Your competitors have websites. You will have a published legacy.
A corporate legacy book records what your organization built, in your own words, to a standard that belongs on a boardroom table rather than in a recycling bin. Anniversary books, founder and executive memoirs, and community impact publications, written, designed, printed and delivered by an independent Canadian publisher.
THE CASE
The anniversary passes. The book stays.
Most milestone budgets get spent on things with a shelf life of one evening. A gala, a video, a set of branded gifts that end up in a drawer. Twelve months later there is very little left to show for it.
A book behaves differently. It sits in reception. It goes into onboarding packages for new executives. It gets handed across the table in a pitch, and the other side keeps it. Ten years from now it is still the document your organization points to when someone asks how this place started.
What it does that a website cannot
It survives leadership transitions. Institutional memory tends to leave with the people who hold it. A book fixes the record before that happens.
It carries weight a page cannot. A well made hardcover signals permanence, and permanence is the thing a prospective client is quietly assessing.
It belongs to your people. Employees who see their own work and names in a published book read it very differently from a corporate history posted online.
It works for years. Not a campaign with an end date. An asset.
WHAT WE PUBLISH
Three kinds of book.
Corporate anniversary books
For organizations marking a 25th, 50th, 75th or 100th year. We work from your archives, your photographs and interviews with the people who were there, and produce a narrative history rather than a scrapbook. Milestone timelines, founder and leadership stories, turning points, and where the organization is heading next.
Founder and executive memoirs
For leaders who built something and want it recorded properly. Full ghostwriting through to editorial support on an existing draft. Your story, in your voice, with the rigour of a trade publication.
Community impact and donor legacy books
For foundations, charities and organizations with a social mandate. Community impact and corporate responsibility publications, endowment and donor legacy books, and organizational histories for institutions that need to show their work over decades rather than quarters.
HOW MUCH OF IT YOU DO
Four levels of involvement.
Model
Ghostwriting
How it works
We interview you and the people around you, then write the manuscript in your voice. You review and approve every chapter.
Right for you if
You have the story and no time to write it
Model
Collaborative writing
How it works
You write drafts and we develop and strengthen them through structured editorial sessions.
Right for you if
You want to write it yourself but need a professional beside you
Model
Editorial development only
How it works
You have a manuscript. We shape it into something publishable.
Right for you if
The draft exists and needs an editor, not a writer
Model
Full publication support
How it works
Cover design, interior layout, photo research, printing and delivery to a bookstore quality standard.
Right for you if
The words are finished and the production is the gap
PROCESS
Six stages, ninety to one hundred and eighty days.
-
Discovery
We meet your leadership team, establish what the book is for, who receives it, and what it has to accomplish. You get a written scope and a fixed quotation before anything begins.
-
Research and interviews
Archive review, photograph selection, and recorded interviews with founders, long serving staff, clients or community members. We handle scheduling and transcription.
-
Writing
Chapter by chapter, submitted in stages so you are never handed a finished manuscript you have not been part of shaping.
-
Design and layout
A custom layout using your brand colours, typefaces and imagery. Not a template.
-
Review, proof and approval
Multiple approval rounds. Your team signs off on every word, image and design element before anything goes to print.
-
Print and delivery
Premium options including hardcover, sewn binding, foil stamping and embossing, delivered in custom packaging.
Typical timeline is 90 to 180 days from discovery to delivery, depending on length and how quickly interviews and approvals move on your side. Anniversary books should start at least nine months ahead of the date you want to hand them out.
EDITIONS
One book, several editions.
Edition
Hardcover coffee table edition
Purpose
Executive, board and partner gifting. The version that lives in reception and on desks.
Edition
Employee commemorative edition
Purpose
A lighter production run for company-wide distribution, so every member of staff receives one.
Edition
Limited collector's run
Purpose
Numbered, specially bound copies for founders, retiring executives and major donors.
Edition
Digital edition
Purpose
For global teams, shareholders and archival distribution.
Most clients commission two editions, a premium run for external gifting and a standard run for staff. We will advise on the split at quotation.
INVESTMENT
Three starting points.
Package
Heritage
Includes
Up to 80 pages. Three stakeholder interviews. Professional copywriting, custom layout and design, ISBN registration, digital edition, and 100 hardcover copies.
From
$8,500
Package
Legacy
Includes
Up to 180 pages. Eight or more stakeholder interviews. Photo research and curation, foil stamping and embossing, custom gift box packaging, press and media support, and 250 premium hardcover copies.
From
$18,500
Package
Dynasty
Includes
Two hundred pages or more. Executive and employee interviews, original photography sessions, museum quality production, 500 or more copies with custom cases, distribution options and launch event consultation
From
$38,000
All pricing is in Canadian dollars and excludes HST. A three part payment schedule is standard. Additional print runs are quoted separately and are considerably cheaper once the book has been typeset. USD quotations available on request.
WHY US
A publisher, not a marketing agency with a printer.
-
We publish books for a living.
Over one hundred titles and services delivered for independent authors. Corporate work runs through the same editorial process as everything else on our list.
-
Canadian, and we know the landscape.
Based in Mississauga, serving clients across Canada and internationally. We understand the multicultural business environment our clients operate in because it is the environment we came out of.
-
Short runs get the same care as long ones.
One hundred copies or five thousand, the editorial and design standard does not change.
-
Your story stays yours.
You hold the rights. We do the work.
Frequently asked questions
-
You do, entirely. Copyright, files and rights sit with your organization. We do not retain publishing rights on corporate commissions.
-
Realistically, a project sponsor for a few hours a month, plus interview time from the people whose stories are in the book. Most delays come from approval cycles rather than from writing, so agreeing your sign-off chain early is the single best thing you can do.
-
Most worthwhile ones do. A book that omits every hard year reads as marketing and your employees will notice first. We will discuss how to handle it honestly, and you retain final approval on every word.
-
Usually yes. Archives, old annual reports, photographs, oral histories and prior anniversary materials all shorten the research phase and reduce cost.
-
Yes. If a full book is not the right scale, we also produce commemorative booklets and shorter publications. Say so on the call and we will price accordingly rather than pushing you toward something larger.