FAQs

The Association of Manitoba Book Publishers is an organisation that represents a group of Manitoba based publishing houses to help raise their profiles through joint marketing projects. Although we do not work with individual writers we have listed some resources below and hope that you will find these helpful.
We do have links to our member publishers (AMBP) on our web page (www.bookpublishers.mb.ca) , and most of these will give you information on what they publish, how to submit manuscripts etc. It is important to note the genre (ex. children’s, drama, poetry, etc) that the publishing house publishes, as they will not look at other types. Also note that some Publishing Houses have a mandate to publish works written by certain groups (ex. Pemmican authors must be Métis, Les Éditions du Blé is French only). You should also ensure that you accompany your manuscript submission with a cover letter which is neat, coherent and brief. You would also be advised to phone the publishing house ahead to ensure that they are accepting new manuscripts at this time.
Before you approach a publisher, you could start by contacting the Manitoba Writer’s Guild at 204-944-8013, web-site, email: ibindy@mbwriter.mb.ca. (www.mbwriter.mb.ca or The Writer’s Collective at (204) 786-9468, web-site: http://thewriterscollective.org/ or email is writerscollective@uwinnipeg.ca.The MWG office runs under part-time hours so there may be a bit of a lag in response time. Both organizations will help you prepare your manuscript for publication, and help you to find other organizations that will assist you with editing, illustrations, etc.. There are also many publishing houses outside of Manitoba which you may want to check out. You can find these listed on the Association of Canadian Publishers web page at www.publishers.ca. Also check the Canadian Children’s Book Center at www.bookcentre.ca . The Writers Union of Canada web-page (www.writersunion.ca) also has an excellent information page on getting published, which will likely answer many of your questions. You can also contact the Manitoba Editors Association at meaworkshops@gmail.com (www.manitobaeditors.ca ).
For information on illustrators see www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/childrenliterature, where they list many sites to check out.
You may also wish to self-publish your book, in which case you could check out http://www.independentpublisher.com/ .You may also want to speak to other self-published authors for helpful and more local advice. At this point there is not a recognized resource for information of this sort, so you would be well advised to do extensive research before making any decisions. You may want to find books which are similar to the one you want to publish, and contact these authors for further information.
It is an excellent idea to also check out Writer in Residence Programs at local libraries and bookstores. If you need help preparing your manuscript, or information on editing, printing, design or some other aspect, these places, along with continuing education programs, Universities and Colleges, and bookstores hold various workshops, and creative writing classes designed to assist new writers.
I hope you find this information helpful, please don’t hesitate to call if you have any further questions.

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