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REFLECTIONS ON 40 YEARS

Messages from Authors, Staff and Colleagues

Joel Solomon, author of The Clean Money Revolution

New Society Publishers sets a high bar for integrity, meaning & purpose. I'm proud to be part of their catalogue and legacy body of pragmatic changemaking guidance for the uncertain times ahead.


Stu Abraham, Abraham Associates

Happy Anniversary to New Society. Hard to believe it has been 40 years and I have enjoyed working with you for many of those. I will add that selling the New Society titles is one of the favorite things that I do. Looking forward to many more years of great publishing and to a new society in 2021.


Sue Custance, Publishing Director, New Society Publishers

Having our 40th Anniversary during a pandemic is quite fitting for a company that’s tagline is “tools for troubled times”. These times certainly are troubled and therefore this work has never been more important. I am honored to work alongside the compassionate, smart, and dedicated folks who are seeking a more just and equitable future; our publishing team, our amazing authors, our partners, our collaborators and, our readers. Happy Anniversary everyone and thank you for marching with us!


Judith Brand, Copyeditor New Society Publishers

Congratulations to New Society Publishers on their 40th anniversary! As a freelancer, I have been privileged to edit, proof, and index their books for over twenty years. Their publications continue to provide the impetus and knowledge for making positive changes in our world, showing how individuals, communities, businesses, and institutions can effect global sustainability. Thanks to New Society, our future is brighter.


Murray Reiss, Copyeditor New Society Publishers

As a copyeditor for NSP, I’ve lived more lives than I can count. I’ve raised bees and goats, built with cordwood and grid beams, saved the world by drinking beer, brewed kombucha and made cheese from cashews, planted winter gardens and food forests, found community, humanized the economy, and in general, over more than forty books, helped give readers the tools they need to make this world a better place. And working with the people at NSP, first Ingrid, and now Sue, along with Greg — always there to answer questions and steer just the right book my way — has certainly made my world a whole lot better.


Bob Willard, author of The Sustainability Champion's Guidebook, The New Sustainability Advantage and The Next Sustainability Wave 

Me and NSP

I couldn’t find it. It was the summer of 2000. I had flown, driven and ferried to Gabriola Island to meet the folks who agreed to publish my first book. After the 20-minute ferry ride from Nanaimo, I drove leisurely along the island’s main road looking for the NSP office building. All I had was the Box 189 address, but I was confident that I would see an office complex and find them there. Arriving back at the island ferry terminal where I had started, I realized that I had driven the island circuit and missed it. No office complex; no NSP. So, I did the all-island tour again. More slowly.  

This time, I finally noticed a hopeful sign at what looked like a park entrance. I hesitantly drove down the gravel path. And there it was. A quaint house surrounded by office cabins. Chris and Judith Plant welcomed me and gave me a tour. That’s when I knew how lucky I was to be connected with people whose business reflected their values. An electric tractor sat beside a huge vegetable garden. The main office was Chris and Judith’s home, heated by a wood fireplace in the middle of the living room. I write about sustainability; these folks live sustainability.  

Over the years, NSP has published four of my books. Various NSP team members and I have occasionally connected in airports or at conferences where they have set up book kiosks. They have helped me in so many ways and I am very proud to be part of NSP’s extended family. I admire the courage it took for them to weather the storms in the publishing industry and create an innovative social enterprise, partly owned by an Employee Trust. No wonder they are an award-winning B Corp.

Congratulations on your 40th anniversary, NSP Team! You are a Canadian treasure!


Ian Le Cheminant, Copyeditor New Society Publishers

Congratulations to you and all the staff at New Society on 40 years in the publishing business. It has been a pleasure to provide copy editing services to New Society as an independent contractor for the past seven years. I have taken the anniversary as an occasion to review your website materials outlining the history and the unique business structure of New Society Publishers.

Trusting that you will continue to flourish during challenging times,


Saffron Beckwith, Ampersand Inc

One of my favourite moments in all of my publishing career was sitting outside the NSP office on Gabriola Island, in the garden, shucking peas we had just picked for our lunch and going over marketing plans…you guys live as you work…awesomely!


Blake Cothron, author of Pawpaws: The Complete Growing and Marketing Guide

New Society Gives New Authors Opportunities.

As a new author, I was unsure how to go about professionally publishing my work. I contacted a number of popular publishers and was rejected. I looked into self-publishing, but found this confusing and many of the self publishing businesses questionable. I then contacted New Society, who I was familiar with based on a few of their titles I owned on the topic of organic farming. I submitted my manuscript (also on organic farming, particularly, growing pawpaw trees,). I was surprised by the immediate interest and enthusiasm. Soon we worked out the details and my book was on the way to being published. It was very encouraging. Being a new author and getting published is challenging work. New Society saw something in my work worth pursuing, despite the fact I had never had a book published before, and the manuscript was on a very specific topic. It's this sort of out of the box thinking and visionary leadership at New Society that I believe has helped them to succeed as long as they have, as well as their ethical and generous treatment of their authors. Also their environmental commitment is strong and sincere and is more important than ever, and has undoubtedly assisted in their success. I wish New Society many more decades or more of service to humanity through publishing useful and proactive books in a non- environmentally destructive, regenerative way.


Emily Johnson, Abraham Associates

Congratulations on an impressive anniversary! This is a tough year to have such a wonderful number to celebrate, but we're all so grateful to you for your work, and we'll clink our glasses in your honor from afar.

I'm very proud to get to sell your books, and look forward to many more years of working together! Best wishes.


Sara Reeves, Marketing Manager, New Society Publishers

It has been one of my greatest joys in life being able to work with such a compassionate, talented, dedicated, passionate, loving group of people. And to be part of a company that doesn't follow societal rules laid out for us but dares to forge a new path, a new way of being in the world. We are not perfect, but I don't think we pretend to be.

I thank Kip and Judith for laying the groundwork and welcoming me into the fold oh so many years ago. When I was younger and more optimistic and was sure I could change the world. It has been wonderful growing older with you all (and your children) , and maybe now a little less optimistic but still full of hope, and I think you all changed my world!


Gerhard Aichelberger, Sales Representative, Friesens Corporation

Happy 40th Anniversary to all of you at New Society Publishers!

I have been working with New Society Publishers for going on 20 years now in my capacity as their sales representative for Friesens Corporation, where we have the good fortune to print many of their beautiful books. I have to say that in all my years as a sales representative, New Society stands out as one of the most mutually beneficial and solid relationships I have ever been a part of. The rules of a successful relationship of any type are pretty basic, respect, understanding, trust, transparency, empathy, to name a few. The employee-owners at New Society just get it. They always have right from the beginning of my relationship with them. We trust each other completely, we hold each other up when one side has an issue, we understand that we are all human and that nothing is perfect while still striving for perfection in everything we do. In short, New Society is the type of customer that most sales reps can only dream of having a relationship with. Thank you for all the great years so far you guys, and here is to many more!


Peter Ladner, author of The Urban Food Revolution

New Society stepped up with a generous advance that enabled me to write The Urban Food Revolution, then did all the heavy lifting to get it into the hands of thousands of readers. So many thanks!


Cecile Andrews, author of Living Room Revolution, Less Is More and Slow is Beautiful

I had the wonderful experience many years ago of standing at a book table at a conference looking over the books. All of a sudden it hit me! So many of the books I owned were NSP books! “Well,” I thought, I want them to be my publisher too!” And now they have published 3 of my books, Living Room Revolution, Less Is More, and Slow Is Beautiful.


And as we face the possibility of more Trump, Living Room Revolution is particularly helpful as I explore how we can make a difference in our everyday lives.


Chip Haynes, author of The Practical Cyclist and Wearing Smaller Shoes

They say you’ll always remember your first one, and boy howdy yep. Sure, I wrote fifty books after that, but man, that first one! What a thrill! Through a series of quirks and burps on a web site devoted to global oil issues (go figure), I ended up getting an offer from New Society Publishers to write a book on bicycling. The Practical Cyclist was born! My first published book! I’mmmmm Sommmmebody!

Now, do keep in mind that I had no idea what I was doing (still don’t), but all of my new best friends on a small island on the other side of the continent were absolutely wonderful, and made sure I did what I had to do to get it right. Everyone at New Society was (IS) a joy to play with, and I am honored that they are my primary publisher. They were my first. That The Practical Cyclist won a medal was the total icing on that tasty cake.

So, forty years? Cool beans. There’s no doubt in my mind that in those forty years New Society Publishers had made a tremendous number of people very happy, both readers and writers. Hey, I’m still thrilled. (Can ya tell?) So keep up the good work over there! We’re all counting on you! Now, about those other fifty books…


Rob West, Acquisitions, New Society Publishers

New Society is a way of living the dictum that a small group of committed individuals can indeed change the world for the better. Together, with our authors, we make books alive with ideas that act as levers to change the world far beyond what we could do as individuals.