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Support for Publishers: Publishing Support – Canada Book Fund

The Publishing Support sub-component of the Canada Book Fund (CBF) assists the ongoing production, marketing and distribution of Canadian-authored books. Supplementary funding based on export sales is also available as part of Publishing Support.

Offered by Canadian Heritage

Amount

Formula-based base amount allocated proportionally on factored eligible sales, plus a supplementary amount based on export sales to a maximum of $70,000; total government assistance cannot exceed 75% of book publishing expenses (90% for official-language minority, Indigenous, racialized-community-owned or small literary publishers; 100% for not-for-profit recipients)

Quick eligibility check

Years in business
1+ year
Employees
No limit stated
Revenue
Up to $50,000,000
Legal structure
Incorporated, sole proprietor, partnership, non-profit, other
Location
Anywhere in Canada

Who can apply

Only book publishing firms are eligible for the Publishing Support sub-component of the CBF. At the time of the application, and through to the end of the term of any contribution agreement between Canadian Heritage and a publisher, a publishing firm must meet all of the following requirements:

  1. Have completed at least 12 months of operation as a book publisher
  2. Be at least 75% Canadian-owned and controlled in fact
  3. Have its headquarters and at least 75% of its employees based in Canada
  4. Be a private-sector firm (for profit or not-for-profit) or university press
  5. Be financially viable
  6. Have fulfilled 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

Each individual applicant within an affiliated group must independently meet all eligibility criteria.

The following eligibility criteria apply under the Publishing Support sub-component:

Publication minimum

To be eligible, a publisher must have an active, ongoing publishing program and, during the reference year, must:

  1. publish at least one new, eligible, Canadian authored title; and
  2. publish at least one eligible digital new title or eligible digital edition.

If you are unable to meet the digital production requirement, you may submit a detailed written explanation. Your explanation should provide enough information for us to fully understand why you did not publish a digital new title or a digital edition.

To count toward the minimum publication requirement, all titles must be new, eligible, Canadian-authored books, in either print or digital format.

  1. A book published in both print and digital formats counts as one title.
  2. Translations or adaptations of foreign authored books by Canadians do not count.
  3. New editions and reprints are not considered new titles.

However, for the purposes of meeting the publication minimum criterion, new editions may be counted as new titles for official-language minority publishers, Indigenous publishers, publishing companies owned and controlled by members of a racialized community, and small literary publishers provided that earlier editions were not published by the applicant or by an affiliated publishing company.

Period: From establishment date to end of the current reference year; Applicants that only publish trade books — Publication Minimum: 15; Applicants that only publish educational and/or scholarly books — Publication Minimum: 10; Applicants that publish both trade AND educational and/or scholarly books — Publication Minimum: 10 total, of which at least 5 must be educational and/or scholarly

Period: During the last three financial years ending with the current reference year; Applicants that only publish trade books — Publication Minimum: 12; Applicants that only publish educational and/or scholarly books — Publication Minimum: 6; Applicants that publish both trade AND educational and/or scholarly books — Publication Minimum: 6 total, of which at least 3 must be educational and/or scholarly

Period: From establishment date to end of the current reference year; Publication Minimum: 10; Notes: Applies regardless of market segment (trade, educational, scholarly)

Period: During the last three financial years ending with the current reference year; Publication Minimum: 6; Notes: Applies regardless of market segment (trade, educational, scholarly)

Sales minimum

In the reference year, you must have eligible net sales of own titles of at least $50,000 or $20,000 for official-language minority publishers, Indigenous publishers and publishing companies owned and controlled by members of a racialized community. The CBF may provide an exemption to returning recipients that do not meet the sales minimum criterion. This exemption can be granted only once within a five-year program cycle.

Restrictions on revenues and production

In your reference year:

  1. At least 65% of your net revenue, including grants and contributions, must be related to the publication and sale of books (excluding author-subsidized titles), including distribution, printing and the sale of rights. The percentage for official-language minority publishers, Indigenous publishers and publishing companies owned and controlled by members of a racialized community is 40% of your net revenue.
  2. The revenue derived from the sale of author-subsidized titles must not exceed 25% of net revenue.
  3. The number of self-published titles must not exceed 50% of the total number of new titles.

Eligible books

To be eligible, a book must be:

  1. either written by a Canadian author or adapted or translated by a Canadian
  • Note: Only new, eligible, Canadian-authored books count toward the publication minimum criterion, but sales of all eligible books are considered for the sales minimum criterion.
  1. at least 48 pages in length for a printed book, except for children's books, which can be less than 48 pages
  2. at least 15,000 words in length for a new digital title (i.e. not published in print or another physical format), except for digital children's books, digital editions of eligible printed books and certain educational books (e.g. math books), which can be less than 15,000 words
  3. clearly and publicly attributed to the author(s) and/or translator(s)
  4. the publisher's own title (published under your imprint or under an imprint for which you have acquired publishing, management and marketing rights)
  5. bearing an ISBN assigned to or acquired by the publisher (exceptions may apply in the case of international co-publication)
  6. printed or manufactured in Canada, except for co-published books or books with an acceptable justification

Notes on authorship

  1. A Canadian author must be either a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident to meet the definition of “Canadian” in the program glossary.
  2. The author or translator is always the person to whom the book is publicly attributed. The name of the author(s) or translator(s) must appear on the outside of the cover, the spine, the title page or the copyright page.
  3. A book with multiple authors is considered Canadian-authored if at least one of the co-authors is Canadian.
  4. A collective work (e.g., an anthology) is considered Canadian-authored if at least 50% of the contributors are Canadian.
  5. If less than 50% of the contributors to a collective work are Canadian, the editor of the work can be considered the author if the book is clearly and publicly attributed to the editor and he or she has written a substantive preface, introduction, afterword, or conclusion to the book. The work of an editor in overseeing and guiding a book to publication is not considered authorship.
  6. For children's picture books only, an illustrator is considered an author.

About the funding

The total financial assistance received from the CBF’s Publishing Support sub-component and other levels of government (federal, provincial, territorial and municipal) cannot exceed:

  1. 75% of your book publishing expenses
  2. 90% of your book publishing expenses for official-language minority publishers, Indigenous publishers, publishing companies owned and controlled by members of a racialized community or small literary publishers
  3. 100% of your book publishing expenditures for not-for-profit recipients
Show all funding details

Funding amounts from the Publishing Support sub-component of the CBF are composed of two calculated amounts: a base amount and a supplementary amount based on export sales. These two amounts are determined using distinct formulas, as described below.

Base amount

There are two main steps in working out the base portion of your total funding amount. First, what are known as "factored sales" are calculated by multiplying domestic and export sales of eligible books — both finished products and rights — in the reference year by the appropriate sales coefficient for each category. The coefficients are shown in the table below.

The second step is to allocate the budget designated for the base amounts proportionally among all eligible applicants based on their factored sales. For example, if your factored sales represented 1.2% of the total factored sales, you would receive 1.2% of the total budget allocated to base amounts under the Publishing Support sub-component (excluding the supplementary support based on export sales).

Eligible Canadian-authored books (sales up to $500,000) | Official- or Indigenous-language translations | 4

Books authored by an Indigenous author, members of an official-language minority or racialized community | 4

Accessible digital books | 4

All other Canadian-authored printed and digital books, including rights, learning kits, physical non-print editions, and book packs | 3

Eligible Canadian-authored books | Sales between $500,001 and $10,000,000 | 1

Eligible foreign-authored books adapted or translated by a Canadian | Sales up to $500,000 | 0.5

Sales greater than $500,000 | 0

All eligible | Sales greater than $10,000,000 | 0

Notes:

  1. For official-language minority publishers, Indigenous publishers and publishing companies owned and controlled by members of a racialized community, the Canadian-authored books coefficient is 5 for eligible sales of up to $100,000.
  2. Learning Content Management Systems will be reviewed to determine the percentage of an applicant’s sales that can be attributed to content versus technology. Only content-related revenue will be considered eligible under the base formula.
  3. To receive a sales coefficient of 4 for accessible digital books, new applicants and newly certified accessible digital publishers (since April 1, 2025) must submit an accessible digital publisher attestation form. Please contact the program to obtain a copy of the template. Recurrent applicants who submitted an accessible digital publisher attestation for the 2025–2026 program fiscal year do not need to provide additional documentation.
  4. Eligible sales of Canadian-authored books will be capped at $10,000,000 and eligible sales of foreign-authored books adapted or translated by a Canadian will be capped at $500,000. Any sales over these threshold amounts will not be included in the calculation of funding for the base amount.

Supplementary amount based on eligible export sales

In addition to the base amount, a supplementary amount may be provided to encourage export marketing activities for Canadian-authored titles. To benefit from the supplementary support, you must meet the following requirements:

  1. Be eligible for Publishing Support in the current year;
  2. Have achieved eligible export sales of at least $5,000 in the reference year; and
  3. Have provided all required documentation to the CBF.

There are two main steps for the calculation of the supplementary portion of your total funding amount. First, your export sales of eligible books — of both finished products and eligible rights — in your reference year are multiplied by the appropriate sales coefficient. The applicable coefficients for 2026-2027 are below:

Eligible export sales between $5,000 and $100,000 | All eligible books | 3

Eligible export sales over $100,000 | All eligible books | 1

Secondly, the designated budget for export marketing support is divided proportionally among all eligible applicants based on their factored export sales. The maximum supplementary amount based on export sales of eligible books is $70,000.

If you wish to obtain funding for export marketing support, you must provide an export sales certification.

Total amount

The amounts that come from the two formulas are added together for the Publishing Support total funding amount.

Although funding amounts are based on sales of eligible books in a previous year, the funding is intended to support an applicant's publishing program between April 1, 2026, and March 31, 2027.

For details on the maximum amounts for members of affiliated groups of publishing companies, see Annex A.

For 2025-2026 and 2026-2027, on a temporary basis, the CBF reserves the right to allocate additional funding to approved applicants based on the following criteria:

  1. Sales of official- or Indigenous-language translations; and
  2. Sales of books by Indigenous authors and authors from official-language minority and racialized communities.

We will determine if funding will be disbursed as a grant or as a contribution.

A grant is a payment issued to a recipient for a project. The conditions you agreed to at the time of application will apply. At the end of your project, you may be required to submit a report and/or participate in the evaluation of results.

A contribution is a conditional payment issued for a specific purpose, as outlined in a funding agreement. The funding agreement is signed by your organization and by us and specifies the terms and conditions to receive payment. At the end of your project, you must submit a final report.

If you receive a contribution funding of $100,000 or greater, you must repay the funding if your profit margin - excluding all CBF funding - was 15% or more during your financial year in which the funding agreement was signed, and during its two preceding financial years.

For the purposes of Publishing Support sub-component, an eligible project covers a recipient’s ongoing eligible activities during the period for which Publishing Support funding is received. Eligible activities and initiatives include all those related to the publication and dissemination of eligible Canadian-authored books in print and alternative formats, such as audiobooks or digital books.

Support is available to offset eligible cash expenses between April 1, 2026 and March 31, 2027, for activities that support the production, marketing and distribution of eligible books, including:

  1. editorial
  2. design and printing
  3. author development
  4. author royalty and salary
  5. managing bibliographical data
  6. promotion and advertising
  7. packaging and shipping
  8. capital expenses
  9. travel directly related to business activities (which must not exceed the rates permitted for travel on government business)
  10. overhead (e.g. rent, utilities, administrative expenses)

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