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Professional Development Guides

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Get Writing!

Tips & advice for building a creative practice

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Build a Writing Community

Connect with other writers & find support for your craft

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Editing and Publishing

A field guide for the journey from manuscript to book

Book publishing overviews

Criteria & standards for professional hybrid publishing (proposed by the Independent Book Publishers Association)

So You’ve Written a Book—Now What? [PDF] (by Sal Sawler)

Book promotion

Promoting Your Book with a Small Press [PDF] (by Keanan Byggdin)

Tips for Organizing a Book Launch [PDF] (by WFNS staff)

Quick Guide to Social Media Platforms for Writers [PDF] (by Keanan Byggdin)

Agents

Please note: WFNS staff cannot vet or endorse any particular agent database.

Manuscript Wish List includes self-managed agent and editor profiles.

MS Wishlist collects agents’ social media posts seeking pitches and queries from potential clients.

Query Tracker includes agent information and the ability to organize and keep track of your queries.

Publishers Marketplace (a subscription service) logs approx. 50 new books deals each day and provides listings for book ‘buyers’ (publishers/editors) and ‘sellers’ (agents).

The Writers’ Union of Canada (TWUC) maintains a list of Canadian literary agencies.

Compensation

Compensation standards for editing work: consult Editors Canada or Editors Atlantic

Compensation standards for freelance work: consult the Canadian Freelance Guild

Letter Template for Offers of Unpaid Work or uncompensated publication (by Nicole Burisch)

The Remuneration of Canadian Writers for Literary Works – A Benchmarking Study [PDF] (commissioned by The Writers’ Union of Canada and Union des écrivain(e)s québécois)

Copyright & Legal Info

Canadian Intellectual Property Office’s guide to copyright

Legal Info Nova Scotia

Access Copyright

Editing

10 Things to Know about Working with a Freelance Editor [PDF] (by Tanya Egan Gibson)

Editing Checklist: Determine the type of editing you need [PDF] (by Stacy Innis)

Fiction Editing Checklist [PDF] (adapted by Marianne Ward)

Professional Editing Standards (2016) [PDF] (by Editors Canada)

Pitching & querying

The Elements of a Good Fiction Pitch [PDF] (by Keanan Byggdin)

The Nonfiction Query / Pitch Letter [PDF] (by Whitney Moran)

Writing the Nonfiction Book Proposal [PDF] (by Stephen Kimber)

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Experience Levels

The Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia (WFNS) uses the following terms to describe writers’ experience levels:

  • 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, writing for children and young adults, and others) 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.

The “Recommended experience level” section of each workshop description refers to the above definitions. A workshop’s participants should usually 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. 

For “intensive” and “masterclass” 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