Family trio on the cutting edge of storytelling E-publishing company helps new authors break into the market
Aaron Epp Manitoba Correspondent
CALGARY, AB—Growing up in Swiſt Current, Saskatchewan, brothers Reg and Stephan Wiebe loved reading books. “We didn’t watch a lot of TV, we
didn’t play a lot of video games— books were the entertainment that we had an affinity for,” says Stephan, a 29-year-old art teach- er living in Calgary, who adds that Black Cauldron, Treasure Island and Te Black Stallion were some of his favourites. “Tese adventure kids books,
they were what I read all the time,” Stephan says. “I’ll still every once in a while go back and read one of them and get a lot of enjoyment out of it.” Now, Stephan and Reg, a
30-year-old PhD student, have written their own adventure novel for youth. Owen Grey and the Changeling tells the story of a 12-year-old boy who is kidnapped and taken to a fairy land, where he is forced to be a rich man’s ser- vant and must navigate mysteri- ous rooms and goblin prisoners in order to escape. Instead of going with a tra-
ditional book publisher, the Wiebes—along with their sis- ter-in-law, Krista Wiebe—have formed Parka Books, an indepen- dent digital press. Owen Grey and the Changeling is currently avail- able as the company’s first elec- tronic book (e-book). With Parka Books, the siblings
are aiming to be on the cutting edge of storytelling by using the digital medium to sell books that might not otherwise see the light of day. “My first love will always be
[physical] books, because I love reading and I love holding a book,” says Krista, 26, a freelance edi- tor living in Calgary. “But there’s something so neat about what’s taking place right now with this new technology and how we can use it to our advantage.” Owen Grey and the Changeling
is currently available for the Kindle e-book reader on
Amazon.com. Te company will soon launch ver- sions for the Kobo e-book reader and iBooks, the e-book application by Apple. A second book, written and illustrated by Stephan, will also be available soon.
20 • November 01, 2011 •
Top: Krista Wiebe, a freelance editor in Calgary, started Parka Books with her brothers-in-law, Reg and Stephan. Left: Owen Grey and the Changeling is the first publication from Parka Books, an independent digital press started by three CMU alumni.
Krista says one of the benefits of
publishing books electronically is the ease with which Parka Books can get its publications to readers. Stephan adds that another ben-
efit to the digital medium is that it keeps costs low, so they will be able to pay authors more for their work. Instead of only receiving 10 per
“My time at CMU influenced where I am and my philosophies. I met a lot of creative people who were trying things and willing to experiment with ideas.”
cent from the sale of their book, which they might with a regular book publisher, the author will be paid significantly more if they pub- lish with Parka Books. All three Wiebes are alumni of
Canadian Mennonite University (CMU). Stephan credits learning that one doesn’t need to follow the prescribed system to the time he spent studying at CMU. “My time at CMU influenced
where I am and my philosophies,” he says. “I met a lot of creative people who were trying [different] things and willing to experiment with ideas.” Reg, Stephan and Krista are look-
ing forward to working with other authors and publishing more books in the future. Writers can make sub- missions via
ParkaBooks.ca. “Publishing is such a tricky
Courtesy Krista Wiebe Stephan Wiebe
business and if your manuscript doesn’t fit into familiar niches, it oſten gets discarded,” Krista says.
“We want to take these books that are being rejected from big pub- lishing houses and really work with the authors and get them out to people. We want to get their work the recognition it deserves and find a readership for them.”
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