Who we are
Renaissance was founded in May 2013 by a group of friends who wanted to publish and market those stories which don’t always fit neatly in a genre, or a niche, or a demographic. We weren’t sure what we wanted to publish exactly, so like the happy panbibliophiles that we are, we opened our submissions, with no other personal guideline than finding a Canadian book we would fall in love with enough that we would want to publish and sell.
Five years later, this is still very true; however, we’ve also noticed an interesting trend in what we tended to publish. It turns out that we are naturally drawn to the voices of those who are members of a marginalized group (people with disabilities, LGBTQIAPP2+ people, people of colour), and these are the voices we want to continue to uplift.
At Renaissance, we treat our authors like family. We are all authors and artists ourselves, and know that their books are their babies. With Renaissance, the authors are involved in every step of the process and their input is highly valued, though devoted committees take on the difficult tasks of copy editing, designing and marketing to achieve professional results. The authors are asked to do a minimal part of the marketing (for example, sharing our social media posts, inviting their circles to the launch, participating in blog tours) and will receive guidance and help every step of the way.
Who does what at Renaissance?
Renaissance started as a very tiny group of authors and book enthusiasts, and quickly grew to include amazing, passionate people who make up the team.
The executive committee manages the business as a whole, making financial and leadership decisions.
The acquisitions committee looks at the submissions we get in, and select the ones we will be publishing.
Our publishing team takes those manuscripts and turn them into books (or games).
Our authors/anthology editors give us the most important thing we have… books and games to publish!