Support for Publishers: Business Development – Canada Book Fund
The Business Development sub-component provides assistance to publishers for internship projects and business planning projects:
1. Internships: Publishing and technology internships provide valuable training for new Canadian book industry professionals, who in turn accomplish useful work that the firm might not otherwise have had the resources to carry out.
2. Business planning: Business planning projects help recipients develop strategic approaches to improving their business activities and competitiveness.
Offered by Canadian Heritage
Amount
Up to 50% of total eligible expenses to a maximum of $25,000 (publishing internships), $30,000 (technology internships) or $50,000 (business planning); up to 75% (max $37,500 / $45,000 / $50,000) for Indigenous, racialized, official language minority or disabled interns or equity-owned publishers; total government assistance cannot exceed 75% of total project expenditures
Quick eligibility check
Who can apply
To be eligible for funding, your organization must meet the following requirements:
Publishing internships
- Individual publishing firms with total sales of own titles under $1 million that received funding from the Publishing Support sub-component of the CBF’s Support for Publishers component in 2025-2026; or
- Individual publishing firms with total sales of own titles under $1 million that were recipients of support in the most recent funding cycle from the Canada Council for the Arts’ Supporting Artistic Practice – Literary Publishers program.
Technology internships
- Individual publishing firms that received funding from the Publishing Support sub-component of the CBF’s Support for Publishers component in 2025-2026.
Business planning
- Individual publishing firms that received funding from the Publishing Support sub-component of the CBF’s Support for Publishers component in 2025-2026; or
- Individual publishing firms that received funding from the most recent funding cycle from the Canada Council for the Arts’ Supporting Artistic Practice – Literary Publishers program.
Eligible projects
Publishing Internships
To be eligible for funding, your internship project must:
- plan to hire an intern who is Canadian;
- demonstrate the capacity of the applicant to provide a productive training environment for the intern; and
- plan to hire as an intern someone who is not an existing employee of your organization and who has not previously benefited from a CBF-funded internship.
Technology internships
In addition to the criteria applicable to internship projects listed above, technology internships must:
- place a significant emphasis on the acquisition and application of skills relating to innovative technology strategies in production, marketing or information management (these skills can be brought to the project by the intern or shared with the intern by the publishing firm); and
- include a strategy for knowledge transfer to ensure that the recipient continues to benefit from the work undertaken by the intern after the internship period is completed.
Business planning
To be eligible for funding, business planning projects must:
- contribute to the development of a business plan, succession plan or strategic plan related to significant business shifts (including in the areas of inclusion, diversity and equity, as well as accessible publishing).
You can submit only one application for the Business Development sub-component per fiscal year, regardless of project type (Publishing Internship, Technology Internship, or Business Planning). Affiliated groups are permitted to submit only one application per fiscal year. This means that only one member of the group may apply.
The duration of your project may not exceed 12 months.
About the funding
The total financial assistance received from the Business Development sub-component and other levels of government (federal, provincial, territorial and municipal) cannot exceed:
- 75% of total project expenditures;
- 90% of total project expenditures for official language minority publishers, Indigenous publishers, publishing companies owned and controlled by members of a racialized community or small literary publishers; and
- 100% of total expenditures for not-for-profit recipients.
Show all funding details
Depending on the project type, we can fund eligible expenses as follows:
Publishing internships
We can fund up to 50% of the total eligible expenses or a maximum of $25,000.
In the case of Indigenous interns, interns from a racialized community, interns from official language minority communities or interns who are living with a disability, we can fund up to 75% of the total eligible expenses or a maximum of $37,500.
Technology internships
We can fund up to 50% of the total eligible expenses or a maximum of $30,000.
In the case of Indigenous interns, interns from a racialized community, interns from official language minority communities or interns who are living with a disability, we can fund up to 75% of eligible expenses or $45,000.
Business planning
We can fund up to 50% of the total eligible project-related costs or a maximum of $50,000.
In the case of Indigenous publishers, publishing companies owned and controlled by members of a racialized community or official language minority publishers, we can fund up to 75% of the total eligible expenses or $50,000.
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 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.
Only project-related cash expenses are eligible; these may include:
Publishing and technology internships
- the salary of an intern, including benefits, during the period covered by the project; and
- professional development costs (excluding travel and accommodation) related to the training of interns who are:
- Indigenous peoples;
- from a racialized community;
- from an official language minority community; or
- living with a disability.
Business planning
- fees to an independent third party for research and analysis of business strategies, and the preparation and presentation of a business plan, a strategic or succession plan;
- executive training related to the development of a business plan (excluding salaries of owners, executives and employees, and travel and accommodation expenses); and
- administration fees up to 15% of total eligible expenses.
We cannot fund expenses incurred before April 1, 2026. If you incur expenses for your project before receiving written confirmation of your funding approval, you will be doing so at your own risk.
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