Layoffs, closures, dwindling sales numbers in several sectors: for many people working in print media, the past six months have not been pretty. As readers, writers, and publishers gear up to celebrate B.C. Book & Magazine Week (April 18 to 25), they're doing so in one of the most difficult times the industry has ever faced. Last month, for instance, both Today's Vancouver Woman (formerly Shared Vision magazine) and My Vancouver (formerly Vancouver Lifestyles Magazine) ceased publication, while the children's literary mag Crow Toes Quarterly is in a fight to keep its print edition alive.

"I really don't think anybody's safe," admits Jenn Farrell, vice president of the B.C. Association of Magazine Publishers. "I think everybody is just trying really hard to maintain things. If ad revenue is a big thing for them [magazine publishers], they're trying to keep those advertisers. If it's not, then smaller magazines and cultural magazines, in particular, are working really hard to advocate to maintain their funding."

Most worrying for the industry are the changes looming at the federal level, where the Canada Magazine Fund and the Publications Assistance Program are set to be merged next year into the new Canadian Periodical Fund. At a February news conference announcing the reorganization, Heritage Minister James Moore said that magazines may have to meet a base paid circulation of 5,000. That statement struck fear into the hearts of many small, homegrown publishers-including John Barton, editor of the literary journal the Malahat Review, who launched a Facebook group called Coalition to Keep Canadian Heritage Support for Literary and Arts Magazines, which now counts more than 3,400 members.

"Our primary concern right now is that this streamlining [of funding] seems to cut a lot of smaller publishers off at the knees," says Farrell, who insists that despite the doom and gloom, there is room for optimism. "A lot of publishers, both on the book and magazine side, are experts at doing more with less," she notes. "I mean, these are people that can leverage funding like nobody's business, and can spin straw into gold a lot of the time.…We're a pretty indefatigable bunch of folks."

Adding more hope to the situation is that, according to Margaret Reynolds, executive director of the Association of Book Publishers of British Columbia, the state of the province's books industry is far from grim. The economy "is certainly affecting [publishing] houses in the States," she acknowledges, "but it doesn't seem to be having a huge impact on publishers here. There's anxiousness around it, just like everybody's experiencing, and nobody really knows what's going to happen. But we're not seeing huge downturns in sales." In fact, she says, "quite often that's the case in recessions, that books manage to do okay, because they're relatively cheap entertainment and accessible, and all of those things."

Recent figures seem to support Reynolds's view. According to a report issued earlier this week by the Toronto-based industry organization BookNet Canada, the volume of book sales during the first three months of this year is up 6.7 percent over the same period last year.

Which gives all the more reason to party next week. Among other festivities, there will be the launch of three new books: Arsenal Pulp Press's queer women's horror-erotica anthology Fist of the Spider Woman: Tales of Fear and Queer Desire (April 18, 8 p.m., at Rhizome Café), edited by Amber Dawn; Anvil Press's A Verse Map of Vancouver, a lavish collection of poetry about the city's neighbourhoods, edited by George McWhirter and illustrated with photographs by Derek von Essen (April 21, 7 p.m., at the Central Library's Alice MacKay Room); and The Life And Art of David Marshall by Monika Ullman, Mother Tongue Publishing's first book in its Unheralded Artists of B.C. series (April 23, 7 p.m., at the Bellevue Gallery in West Vancouver).

Also worth checking out are the How to Get Published panel (April 18, 3 p.m., in the Alma VanDusen and Peter Kaye rooms at the Central Library), where publishers and editors will offer tips to aspiring writers; the Magazine Cabaret (April 21, 7 p.m., at the Railway Club), where authors including Timothy Taylor, Paul Carlucci, and Diane Tucker will read from recent published work; and, of course, the free B.C. Book Prize Soirée (April 18, 7 p.m., at the Metropolitan Hotel's Cristal Room), where award finalists will be celebrated before the big B.C. Book Prize Gala (April 25, 5:30 p.m., at the Marriott Pinnacle Downtown Hotel).

According to both Farrell and Reynolds, however, the must-do event of the week is the Main Street Literary Tour (April 23, 6 p.m., beginning at Café Montmartre). Guided by writer, filmmaker, and performance artist Amber Dawn or by poet Jennica Harper (depending on which of the two tours you choose), you'll visit the neighbourhood's artist-run galleries, boutiques, and cafés, and enjoy musical performances, panel discussions, and readings along the way.

"It's become a real cornerstone for us," Farrell says, "and it's really fun because it engages book audiences and magazine audiences.…It's a fun night out, almost like a pub crawl, and it wraps up with a big party in the end." And there's something to be said for happy endings-particularly in times of economic woe.