====================================================================

STEPHEN GILL : writer, publisher but a doer first

Alixe Carter, Staff Writer

=========================================================================

*Appeared in Ottawa Journal (daily)

Canada. Saturday, October 29, 1877, page 26.

CORNWALLB Stephen Gill, owner publisher of Vesta Publications, is not out to make money-- just a living for himself and his family. He also wants to discover and publish good obscure writers whom he calls "roses in the jungle." He also prints and makes his own books, which proves to be a profitable time saver.

He is not just a talker but a doer, and in five years has brought out 20 tiles. He knows how to promote his mostly Ontario authors and their books, using mainly a direct‑mailing system of sales to schools, colleges, libraries. In 1978, he expects to bring out 15 titles. One of them is his own book Immigrants.

I called on Gill recently lo talk lo him and to see for myself his unique operation. He has three basement rooms in his home jammed with books, new and second‑hand equipment. This includes an offset press, two vari‑type typesetters, a machine for "scoring" covers and a cutting machine for pages. Gill hires two full‑time people and another one for half days. He also hires freelance editors and summer students.

Wants grants survey

He has an Ontario Arts Council grant and is active with the Canadian Authors Association, and wants this organization to demand a survey of Canada Council grants for beginning authors. "They are just aren't doing the job they should," he told me bluntly.

Educated at Agra University, the University of Ottawa and Oxford, he has taught in Canada and Ethiopia. He is a World Federalist, an articulate and literate man who has published several of his own books. He told me fiction and poetry are hard to market. "Young people and middle‑aged women with time are the main readers."

But Gill publishes fiction and poetry because he believes in this art of writing. He is also running a contest for children's stories and is surprised at the superior quality of the work he has received. He welcomes inquiries at PO Box 1641, Cornwall, Ontario K6H 5V6

===============================================