Vancouver-based publishing agency Page Two Strategies has found success with the first commissioned title released on its new in-house imprint, Page Two Books. The Unofficial Pokémon Go! Tracker’s Guide: Finding the Rarest Pokémon and Strangest PokéStops on the Planet
‚ conceived by Page Two co-founders Trena White and Jesse Finkelstein‚ has sold 30,000 copies of its initial print run in Canada, with the remaining 30,000 to be sold across the U.S., U.K., Asia‚ and Australia.

White says the long-term plan was always for Page Two to publish a title of its own. Three years into the business, the duo felt they had acquired the financial stability‚ expertise‚ and confidence to do so.

“We always imagined our book to be about publishing, but just hadn’t quite thought of an idea that seemed like it could really take off. It just happened that the idea we discovered was about Pokémon Go. We were poised and ready to just run with it‚” White says. “We became, like everybody, aware of the huge Pokémon Go craze and felt that there had to be a book in it. We saw a market opportunity.”

The book‚ written by Toronto game designer and George Brown College video-game instructor Adam Claire‚ distinguishes itself from pre-existing titles about the gaming app by focusing on the phenomenon of Pokémon Go’s user experience and player stories rather than the game itself.

The guide was completed within just a few months after it was commissioned. Similar to the process used when working on a client’s title‚ Page Two quickly assembled a team that included Claire and art director Peter Cocking‚ with distribution services from Publishers Group Canada and Publishers Group West. “Obviously speed was of the essence, because we wanted it to come out while Pokémon Go was still a phenomenon‚ and also before Christmas‚” says White.

Though there are no plans for other titles in the immediate future‚ White says Page Two will remain open to more publishing projects on a case-by-case basis. “We don’t see ourselves taking submissions like a traditional publisher,” she says. “They’d likely be projects we commission because we see a market gap‚ and have the flexibility and nimbleness to move very quickly and pull off a project like this one.”