, Leacock Award-winner Marsha Boulton, Arthur Ellis Award-winners Rosemary Aubert, John Brady and James W. Nichol, Arthur Ellis Award-nominees Phyllis Smallman and Michael E. Rose, Charles Taylor-nominee Lisa Appignanesi and multiple award-winners AISLIN and Barry Callaghan, as well as Greg Gatenby, Donna Milner, Patrick Watson, Anne DeGrace and Marc Tetro, among others. International authors published by McArthur include Marc Levy, Stuart Clark, Stephen Clarke, Mark Billingham, the 2011 CWA Gold Dagger-shortlisted Denise Mina, Bryce Courtenay, Vikram Seth, Simon Sebag Montefiore, Justin Cartwright, Rosie Thomas, Colleen McCullough, and Marcia Willett.

In addition to its own publishing list, McArthur & Company acts as the exclusive agent in Canada for Unbridled Books, Birlinn (Scotland's largest independent publisher), Luath Press and the Wine Appreciation Guild. We offer national sales and marketing support through a network of 10 sales representatives across the country, and 5 in-house staff. McArthur & Company is a member of the Association of Canadian Publishers, the Canadian Booksellers Association and the Ontario Book Publishers Organization. HarperCollins Canada handles McArthur & Company's warehousing and distribution.

Kim McArthur was the winner of the Canadian Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Startup in 2001/2002, was recognized by The International Alliance for Woman with their World of Difference 100 Award in 2009, and has been listed as one of Canada's TOP 100 WOMAN BUSINESS OWNERS on the Profit list for 10 consecutive years. She served as Chair of the Book and Periodical Council (representing all book and magazine publishers in Canada) from 1998-2001. McArthur is currently on the Dean's Advisory Council, Wilfrid Laurier School of Business. She was one of WXN's Top 100 Most Powerful Women in Canada in 2007. She also founded and chaired the first two Book Lover's Balls for the Toronto Public Library Foundation in 2006 and 2007. In June 2005 Kim McArthur was awarded the Consumers Choice Award for Business Woman of the Year (GTA).

The publisher would like to acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and the Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing activities. The publisher further wishes to acknowledge the financial support of the Ontario Arts Council and the Ontario Media Development Corporation (OMDC) for our publishing program.