For an imprint that is little more than four years old, Thomas Allen Publishers has taken some important steps toward establishing itself of late. The first big break came in 2002, when Austin Clarke’s The Polished Hoe won the Giller Prize. But almost as notably, two non-fiction titles on the imprint’s small list were solid bestsellers this spring. Ted Barris’s Juno: Canadians at D-Day, June 6, 1944 and Tom Harpur’s The Pagan Christ: Recovering the Lost Light have spent more than eight and 13 weeks, respectively, on the Q&Q bestseller list.

Thomas Allen publisher Patrick Crean is quick to admit that success or failure in publishing often comes down to luck – he never expected The Pagan Christ to do as well as it has, for example. But he and Jim Allen, the president of parent company Thomas Allen & Son, also attribute their imprint’s rising profile to a deliberate keep-it-small strategy. From the outset, they envisioned a boutique approach focused on a small number of books handled by a small publishing staff. And small it is. Besides Crean, the only Thomas Allen employees assigned specifically to the publishing imprint are managing editor Jim Gifford, new publishing assistant Stuart Laidlaw, and publicity manager Alyssa Stuart.

In publishing no more than 12 to 15 books per year, says Crean, Thomas Allen is able to woo authors with the promise of more personalized attention than they may receive at other houses. “You’re able to showcase and gain more attention for each book. So our philosophy is to publish fewer books but publish them very well. And in a book climate where arguably there are simply too many books being published, maybe this is in some small way an antidote to that.”

Financially, the imprint is also able to take advantage of the existing sales, marketing, and distribution staff at Thomas Allen & Son. While neither Allen nor Crean will comment on whether publishing operations are already self-sustaining, Allen says the imprint is “a part of the business that’s fully sustainable within the business that we already run.”

For Crean’s part, his publishing approach is somewhat old school, based on the belief that one hit should subsidize less commercially viable books on the list. “There are certain books that must be published, whether they’re profitable or not,” says Crean. “The successful books pull along and inform the rest of the list.” He calls The Pagan Christ, for example, one of the most important books he’s worked on in his career, and says he felt compelled to publish it regardless of commercial considerations.

That book has gone on to become one of the four best-selling titles in Thomas Allen Publishers’ brief career, along with Juno, The Polished Hoe, and last fall’s Scurvy, by Stephen Bown. The Austin Clarke novel has sold 35,000 copies in hardcover and 25,000 in softcover and is likely the imprint’s top performer, though Crean will not release sales figures for the others.

Crean, who has been more closely associated with fiction for much of his career, says the recent success of his non-fiction titles won’t change the company’s editorial direction. He intends to keep publishing no more than 15 titles per year, weighted equally in literary fiction and high-end non-fiction. His own interests run from the edgy, urban fiction of Cordelia Strube to a more conventional prose stylist like Cynthia Holz, as well as “big idea” non-fiction in the areas of history and esoterica/spirituality. “No one knows what will sell,” says Crean. “You have to publish according to your own tastes. I think it’s very important to allow one individual the chance to follow a vision and that if you publish by committee, you’ll end up with a very lumpy list.”

That said, Crean says he’s encouraging managing editor Gifford, who already edits the imprint’s non-fiction books, to make acquisitions of his own. So far, Gifford says, his schedule has been filled with the shepherding of the non-fiction titles, as well as overseeing production of all Thomas Allen titles. He did co-acquire The Pagan Christ with Crean and has pursued other projects, though none of them reached deals. Gifford says his own sensibilities are in line with Crean’s vision, with a special interest in history and travel narratives: “It’s a natural fit, really.” (An avowed history buff, Gifford will publish his first non-ghostwritten book this fall with Dundurn Press. It will be about Hurricane Hazel and coincide with the 50th anniversary of the storm.)

While Thomas Allen Publishers is Crean’s show to run, he says Jim Allen is integral in deciding on acquisitions. The president reads all proposals and manuscripts and then meets with Crean to debate the strength and marketing potential of each. “We both get quite emotional, and we’re not above having a good argument with each other,” says Allen, who notes that the final decision rests with Crean. “Despite our disagreements, it works. It is a genuine test of his belief in the book.” Crean says he relies on Allen’s sensibilities about which books will sell and how best to package and market them. “Especially with the non-fiction, if Jim feels he can’t sell it, I’ll back away,” he says.

That close relationship was essential in the early days, when the biggest challenges were building a list from scratch and gaining credibility. The imprint was founded in 2000, shortly after Allen took over the family business from his father, John. Founded in 1916, Thomas Allen & Son had been known primarily as a distributor since the 1950s – today, it represents 14 publishers in Canada, including Houghton Mifflin. But Allen had long dreamed of returning the company to its publishing roots.

His first call was to veteran editor Crean, with whom he’d worked at Somerville House for about 10 years. “We’d developed a strong relationship there, and Patrick’s enthusiasm has always piqued mine,” says Allen. Crean is hardly an unknown quantity in the industry, having worked at McClelland & Stewart and Somerville House and having briefly had his own imprint at Key Porter Books. Still, attracting authors to an upstart house with a small list proved daunting. “In the early days, to some extent, you get what you get,” says Allen. “The stars aren’t lining up at the door. So there have been a number of failures in the last few years, but they’re to be expected.”

Some authors did follow Crean – such as Strube, who has since published two novels with Thomas Allen – and he also managed to pick up such veterans as Leon Rooke and, of course, Austin Clarke. More recently, up and comers like Natalee Caple have moved to Thomas Allen. Says agent Dean Cooke, who has not yet sold a title to the imprint but has discussed various projects with Crean: “I think Patrick is sometimes at a disadvantage because he can’t offer the same kind of money up front [as larger publishers]. But that’s not always the issue on which we make our final decision. Patrick is very creative about offering to approach it from a different perspective.... There are things that he can propose doing that don’t necessarily have anything to do with the size of the advance.”

In the case of Alberto Manguel, Crean has published two short books in the past year that didn’t quite fit with the author’s usual publisher, Knopf Canada. Crean bought the rights to the novella Stevenson Under the Palm Trees from Jamie Byng at Scotland’s Canongate Books, which owns world English-language rights, and then published Manguel’s 120-page memoir, With Borges, this spring. “They’re not huge sellers in any way, but we’re very proud to have Alberto’s name on the list,” says Crean.

The Manguel case also highlights a common strategy: publishing multiple titles by an author quickly. In the imprint’s first year, Crean published Leon Rooke’s novel The Fall of Gravity; a year later, he followed that up with a volume of Rooke’s selected stories. He’s done the same thing with Austin Clarke and John Metcalf, and plans to follow up Stephen Guppy’s novel The Fire Thief, on this year’s spring list, with a collection of short stories next year. “It’s capitalizing on the author’s exposure in the media,” says Crean. “It’s part of how having a smaller list, we can showcase authors.”

Now more authors are seeking out Thomas Allen Publishers, and many of them are coming without agents in tow. Crean says half of his current year’s list is unagented, though only partly by design. “When you just rely on agents, it’s passive publishing,” he says. “It would be nice to see more active publishing, where you come up with ideas and commission people.” For example, after reading an article in The Globe and Mail about Mary Gordon’s Roots of Empathy program, which teaches children empathy through interaction with babies, Crean commissioned a book from her.

Juno author Ted Barris hadn’t even heard of Thomas Allen when Crean’s cousin, writer Susan Crean, referred him there. Juno, Barris’s 12th book, had been turned down by other publishers, but within a couple of days, he had a meeting with Crean and Gifford. “They were jumping out of their chairs, and for an author it’s heartening when publishers are excited,” says Barris, who began work on the manuscript right away in order to have it released in time for the D-Day anniversary in June.

Novelist David Gilmour also came to Thomas Allen from another publisher. Random House Canada had published four of his books but passed on his latest, says Gilmour; writer Dennis Lee then referred him to Crean. At their first meeting, Crean drew up a contract for the book, which Gilmour had rewritten 14 times over three years. Crean had his own doubts about the project – Gilmour describes the manuscript as having “obvious, unattractive, belligerent, woman-hating, dope-loving qualities” – but raised them subtly, suggesting that the author could either go ahead or else pursue a new novel. “What he was saying was, I’m investing in the writer. I’m not 100% sure about this book, but I’m going to leave that up to you to work out. In the space of one conversation, this guy has me throwing out the entire book he just bought and embarking on the creation of a new one. And he was right,” says Gilmour, who has begun a new novel. “That’s the essence of great editing, when someone opens up a pocket for you and allows the writer to move into it on his own.”

Among Thomas Allen’s upcoming projects are a new novel from poet Lynn Crosbie and, on the non-fiction side, a travel book by Scott Griffin, tentatively titled Lightning Over Africa. Crean is also excited about what he calls a men’s version of Dropped Threads, entitled What I Meant to Say and edited by author and broadcaster Ian Brown.

One area of the business the firm is hoping to grow is foreign rights. Instead of handling the rights in-house, the imprint works through Bill Hanna at Acacia House. “It’s been a slow process, but I think we’re getting there. The Pagan Christ is our breakthrough book in that area,” Crean says. Four U.S. houses bid on the title, with the rights going to George Gibson at Walker & Company. Crean says Hanna also sold rights to the book to Pascale Assathiany at Les Éditions du Boréal, in Montreal, as well as to a house in Holland.

As for the future direction of the Thomas Allen list, Crean says he doesn’t expect it to change much. “Publishing is hard that way – you’re only as good as your last season. The Polished Hoe was great, but after Juno and The Pagan Christ, I think that really cemented the fact that we’re now a presence.”