Jew­ish Book Mar­ket­ing Grants are a new ini­tia­tive to pro­vide mar­ket­ing and pro­mo­tion­al sup­port to book projects from the very begin­ning, before they have even reached a pub­lish­ing house. 

Send­ing a book out to pub­lish­ers in the hopes of receiv­ing a book con­tract always comes with anx­i­ety and excite­ment. These days, for many authors, that anx­i­ety might be a lit­tle high­er as the book faces its ear­li­est encoun­ters with read­ers and the out­side world. Jew­ish Book Council’s book mar­ket­ing grants are intend­ed to give reas­sur­ance and recog­ni­tion through finan­cial sup­port that will high­light both the book project and the author as they face a big step on the road to publication. 

Jew­ish Book Mar­ket­ing Grants are avail­able for pre-con­tract book projects that will con­tribute or enhance the con­ver­sa­tion around Jew­ish iden­ti­ty, his­to­ry, cul­ture and tra­di­tion, or schol­ar­ship. Eli­gi­ble books may be fic­tion or non­fic­tion, for chil­dren or adults. All books must either be agent­ed and pre-con­tract or under pre-con­tract peer review.

These grants are meant to assist books as they begin the jour­ney toward the mar­ket­place, giv­ing authors and pub­lish­ers extra flex­i­bil­i­ty and sup­port to prop­er­ly mar­ket the book to read­ers. While the grants will be deter­mined at pre-pub­li­ca­tion stages, they are des­ig­nat­ed for use in the mar­ket­ing and pro­mo­tion of the book to read­ers around the time of publication. 

Grants will range from $18,000-$36,000, and will be issued direct­ly to the author with­in 6 months pri­or to publication.

To apply for the grant, an author or agent must com­plete the form below, and send in a full pro­pos­al and man­u­script by Novem­ber 30, 2024. If a com­plete man­u­script is not avail­able at this time, please include all exist­ing chap­ters (min­i­mum of 2), a detailed chap­ter out­line as well as com­par­isons to pub­lished titles. Authors may be asked to speak with rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the read­ing com­mit­tee dur­ing the review process. Final­ists will be noti­fied by Win­ter 2025.
 

In order to com­plete your appli­ca­tion, all pro­pos­als and man­u­scripts should be emailed to bookgrant@​jewishbooks.​org. 

Eli­gi­bil­i­ty Requirements:

To be con­sid­ered, man­u­scripts must:

• be rep­re­sent­ed by an agent (for trade books) or be under review at a press (for academic/​scholarly books) at the time of application.
• be pre-con­tract. If con­tract sta­tus changes dur­ing over the course of the grant appli­ca­tion peri­od, the author or agent must noti­fy Jew­ish Book Council.

JBC reserves the right to can­cel, sus­pend, or mod­i­fy any com­mit­ments in the event that the final book is mate­ri­al­ly dif­fer­ent from the man­u­script and mate­ri­als sub­mit­ted for con­sid­er­a­tion and/​or approved by JBC (as applicable).

This ini­tia­tive is made pos­si­ble by the gen­er­ous sup­port of Mai­monides Fund.