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A first for Scotland

Another idiosyncratic but no doubt invaluable survival tip from Yann Martel's delightful and astonishing story of a boy adrift in a lifeboat with a menagerie including a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger is: "Do not eat jellyfish. Or fish that are armed with spikes. Or that have parrot-like beaks. Or that puff up like balloons."

Life of Pi is Canadian author Martel's third novel and winning the coveted Man Booker will signify a triumphant landmark in his writing career. It is also a tremendous coup for Canongate, with an income of around £1 million in book sales anticipated on the back of the win. It is the first time that a book published in Scotland has won the prestigious literary prize around which there is always a blaze of publicity and often much heated debate.

An international perspective

Since 1994, when the company became independent following a management buyout, Canongate Books has emerged as one of the most dynamic publishing houses in the UK. Its agenda is to publish challenging, quality work from as broad a perspective as possible. The inclusion of Martel – and others – on their list is evidence that this perspective is truly international.

Another 'foreign' author prospering under the Canongate imprint is Michel Faber. Born in Holland and raised in Australia, Faber now lives in the Scottish Highlands. His remarkable new novel The Crimson Petal and the White has reached pole positions on the US and the UK book charts and the film option has just been snapped up by Columbia Pictures for a six figure sum.

But this innovative 'House' that, amongst other things, has segmented the Bible into slim and elegant 'pocket books', nurtures indigenous talent too. From Alan Spence's book of Haiku – Glasgow Zen – to The Great Book of Gaelic (see feature The Gaels: Alive and Kicking), which promises to be a publishing phenomenon, to the perfect bedside companion, The Assassin's Cloak (an anthology of the world's greatest diarists edited by Alan and Irene Taylor) Canongate works with Scottish writers of many an ilk to produce compelling books.

Variety is the spice of publishing

Canongate might be the flavour of the month but it is by no means a lone star in the Scots publishing firmament. Polygon, originally an imprint of Edinburgh University Press and now an imprint of Birlinn, was started by students in the 1960s. It has built up a distinctive list encompassing new fiction and poetry in both English and Gaelic. Every year it publishes the winners from Scotland's premier writing competition – The Scotland on Sunday/Macallan Short Story Competition – and the current champion of an impressive stable is Sandy McCall Smith whose No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency series has received world-wide acclaim and spectacular sales success.

Exciting publishing ventures are in full swing on other fronts too – often with grant-aid assistance from Scottish Arts Council. Itchy Coo is a new imprint of Black and White Publishing producing new works in Scots for young readers (see feature on Scots Language). Barrington Stoke publishes books for young people who experience difficulty in reading. Its innovative approach has proved very successful with sales throughout the UK. Floris Books specialises in the anthroposophical work of Rudolf Steiner and is very successful within this niche market, exporting around 70% of its turnover. And pre-eminent in what might traditionally be expected of Scottish publishing – books on Scottish history – is Tuckwell Press. The list is both academically highly reputable and unpredictable: recent titles include Twisted Sisters: Women, Crime and Deviance in Scotland since 1400 and A Kindly Place? Living in Sixteenth-Century Scotland.

Innovation comes in many guises and in the case of House of Lochar location is part of the equation. Based on the western island of Colonsay this must be one of the most remote publishing houses in the world. But such is the power of the internet that remoteness is no longer a barrier to purchasing – especially true in the case of books, which have fared well in this new medium.

Books are big bucks

In terms of overall value, the publishing industry in Scotland is worth about £180m per annum. This includes a heavyweight contribution from multi-nationals like HarperCollins and Chambers Harrap who are significant employers of literary professionals and contribute enormously to Scotland's reputation as a publishing centre. But even the independent sector contributes around £26m every year to the Scottish economy. Mainstream Publishing is the largest Scottish independent and no feature on the industry would be complete without a mention of DC Thomson who publish over 200 million magazines and newspapers every year including the Scots Magazine, Stitches and the legendary Beano comic. Now, Desperate Dan and Denis the Menace marooned in two simultaneously jammed, adjacent ski-lifts . . . could that be a contender for next year's Man Booker?

For further information and advice about publishing in Scotland contact the Scottish Publishers Association.