Very few countries in the world are offering such a welcoming and generous climate for authors and publishers than Canada. Benefits for Canadian literature starts already with free ISBN’s in Canada:
The Government of Canada is committed to ensure that readers everywhere have opportunities to connect with a broad range of Canadian-authored books by providing funding and support to the Canadian book industry, professional writers, Canadian periodicals and small publishers (You!).
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Grants for Professional Writers: Creative Writing.
The Grants for Professional Writers program covers subsistence, project and travel expenses. The Creative Writing Grants component gives Canadian authors (emerging, mid-career and established) time to write new literary works, including novels, short stories, poetry, children’s and young adults’ literature, graphic novels, exploratory writing and literary non-fiction. Deadline October 1, 2016
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Emerging Writers:
Grants for emerging writers are intended for writers who have published one literary book with a professional publishing house or the minimum of past literary publications required, as detailed in the eligibility criteria. Grant Amount $3,000 – $12,000
Mid-Career Writers:
Mid-career writers must have published between two and five literary books (all genres included) with a professional publishing house. The grant amounts offered are from $3,000 to $25,000
Established Writers:
Established writers must have published at least six literary books (all genres included) with a professional publishing house. The grant amounts offered are from $3,000 to $25,000
Eligibility: To apply to the Canada Council for the Arts, you must be a Canadian citizen or have permanent resident status. You must also meet the Canada Council’s definition of a professional artist, which is an artist who:
- has specialized training in the artistic field (not necessarily in academic institutions)
- is recognized as a professional by his or her peers (artists working in the same artistic tradition), and
- is committed to devoting more time to artistic activity, if possible financially.
To meet the definition of a professional creative writer, you must also have:
- at least one literary book published by a professional publishing house, or
- for fiction, a minimum of four texts of creative literary writing (e.g. short stories, excerpts from a novel) published on two separate occasions in literary magazines, recognized periodicals (including general interest magazines), or anthologies published by professional publishing houses, or
- for poetry, a minimum of 10 published poems is required, or
for literary non-fiction, a minimum of 40 pages (10,000 words) of literary articles published in literary magazines, recognized periodicals or anthologies published by professional publishing houses.
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Travel Grants for Canadian Writers.
Want to attend a Writing class in Iceland? Or you received an invitation to a writer’s residency in Canada? Apply: Travel Grants for Professional Writers – Grant amount $500 – $2,500
Travel Grants enable writers, translators, literary performers, spoken word artists and storytellers to:
- respond to invitations to specific international literary events that are important to their artistic development and career or:
- within Canada, participate in a writer’s residency.
Deadline is anytime – until Nov 30, 2016 – travelling needs to be before January 31, 2017, as this program ends
Get all the details from the Canadian Council.
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Change in Policies: All existing programs will end by March 31, 2017
There is a new Funding Model: A considerable increase in the Canada Council’s financial resources confirmed in the federal budget announced on 22 March 2016, are the good news.
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Registering and Validating Eligibility:
Like any individual artist, artistic group or arts organization, the organizations that will be impacted by this assessment will need to register in the Council’s Web portal, which will be accessible as of December 2016. Deadlines for core funding applications: July 1st 2017.
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Literary Publishers (Books and Magazines) will receive 2 years of core funding for the organization’s fiscal years beginning 2017 and 2018
An arts organization that is not currently receiving core funding, but wishes to, can also apply for a project grant under another component. However, if the project grant comes from a component that is not available to core grant recipients, the organization will be required to choose between the core grant or the project grant. Organizations that currently receive core funding can also opt to apply for project grants from now on.
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Writer’s Residencies.
“The Canada Council Author Residencies program goes to universities and public libraries, with community-run residencies at writers’ houses receiving proportionally less funding. This difference in funding is reflected in the honoraria paid to writers in residence at various types of residency hosts.
University-based writer-in-residence appointments are well paid (the author appointed to McMaster University receives a stipend of $20,000 for a four-month term). Public library–based writer-in-residence appointments are also well paid (the author appointed to the Vancouver Public Library in 2008 received a stipend of $16,000 for a four-month term). Writers in residence at community-run residencies at writers’ houses are somewhat less well paid (the 2010 writer in residence at Historic Joy Kogawa House received an honorarium of $7,500 for a three-month appointment, plus furnished accommodation valued at $1,500 per month, for a total of $12,000 over three months)” informs a web page.
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See in detail who get’s what in an article about the Canada Council Author Residencies Grant Awards by the Simon-Fraser-University in Vancouver, BC.
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The (CBF) – Support for Publishers offers:
Publishing Support component strengthens the Canadian book industry by providing financial assistance to publishers for the ongoing production, marketing and distribution of Canadian-authored books. Supplementary funding based on export sales is also available as part of Publishing Support.
Who can apply: To be eligible for the Publishing Support component, a book publisher must be:
- in operation for at least 12 months at the time of application;
at least 75% Canadian-owned and -controlled; - headquartered in Canada with at least 75% of its employees in Canada;
- a private-sector firm or university press;
- financially viable; and
- in good standing regarding the fulfillment of all contractual obligations with respect to author royalty payments or other method of payment to authors, from the beginning of the reference year through to the end of any contribution agreement.
More details on the Canada Heritage website.
If you want to see who and how much the grants were that Canadian publishers received, check out the Canada Heritage web page.
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Foreign Rights Marketing Assistance Program:
Eligible publishers may choose from a diverse range of conferences, industry events, book fairs and sales trips that best meet their export marketing needs. Learn more about this program, including eligibility criteria, check out their Livres Canada Books website.
To help Canadian publishers capitalize on these key networking opportunities, Livres Canada Books organizes collective stands at International book fairs, including the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, the London Book Fair, and the Frankfurt Book Fair.
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Conclusion: Lots of Support!
The book publishing industry, as well as self-publishing authors in Canada enjoy industrial and cultural assistance directly to individual publishers through federally funded grant programs such as the Canada Book Fund, and through structural support such as copyright or the public lending right. There is also an indirect support, in the form of financial awards to writers through grants, and in particular through writer-in-residence programs at universities, at public libraries, and at community-run arts organizations.
For sure, Canada, is THE best place
to be as a writer or as publisher!
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