After finishing his B.A. in English at U.B.C. in 1970, White saw the need for a local paper in Pender Harbour, so he and his wife started one, learning to do everything themselves, even running the printing press. He wrote and published stories he wanted to share with his community. Then, writers came to him with stories they wanted published in his paper. Since he had a printing press, others came to him as well to have their books printed.
In 1972, White published his now famous Raincoast Chronicles, a series of anthologies on B.C. coast history and culture, as a periodical. He, along with his wife Mary, then decided to start up their own book-publishing house to publish their books about British Columbia. Harbour Publishing emerged as an entity in 1974. Soon, other authors approached White, asking him to publish their books.
Even in its early stages, Harbour Publishing had a definite focus: to publish books that "tell the story of British Columbia."; Once again, White had seen a need in the publishing industry that hadn't been met adequately and decided to do something about it. He gives a large part of the credit for the success of his publishing company to this thematic type of publishing. He has seen a lot of other publishers, who didn't know what kind of books they wanted to do, fade away. Focusing on regional historical works has its challenges though. Along with the recent "retail market shift from independent small stores to chains and large discount stores";, has come a "resistance to regional books,"; which "makes it difficult to sell locally made products."; He says that Harbour Publishing is "struggling with it"; but at the same time has been "reasonably successful"; by changing their books to be more commercially viable.
White enjoys all parts of his job as a publisher saying, "If I didn't, I don't think I could have kept it up for 33 years."; And although he's now over 60 years old, he doesn't have plans to stop working as a publisher any time soon. As a writer himself, he enjoys the hands on aspect of editing. His favourite part is "bringing books from a concept into fulfillment."; He likes to talk to authors early on while their books are still being shaped by reviewing the writing and coaching the writers.
White says that it can be challenging to "persuade authors to make changes that they may not want to make. That just requires developing good diplomatic skills."; Analysis is often the best place to start this process. He reports mixed success with avoiding conflict, although he always tries to do this. "Some authors don't take direction very well. Mostly inexperienced authors are not prepared to have another person become involved in the writing process. They weren't educated to expect that. They were educated to think that it was up to the writer alone, so they have to get used to the idea of working with other people."; When agreement cannot be reached, White has sometimes been forced to decide between dropping a book or publishing it as written despite remaining flaws.
Although he claimed that he enjoys every aspect of his work, White did admit that there is one facet of his work that he, along with all other publishers, hates. He doesn't like to turn down people who want to be published. Unfortunately, this is a daily event, and there are lots of rejection slips to be sent. Someone else sifts through his slush pile for him leaving him to review the proposals with more potential. Regrettably, not even all good ideas from good writers can be accepted since there are always more submitted than can be used. Although he finds the process painful, he does not delegate this task to someone else. White does it himself; saying that it is simpler, and he wouldn't want to pass on "bad karma"; to someone else. He seldom has time to give feedback to rejected authors, but if their book has a lot of promise, he might redirect them or make suggestions on how to make it more acceptable.
As White looks back on his career as a publisher at Harbour Publishing, he wishes he had "cultivated and taken care of valuable authors"; more than he did, to keep them happy, focused, and generative. Some good, but untended writers started to write more slowly or stopped writing altogether. He regrets that he didn't take more time to try "to keep the successful writers producing.";
White would like to encourage anyone interested in publishing saying it's a great career. "It has satisfactions, which more than makes up for the low financial rewards."; He admits that publishing is fairly hard to get into but can be done with determination and stick-to-itiveness. One of the great things about publishing books is that one can look back and see what's been done. He says, "Books don't disappear,"; and Harbour Publishing has over 500 B.C. books in its catalogue. White sees this legacy as the most rewarding aspect of his publishing career.