Eligible Writers
- Canadian citizens or permanent residents over the age of 18.
- Unpublished writers or self-published writers with no professionally published books for any age and not currently under contract with a publisher.
- Writers are eligible if prior publication is limited to stories, articles or poems in collections, textbooks, magazines, 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 1500 words. No illustrations, but you can include brief illustrator notes about essential visual elements that are not carried by 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 name, email, phone, mailing address
- Category of your entry (Picture Book, Middle Grade, Young Adult)
- Title of your story
- Summary of your story including key characters, plot and ending (up to 250 words)
- Where your entry fits in your story (e.g., first chapter and eighth chapter)
- Bio/summary of your writing experience (up to 100 words)
2. Follow this format for the FILE NAME of your Word or PDF entry:
- Category-Lastname-Firstname-Title-of-Entry
- Category abbreviation: PB = picture book | MG = middle grade | YA = young adult
- Hyphen between each word (no spaces)
- Example: PB-Jones-Mary-The-Little-Bunny
Entry Submission Form & Uploading Your Entry
NOTE: You don't have to submit your entry on the day you register. After you've registered, you can submit your entry whenever you want, right up to the May 31 deadline.
- 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.
PLEASE NOTE: CANSCAIP will not be able confirm that each uploaded entry has been received. However, you'll hear from us if there's a problem. After the May 31st deadline, we cross-reference all the registrations with the entries we've received. If an entry is missing, we'll contact the writer to send it to us.