When Bob Tyrrell founded Orca Book Publishers in 1984, it was not with the plan to become a children’s book publisher. Orca’s first title was a guide to Vancouver Island’s pubs co-authored by Tyrrell and Boyd Corrigan, and in the early years the focus was regional publishing with titles in history, biography, and outdoor recreation. 

The first children’s book was published in 1990, and the 1991 – very much B.C.-inspired – picture book Waiting for the Whales by Ron Lightburn and Sheryl McFarlane won the Governor General’s Award for illustration. Maxine’s Tree, a picture book published in 1992, gained attention when a logger on the Sunshine Coast tried to have it banned. These events moved Tyrrell to shift the focus of Orca’s publishing program to books for young readers.

The company now has 1,000 titles in print, and publishes more than 80 new books a year (87 in 2024). The program ranges from board books and picture books to children’s nonfiction, juvenile and teen fiction, and series fiction for all ages. The success of series aimed at struggling readers (Orca Currents, Orca Soundings, and Orca Anchor) over the last two decades enabled the publisher to gain a strong foothold in both the trade and institutional markets. Orca has a focus on books with environmental and social justice themes, and has been actively engaged in publishing Indigenous content, in Indigenous languages (dual-language editions) – such as My Heart Fills With Happiness by Monique Gray Smith and Sherry Flett and Speaking our Truth: A Journey of Reconciliation (2017) by Monique Grey Smith – collaborating with creators from racialized communities, and publishing titles simultaneously in French and English.

Orca Book Publishers at 40: A visual timeline, 1984–2024

 Owner and publisher Andrew Wooldridge, who has been with Orca for 32 years became co-owner with Tyrrell over time in the 2000s, taking over as CEO in 2008. He became full owner in 2017 when Tyrrell retired. Associate publisher Ruth Linka, the co-founder of literary press Brindle & Glass, joined Orca in 2014 and became co-owner in 2018.

Now one of the largest independent publishers in the country, Orca Book Publishers manages its own distribution and conducts virtually all publishing activities in-house, from warehousing and distribution to editorial, sales, marketing, and promotion. The main office is based in an early 20th-century house in Victoria, B.C. In the early 1990s, Orca established its own Canadian distribution arm with a Victoria warehouse, and shortly expanded Orca Book Distribution to the U.S. – the satellite warehouse is located in Ferndale, Washington – with an initial list including Second Story Press, Raincoast, and Douglas & McIntyre. Orca currently provides distribution to 17 different publishers in the U.S. and Canada, 16 in the U.S., and nine in Canada, with some distributed in both countries.