Submission Guidelines

Eligible Writers

• Canadian citizens or permanent residents over the age of 18.
• Unpublished writers with no professionally published books for any age and not currently under contract with a publisher.
• Self-published writers; previously self-published stories can also be entries in the Competition.
• Writers are eligible if prior publication is limited to articles or other content in collections or anthologies, textbooks, magazines or newspapers, legal or academic publications, etc.
• NOTE: Writers retain full copyright of their entries. 

Eligible Entries

• Up to 1,500 words in English, fiction or non-fiction
• Text only; no illustrations
• Word or PDF document; we cannot accept links to file sharing sites.
• 11 or 12-point plain font (e.g., Times Roman or Arial—no fancy fonts!) double-spaced with 1-inch margins
• Select one category for your entry: Picture Book (PB), Middle Grade (MG), Young Adult (YA); if you aren’t sure, see Book Categories for information.
• For PB: Submit complete text or up to 1,500 words. No illustrations, but you can include brief illustrator notes about essential visual elements that are not indicated in the text.
• For MG and YA: Submit first chapter and additional chapters/excerpts up to 1,500 words
• Previously submitted entries can be resubmitted 

How to Set Up Your Entry

    1. On PAGE ONE of your entry, include:

• Your contact information:  name, email, phone, mailing address
• Title of your story
  
• Category of your entry (Picture Book, Middle Grade, Young Adult)
• Title of your story
• Note indicating where your entry fits in your story (e.g., first chapter and eighth chapter)
• Your bio with some notes about your writing experience (about 100 words)
• Summary of your story (about 250 words) with key characters, key plot points, ending, etc. The summary isn't like an enticing back cover blurb—the summary provides the Competition's readers with context for the entry to evaluate if the writer seems to be achieving what they set out to do. 

        2. Follow this format for the FILE NAME of your Word or PDF entry: 

• Category abbreviation first, then your name, then the title of your entry
• Hyphen between each word (no spaces)
  
• Use this category abbreviation: PB = Picture Book | MG = Middle Grade | YA = Young Adult
  

Entry Submission Form & Uploading Your Entry

• After you've registered, you'll get a confirmation email that includes a link to an online entry submission form.
• The entry submission form includes the upload function for your Word or PDF entry. 
• You'll complete a separate entry submission form for your entry, and then upload your entry. 
• If you've registered for 2 or 3 entries, you'll complete an separate entry submission form for each one, and you'll also upload each entry separately. If all your entries aren't ready for upload, you can complete additional forms at a later date.

NOTE: We get over 600 entries, so CANSCAIP cannot confirm that each uploaded entry has been received. However, after the May 31^st deadline, we cross-reference registrations with the entries received, and if an entry is missing we will contact the writer.