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Vendor Application & Guide

Vendor eligibility for Booktoberfest 2025:

  • Authors will be eligible to apply if they currently live in Nova Scotia and will publish a book between October 5, 2024, and the date of Booktoberfest 2025 (October 11, 2025).
  • Publishers will be eligible to apply if their press/magazine is entirely or partially based in Nova Scotia and will publish one or more books/issues between October 5, 2024, and the date of Booktoberfest 2025 (October 11, 2025).

Vendor selection: Applicants will be offered table space by WFNS staff if they meet the eligibility requirements. Table space will be assigned in the order in which applications are received.

Table space:

  • Author-vendor space (limited to 48 vendors) will be 3 linear feet + one chair. Any collaborating authors will need to time-share the available chair(s) or to register separately and request adjacent seating through a follow-up email.
  • Publisher-vendor space (limited to between 7 and 14 vendors) will be 4 linear feet + one chair. Publisher-vendors accompanied by one or more of their authors will be given 8 linear feet + three chairs. Any teams of press reps or authors accompanying presses will need to time-share the available chair(s).

Creative writing workshops: Applying author-vendors may provide an elevator pitch for a 45-minute workshop, which should focus on lecture-style presentation, light discussion, and takeaway exercises. Each selected workshop instructor will receive a $125 honorarium. Selection will be made by WFNS staff.

Featured readings: Applying author-vendors may request to be considered for a 30-minute featured reading, author talk, or author panel opportunity. Each selected reader/panelist will be compensated between $150 and $300. Selection will be made by WFNS staff and members of the Programs Committee.

Applications will open in June, 2025

For Booktoberfest 2025, to be held Saturday, October 11 (11am – 3pm)

Vendor Application Form

Additional fields will appear upon selection of your vendor type.
Must include city/town, province, and postal code.

Where to be

Booktoberfest will be held in Paul O’Regan Hall at Halifax Central Library (5540 Spring Garden Rd, Halifax).

On Saturdays, nearby street parking is free. From Queen Street, you can find (1) open-air paid parking directly south of the library and (2) the entrance to underground paid parking within the library, parking for which will be $5. An elevator leads from the underground lot to the library’s main floor.

The greenroom adjoining Paul O’Regan Hall will be for vendor use only. You may store food and personal items here (left at your own risk) and use its fridge and lavatories.

When to be there

Booktoberfest is open to the public from 11am to 3pm on Saturday, October [TBD].

Vendors should arrive between 10pm and 10:30am to begin table set up.

Vendors will need to complete table teardown by 4pm.

WFNS staff and volunteers will be available to help you find, set up, and tear down your table as well as bring books and other materials from a nearby vehicle into Paul O’Regan Hall. (If planning to park farther away, please consider unloading at Halifax Central Library’s Queen Street entrance.)

Booktoberfest 2024 table map final
Click table map to expand

What’s provided

  • Promotional images:
    • See the main Booktoberfest page for regularly updated, social media-ready images (left-click to expand; right-click to download)
  • Table space:
    • For author vendors, 3 linear feet and 1 chair
    • For publisher vendors, 4 linear feet and 1 chair
    • For publisher vendors accompanied by one or more authors, 8 linear feet and 3 chairs
  • Basic tabletop signage, name tag(s), Booktoberfest programme, and pamphlet detailing upcoming WFNS program deadlines
  • Assistance from WFNS staff and volunteers in finding, setting up, and tearing down your assigned table space
  • Bottled water and snacks (available in the greenroom)

What to bring

  • Copies of your titles(s) published in the eligibility time frame (Oct 2024 to Oct 2025)
  • Copies of any other titles and literary items for sale or giveaway (e.g., chapbooks, broadsides, bookmarks, press swag, other writerly and readerly goods)
  • Tablecloth or other decorative covering that fits (or can be folded to fit) your assigned table space
  • Tabletop book displays and additional tabletop signage that fits your assigned table space
  • A smartphone or other device (if accepting payment by card or e-transfer) and a change float (if accepting payment in cash)
  • Two or more pens (for book-signing)
  • Lunch (which may be consumed at your table or in the greenroom)

Statement of Inclusion

The Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia strives to offer inclusive physical and virtual spaces where all feel welcome. To this end, we require that all participants of WFNS events (1) refrain from speaking or behaving in racist, xenophobic, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, or other discriminatory ways and (2) provide reasonable advanced warning before describing violent or traumatic subject matter, which always has the potential to distress others.

If any event participant violates this statement of inclusion, WFNS staff and volunteers have the right to ask that participant to leave. WFNS’s full Code of Conduct is available from WFNS staff upon request.

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902 423 8116

contact@writers.ns.ca

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The Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia is based in Kjipuktuk, in Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq People. This territory is covered by the “Treaties of Peace and Friendship,” which Mi’kmaq and Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) Peoples first signed with the British Crown in 1725. The treaties do not deal with surrender of lands and resources but in fact recognize Mi’kmaq and Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) title and establish the rules for an ongoing relationship between nations.

© Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia, 2025. All rights reserved.

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Simultaneous Submissions

The Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia (WFNS) administers some programs (and special projects) that involve print and/or digital publication of ‘selected’ or ‘winning’ entries. In most cases, writing submitted to these programs and projects must not be previously published and must not be simultaneously under consideration for publication by another organization. Why? Because our assessment and selection processes depends on all submitted writing being available for first publication. If writing selected for publication by WFNS has already been published or is published by another organization first, copyright issues will likely make it impossible for WFNS to (re-)publish that writing.

When simultaneous submissions to a WFNS program are not permitted, it means the following:

  • You may not submit writing that has been accepted for future publication by another organization.
  • You may not submit writing that is currently being considered for publication by another organization—or for another prize that includes publication.
  • The writing submitted to WFNS may not be submitted for publication to another organization until the WFNS program results are communicated. Results will be communicated directly to you by email and often also through the public announcement of a shortlist or list of winners. Once your writing is no longer being considered for the WFNS program, you are free to submit it elsewhere.
    • If you wish to submit your entry elsewhere before WFNS program results have been announced, you must first contact WFNS to withdraw your entry. Any entry fee cannot be refunded.

Prohibitions on simultaneous submission do not apply to multiple WFNS programs. You are always permitted to submit the same unpublished writing to multiple WFNS programs (and special projects) at the same time, such as the Alistair MacLeod Mentorship Program, the Emerging Writers Prizes, the Jampolis Cottage Residency Program, the Message on a Bottle contest, the Nova Writes Competition, and any WFNS projects involving one-time or recurring special publications.

Recommended Experience Levels

The Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia (WFNS) recommends that participants in any given workshop have similar levels of creative writing and / or publication experience. This ensures that each participant gets value from the workshop⁠ and is presented with information, strategies, and skills that suit their career stage. The “Recommended experience level” section of each workshop description refers to the following definitions used by WFNS.

  • New writers: those with less than two years’ creative writing experience and/or no short-form publications (e.g., short stories, personal essays, or poems in literary magazines, journals, anthologies, or chapbooks).
  • Emerging writers: those with more than two years’ creative writing experience and/or numerous short-form publications.
  • Early-career authors: those with 1 or 2 book-length publications or the equivalent in book-length and short-form publications.
  • Established authors: those with 3 or 4 book-length publications.
  • Professional authors: those with 5 or more book-length publications.

Please keep in mind that each form of creative writing (fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and writing for children and young adults) provides you with a unique set of experiences and skills, so you might consider yourself an ‘established author’ in one form but a ‘new writer’ in another.

For “intensive” and “masterclass” creative writing workshops, which provide more opportunities for peer-to-peer feedback, the recommended experience level should be followed closely.

For all other workshops, the recommended experience level is just that—a recommendation—and we encourage potential participants to follow their own judgment when registering.

If you’re uncertain of your experience level with regard to any particular workshop, please feel free to contact us at communications@writers.ns.ca