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Northwest Passages is a virtual bookstore and information resource for readers, scholars, and students of Canadian literature. Founded in 1996, by Rob Stocks and Paul Martin, Northwest Passages operates out of Kamloops, British Columbia, where Rob runs Mediaweb Solutions, and Edmonton, Alberta, where Paul is completing a PhD in Comparative Literature at the University of Alberta. As the enterprise has grown over the last three years, Sarah Bagshaw (Rob's wife) and Mona Martin (Paul's wife) have played increasingly important roles in the day-to-day operations of Northwest Passages. Rob and Paul also run poldy.com, the only bookstore on the web to specialize in different editions of the same title: James Joyce's Ulysses.
Northwest Passages, too, focuses on a very specific niche: Canadian fiction, poetry, drama, and literary criticism. By so doing, we have taken a deliberate step to position ourselves as the complete antithesis of the online superstores; rather than trying to address some of the needs of everyone, we have chosen to focus on all of the needs of a particular group of readers. By staying within our area of expertise, we can work to meet our goal of providing excellent, informative, and highly personalised service to our customers, something the superstores are simply unable to achieve.
Rob Stocks and I first began chatting about the internet and bookselling in 1995. He and his wife Sarah had been talking about opening a bookstore-café and I had been building web pages for some Canadian literature courses I was teaching. After Rob and Sarah temporarily shelved plans for opening a store (I predict we'll see a Bagshaw-Stocks book emporium somewhere down the line. Or will that be Stocks-Bagshaw . . .), I suggested to Rob he consider looking into the booming business of developing web pages. Little did Rob and I realize at the time that in a few short years Rob's fledgling company would become a major player on the web development scene in British Columbia. Of course, during that same period . . . well, I'm still working on my PhD. :)
It was around that same time in 1995 that Rob and I also started tossing around the idea of opening up a bookstore on the web. Working on a PhD on Comparative Canadian Literature at the University of Alberta, I had been in touch with numerous professors and students from around the world who were having a hard time buying Canadian books. Equally important, these people also craved up-to-date information on the world of Canadian literature, something which can be hard to come by when you live in Turin, Toowoomba, or, for that matter, Tennessee. And so, Northwest Passages was born.
When we went online in the summer of 1996, we had two main goals: to promote Canadian literature worldwide via the internet and, frankly, to sell a few books. Before we were even officially up and running, we already had our first customer, a graduate student from Italy who needed her books so quickly she was unable to wait until our store was open to place her order. Daniela's was the first of many international orders we've filled.
Italian scholars and students of Canadian literature have perhaps been our best and most regular customers (thanks David!), but over the last three years we've also filled orders from Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, Syria, France, Germany, Spain, England, the Czech Republic, the United States, Brazil, and the list goes on. Most rewarding of all have been the Canadian Studies libraries in the Czech Republic, Italy, and Syria that we've helped to get off the ground.
What remains most important to us, though, is to fill our mandate of promoting Canadian literature at home and abroad. We are proud to be the web's largest source of information on Canadian literature. Our author profiles and bibliographies are, in fact, the most visited pages on our site, followed closely by our links page which lists close to 500 sites directly related to Canadian literature and culture.
To serve our customers and visitors better, we embarked on a series of major renovations to the site in the Spring of 1999. Premiering on July 1, 1999, the new-look Northwest Passages has a fully searchable database which will be far more user friendly, while still allowing them to "browse" the site alphabetically as they did before. Developed by the Mediaweb Solutions, the "B.O.S.S. (Best Online Store Solution) will make it much easier for us to keep the database extremely current and will also allow us to add more information about each title. One of the more beneficial improvements to the user interface is the addition of secure on-line ordering and a shopping basket.
An equally exciting improvement to the site's content is the debut of French-language texts on our site from publishers including Les Éditions du Boréal, XYZ éditeur, and Seuil, the prestigious French publisher of writers like Anne Hébert and Robert Lalonde. Over the next several months we will be establishing relationships with other French publishers from Québec. We firmly believe, after all, that if we want to promote and sell the literature of Canada, our site should include all of it.
To institute these changes and to increase the time we can afford to spend on the site, we have also started selling banner ads. Unlike all the other Canadian and American online superstores, though, none of the content on our site will ever be paid for by publishers. We will continue to guarantee that no feature space on our site will ever be available for purchase. The choices of feature titles and authors will always be made by us alone (though we always welcome your suggestions and especially your own profile contributions).
To close, I'd like to add that Rob and I are extremely grateful for all the support we've received from people around the globe. People often mention our very personalized service. It's precisely that contact with visitors and customers alike, that helps make Northwest Passages such a blast for Rob and myself. Being able to use our own expertise on a daily basis, talking to people from all over the world, and helping readers find great books make this a job like none we've ever had. For that reason, no matter how large the site and company grows over the next several years, Northwest Passages will remain true to everything that inspired its creation: friendship, enthusiasm, entrepreneurship, and a love of great books.
Paul Martin
July 1, 1999
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Northwest Passages 628 Penzer Street Kamloops, BC, V2C 3G5 CANADA |
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telephone: 250-372-1972 toll free: 1-877-7CANLIT fax: 250-374-0915 e-mail: info@nwpassages.com |
©1996-1999 Northwest Passages.Site created by MediaWeb Solutions & Northwest Passages using The B.O.S.S. |
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