Booksellers Initiative — Support for Organizations

Budget 2021 announced an investment of $32.1 million over 2 years to help Canadian booksellers increase their online sales. This funding will be delivered in 2022-2023 and 2023-2024. A portion of the funding will be directed to collective projects under the Support for Organizations component of the Canada Book Fund.

The objective of this special call is to encourage the Canadian book industry to undertake collective projects that will contribute to building industry capacity, marketing and infrastructure for the online sale of Canadian books.

Note: Apply now! 2023-2024 is the last year for this temporary recovery initiative announced in Budget 2021.

Who can apply

Canadian-owned and -controlled organizations representing or related to the Canadian book industry are invited to apply for this special call to fund collective projects that support the broad objectives of the Support for Organizations component and the specific objectives of the Booksellers Initiative, outlined above.

Under this special call, for-profit companies must partner with a not-for-profit association representing Canadian booksellers, publishers or authors to be eligible to apply. An exemption may be made for organizations that are owned and controlled by members of an official language minority, Indigenous or racialized community.

Application deadline

The 2023-2024 special call for applications will close on April 24, 2023. New!

Please send your application by email. We are not able to accept applications by mail at this time.

Eligible projects

Please note that the Booksellers Initiative will end on March 31, 2024. Therefore, any activities that take place after March 31, 2024, will not be considered eligible. Applicants should consider this when planning their projects.

A wide variety of projects may be eligible for funding within the existing categories of marketing, professional development, internships and technology projects in the Support for Organizations’ application guidelines.

However, projects under this special call must clearly demonstrate how they will support online sales of Canadian-authored books by Canadian booksellers.

Projects that benefit a single company and do not demonstrate a broad benefit will not be eligible.

Eligible projects could include:

developing, improving or consolidating online sales platforms used by multiple booksellers
initiatives focusing on industry norms and metadata that are critical for online marketing
targeted marketing initiatives that involve stakeholders from across the book supply chain and that direct consumers to an online sales channel

Under the existing guidelines for the Support for Organizations component, the following types of projects may be prioritized:

projects that increase the capacity of the book industry to succeed in a digital marketplace and promote industry-wide best practices
projects that test or pilot innovative approaches to marketing and promotion
projects making use of sales data and demonstrating efforts to use such data in order to better market and promote books
projects from associations or organizations representing an under-represented group or projects that benefit an under-represented group, including but not limited to official language minority, Indigenous, or racialized communities, as well as persons with a print disability

Please note that applications for projects involving partnerships between multiple organizations should include information on each partner’s role and, in the case where a partner is not financially contributing to the project, a letter of support.

Should you have any questions, you are encouraged to contact the Support for Organizations team to discuss your project before applying.

Eligible expenses

Please refer to the Support for Organizations application guidelines for information on eligible expenses.

Expenses incurred before receiving written confirmation of funding approval are at your own risk. The project for which you are requesting funding cannot finish before you receive your funding decision.

How to apply

Applicants are required to:

review the Application guidelines — Support for Organizations
review the information on Budget categories and items — Canada Book Fund
fill out and send the Application Form — Support for Organizations — Canada Book Fund

Please send your application by email. We are not able to accept applications by mail at this time.

Should you have any questions, please contact the Support for Organizations team at the email address below.

Contact us

Address: Canada Book Fund
Department of Canadian Heritage
25 Eddy St, 25-8-T
Gatineau QC J8X 4B5
Email: flc-sao-cbf-sfo@pch.gc.ca
Telephone: 819-997-0055
1-866-811-0055 (toll-free)
TTY: 1-888-997-3123 (toll-free)

Agents are available to answer your questions, Monday to Friday, 8:30 am to 5 pm (ET).

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