Recently I attended a session at the Onwords Conference of The Writers’ Union of Canada called “The Desperate People” or “Get that Grant”. The speakers included Marion Vitrac, Program Officer for Canada Council’s Grants to Professional Writers, and novelists (applicants and judges) Denise Chong, Trevor Cole and Mark Frutkin.
Marion said the CC Applicant success rate is 10 to 20% immediately disputed by author Trevor who felt it was lower. But here’s something she documented that happened to me. First the peer jurors access all the projects and rate them. The highly recommended ones receive grants until the money runs out. This occurs late February.
My project was deemed “highly recommended”, I received the note, no money. This buoyed me up hugely. Despite some many rejections from Canadian publishers who used to embrace my work, I realized my peers still felt I was a good writer. But for the chance of a different wind blowing, I would have had the money and all my financial problems solved.
In April, the fiscal year end for Canada Council, any undersubscribed grants in the other disciplines dump their funds into the Creative Writing pool and some lucky writers have their projects funded. This wind blew a different way, and I received a nice cheque. This second Christmas is what fills in the difference between Trevor’s perception and the true percentage of grants awarded.
Some of what the panel said seems like basic common sense but I will repeat what I remember in case it’s new to you.
Take time to make a good application. Like most writers I’m afraid to give the grant proposal too much emotional investment as then my heart will break when I don’t get it. Let’s get over ourselves. Treat the application like an article, workshop the project description with your writing group or partner, set the whole thing aside for a few days and read it over against the grant requirements.
The CV Canada Council pays more attention to this than the Ontario Arts Council who asks for “blind” manuscript pages for their competition. I have had much greater luck with Canada Council, 4 for 7 compared to the OAC, 1 for 6, who don’t pass the bio along to the judges. I’ve been writing 25 years with many publications in different countries. Trevor said he likes to see that the writer is not a hobbyist, that there is an apparent devotion to craft. If you’re a full time lawyer or doctor, perhaps you shouldn’t apply.
The Project Description Some of the projects jump out at the jurors. For nonfiction there’s a sense of enquiry that’s evident. For fiction there’s an apparent effort to grow in the writer’s craft.
Length of proposalThe judges are reading tons of applications and really appreciate clear concise proposals. Show confidence and only use one page if offered one to three pages.
Sample Submission If the section you’re submitting doesn’t end on the right note, instead of going longer, rewrite it so that it does. For Canada Council the sample doesn’t have to be from the project you’re proposing it can be from a previously published work. For Trevor that has never worked, but Mark insists it’s a great idea. In my own experience I once submitted a small segment of the project and the balance from a recently published work and the grant was successful. I like to submit from the beginning, let’s face it, that’s the starting point and the perfect introduction to your work.
Finally I hear from applicants who try once and insist they will never apply again. What’s the point? I get it, rejection is painful. Why subject yourself to it?
The point is the next time you may get it. There will be a different set of jurors and applicants with a different set of projects. There may be more money. What I like to tell myself is that it’s an altruistic thing I’m doing for other writers. My project may prove just to be cannon fodder. There needs to be a certain percentage that fails as there needs to be a healthy body of applicants. Otherwise the funding will be cut to match the lesser numbers.
Good luck. Next deadline is October 1. For more information visit:
Celebrate the launching of Dying to Go Viral, without having to leave the comfort of your home or classroom, Thursday, June 6, 2013 1:30 pm – 2:00 pm EDT Live on: http://www.youtube.com/user/SylviaMcNicoll/feed
Fourteen year old Jade is dying to be noticed by Aiden. He makes videos that go viral. If she removes her helmet and skateboards while hitching onto his Mustang, Aiden promises to put her on youtube. Maybe it’s not the best idea.
In fact, Jade will spend eternity regretting it.
If you or your students send questions in advance by email: sylvia.mcnicoll@cogeco.ca, I will answer them in the broadcast. Authors name your latest book and I will mention it along with your question.
Of course the launch with Mars Bars Squares, fudge,
My favourite thing about TD Canadian Children’s Book week it that I have the opportunity to visit so many different groups of kids in a short time in a part of the country I would likely not get to. Certainly I will visit Nova Scotia for a summer holiday but stepping inside a classroom won’t occur so quickly again. Then there’s that moment when you’re in the thick of a presentation, or perhaps you’re reading aloud from your favourite scene in a book and you look around and there’s this sea of faces raptly paying attention, eyes riveted to you. Love it.
The first school I visited was Bluenose Academy which using my Ontario sensibility meant I should not wear jeans as it would probably be a private school. Lesson learned: in Nova Scotia public schools are often called academies, as was Inverness Centre of Education Academy, later on in the week.
When I’m asked to present to younger students, grade two or three, I worry because my books for this age group are
out of print. At first I handed out copies (gratis) to ensure that once I got the students all excited about the story, they’d be able to read it. A pleasant surprise is the libraries and schools still stocked Project Disaster (Scholastic). In the last school I visited the principal, Joyce Lively, had read the entire story to the whole school.
I love that teamwork, first the Canadian Children’s Book Centre organizes a tour, the coordinator in the province arranges dates with schools who apply, then the educators prepare by gathering the author’s books, borrowing, begging and sometimes buying, and reading to the students. When I step into the library, the literacy circle becomes complete. The author visit works and the kids get wildly excited about the creator, the book and reading. Take that Youtube! The readers will inherit the world.
The metaphor–does a lawyer really look like a crow?
Too many kids fall under some witness program so no full frontal photos.
The special thank you card that makes you think the students really know your book better than you do.
What makes for a really great author visit in the school?
Excitement–from the moment you approach the school you see a welcome poster on the door. The announcements declare your presence. The library displays your books.
The kids in the front row of the auditorium ask you if you’re the author. Maybe they point to one of the books in your stack and say they’ve read it or ask something about the plot or character.
What should a terrific author visit do? Entertain and enlighten–I think it’s important that the kids and I have fun but I’m there to deliver some writing process tips perhaps as much for the teachers as for the students.
“Where do ideas come from?”is the question foremost in my mind when I create my presentation. I try to address this question in as visual a way as possible. I carry around a rubber brain, for example, to show them. I use Power Point to show the brain with a piece of toast in–the brain is a toaster, what you get in,you get out.
But I also know the question really means how does a book get created from start to finish so I include images of my office, some research. I address what I
need to pre plan before my fingers hit the keyboard and call up kids to hold the key plot points. I sometimes feel the teachers want me to say I have an idea file, or that I plan and plot the whole story out but I always make sure to say that different processes work for different authors.
Also rewriting is a topic that educators want addressed but it’s so much different for a professional writer than it is for a student and there’s a fine balance between inspiring and encouraging readers and writers, and telling them how hard the professional job of writing and rewriting is.
S is for the Silver Birch…imagine an acrostic thank you poem. I was a little nervous that my name was just too long.
Aw, and then the personal thank you from the kids. To the left you see my cheerleading squad thanking me with attributes that spell my name. Y was for YA if you’re wondering.
Below is a thank you card that gives a flow chart of all the attributes the readers and teachers have found in my story–some I didn’t really know it had.
You’re welcome guys. It is always a huge pleasure. Inspiring and humbling, and tons of fun. Characters, settings, themes–really? It had all that.
My first encounter with seafood was meeting Jessica Scott Kerring, the author of the Lobster Chronicles. I bought great souvenirs such as A Bluenose Twelve Days of Christmas by Bruce Nunn and illustrated by Doretta Groenendyk who I met and Spin to Sea by her daughter Izra Fitch. I met my fellow Arthur Ellis finalist author of Live to Tell, Lisa Harrington and Lisa Doucet owner of children’s bookstore extraordinary: Woozles not to mention visited again with Budge Wilson and Carol McDougall.
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