Book Publishing Support: Emerging Publisher Grants
Deadline
1 November
If this date falls on a weekend or statutory holiday, the deadline moves to the next business day. Your completed application form and all support material must be postmarked on or before the deadline. A completed Title Analysis Report form must accompany each title (the form can be obtained from the Canada Council for the Arts’ website or the Writing and Publishing Section Officer).
Applicants who have met this deadline may also submit new eligible titles published during the month of November, no later than 10 December with completed Title Analysis Report forms.
The Canada Council will not accept incomplete applications, applications sent after the deadline date, or those sent by fax or email.
Program Description
As part of fulfilling its mandate to foster the production and enjoyment of the arts in Canada, the Canada Council for the Arts provides financial assistance to Canadian publishers to offset the costs of publishing Canadian trade books that make a significant contribution to the development of Canadian literature. This assistance is made available through Emerging Publisher Grants (for emerging publishers) and Block Grants (for established publishers).
Emerging Publisher Grants provide funding for one year, and Block Grants provide one- or two-year grants.
Book publishers receiving Emerging Publisher Grants are also eligible to apply for Translation Grants, Author Promotion Tour assistance or grants for the publication of art books. Information on these program components is available on the Canada Council’s website or from the Writing and Publishing Section.
Eligibility
Emerging Publisher Grants assist publishing houses that have published a minimum of four and a maximum of 15 eligible titles and that demonstrate the potential to play an active role in the development of Canadian literature.
First-time applicants to the Book Publishing Support program must apply to the Emerging Publisher Grants component, even if they have published 16 or more eligible titles. Applicants must receive an Emerging Publisher Grant before they can apply to the Block Grants component.
Publishers that were successful in their last application for an Emerging Publisher Grant and have published 16 or more eligible titles are no longer eligible to apply to this component. They must apply instead to the Block Grants component.
All Canada Council for the Arts programs are accessible to Aboriginal artists or arts organizations, and artists or arts organizations from diverse cultural and regional communities of Canada.
Publisher Eligibility
To be eligible for Emerging Publisher Grants support, a publishing company must:
- have its head office in Canada, maintain editorial control in Canada and be at least 75 percent Canadian-owned
- maintain full control over editorial processes, have editorial independence from any other company receiving Book Publishing Support from the Canada Council for the Arts, and produce separate financial statements
- have book publishing as its primary, rather than a peripheral or occasional, activity
- have at least four eligible titles in print and be committed to a sustained trade book publishing program, consisting of titles by a variety of authors (Aboriginal-controlled book publishers with fewer than four eligible titles in print should contact the Writing and Publishing Section Officer to discuss their situation.)
- use appropriate and effective means to market, distribute and create public awareness of its publications
- issue clear royalty statements on a regular basis and have fulfilled all contractual obligations to writers, illustrators, translators and other copyright licensors; no grants will be issued to publishers that owe outstanding payments to writers, illustrators, translators and (or) other copyright licensors as of the application deadline.
Title Eligibility
Reprints of any kind are not eligible for support from the Emerging Publisher Grants component.
Eligible Titles
You must submit only eligible titles with your application for funding.
To be eligible, a title must:
- contain at least 50 percent Canadian-authored creative content (text or graphic)
- have at least 48 printed pages between the covers (with the exception of children’s books, which must contain at least 24 printed pages)
- have a print run of at least 300 copies
- be published principally in English, French or one of Canada’s Aboriginal languages, and
- acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, if produced by a publisher already receiving Book Publishing Support.
Because the Canada Council’s mandate includes supporting production in the literary arts, and the study of literature and the arts, only titles in the following categories are eligible:
- fiction
- poetry
- drama
- graphic novel (more than 47 pages)
- publications for children and young adults, except those in ineligible categories (see below)
- literary non-fiction.
The Canada Council defines literary non-fiction as narrative text about real events, people or ideas, where the writer’s voice and opinion are evident and the narrative is set within a context and a critical framework. The work should be accessible to a general reading audience and cannot be intended for a specialized or academic readership. Eligible literary non-fiction titles make a significant contribution to literature, or to information about the arts or to the enjoyment of writing by Canadians. Titles within the following subjects are eligible, if they meet all other eligibility criteria: art, architecture, biography, history, literary criticism, nature, philosophy, politics, reference, social sciences, sports and travel.
Audio productions are eligible if they would be eligible for support as books and they are professionally produced on CD, DVD or in other digital formats.
Books on the arts or architecture may be eligible for support under a special category. For details, contact the Writing and Publishing Section Officer.
Ineligible Titles
Titles that are not eligible for support by the Canada Council include:
- those with a print run of more than 25,000 copies
- those not printed in Canada, except international co-editions or full-colour, highly illustrated books from an eligible genre (but you must be able to demonstrate that printing at a competitive price was not available in Canada)
- saddle-stitched books, except illustrated books for children or books of poetry (but no more than 50 percent of the poetry titles produced by the publishing house per year may be saddle-stitched)
- academic, scholarly or educational publications destined primarily for an educational or scholarly market
- catalogues of visual art exhibitions (in other words, a publication of one or more visual artists’ work related to a specific exhibition, which includes one or more of the following elements: detailed information regarding the exhibition, a list of works exhibited, an artist’s statement and provenance of the works)
- reference books, unless they are about the arts
- books with text that is primarily short captions, quotations, jokes or sayings
- calendars, agendas, almanacs and cookbooks
- guidebooks, including travel, nature and gastronomy guides
- publications that describe how-to techniques, skills or games
- colouring and activity books
- trivia and quiz books
- autobiographies that emphasize personal growth (in other words, those that focus on self-actualization, self-improvement, or devotional or spiritual practice)
- psychology and self-help books
- professional manuals and reference books intended for a specialized audience
- illustrated non-fiction publications containing fewer than 10,000 words (unless they make a significant artistic or literary contribution)
- publications commissioned or paid for by an individual, group, political party or company where the applicant does not have complete and independent editorial control (if the copyright for an eligible title is held by an organization, a government department or the Crown, you must include contract details in the Title Analysis Report form that you submit with each title)
- co-publications with governments, government departments or agencies, except titles that are co-published with museums or art galleries
- publications for which the author receives no royalties (royalties must be paid on each copy of a book sold)
- books to which the author has contributed financially toward the publication costs (this includes an author’s obligation to purchase a given number of copies of his or her book as a condition of publication)
- books for which 50 percent or more of the print run is pre-sold outside normal trade bookselling channels and book clubs
- publications written by owners or employees of your publishing house, unless these titles represent less than 25 percent of the house’s program each year (an exception can be made for publishing collectives, but you must make a special request)
- collections of previously published articles, transcripts of broadcasts and conference papers, unless they make a significant literary contribution (as defined above for eligible literary non-fiction)
- verbatim interviews, unless they make a significant literary contribution (as defined above for eligible literary non-fiction), and
- books containing prominently displayed advertising, promotional material and (or) corporate logos.
If you wish to obtain a preliminary assessment of a title’s eligibility, send a written request to the Writing and Publishing Section Officer. Include a copy of the finished publication and a completed Title Analysis Report form (see the cover page for information on how to obtain this form).
You must request assessments of title eligibility on or before 15 September.
Grant Amount
Funding ranges between $5,000 and $30,000, as recommended by the peer assessment committee. The grants are for a period of 12 months, beginning on 1 December of the year that you apply and ending on 30 November of the following year.
Application Form
Book Publishing Support: Emerging Publisher Grants
This form can only be printed and cannot be filled out on-line.
Title Analysis for Book Publishing Support (2006 Titles)
This form can only be printed and cannot be filled out on-line.
Further Information
Carole Boucher
Writing and Publishing Section Officer
Canada Council for the Arts
350 Albert Street, P.O. Box 1047
Ottawa ON K1P 5V8
Telephone: 1-800-263-5588 (toll-free) or 613-566-4414, ext. 5088
TTY (TDD) machine, for hearing-impaired callers: 613-565-5194
Fax: 613-566-4410
August 2007