The Jew­ish Book Mar­ket­ing Grants ini­tia­tive pro­vides mar­ket­ing and pro­mo­tion­al sup­port to book projects from the very begin­ning, before they have made their way into read­ers’ hands. 

The process of pub­lish­ing a book can be excit­ing, but it often comes with anx­i­ety. Will my book find a pub­lish­er? Will any­one read it? These days, for many authors, that anx­i­ety might be a lit­tle high­er as the book faces its ear­li­est encoun­ters with the out­side world. Jew­ish Book Council’s book mar­ket­ing grants are designed to offer authors both recog­ni­tion and prac­ti­cal sup­port by pro­vid­ing fund­ing to boost the vis­i­bil­i­ty of their book projects. 

Jew­ish Book Mar­ket­ing Grants are avail­able for book projects that con­tribute to, or enrich con­ver­sa­tions about, Jew­ish and/​or Israeli iden­ti­ty, his­to­ry, cul­ture, tra­di­tion, or thought. Eli­gi­ble projects include:

• Pre-con­tract projects: Books that are agent­ed (for trade books) and pre-con­tract, or under­go­ing pre-con­tract peer review at a press (for aca­d­e­m­ic books). If con­tract sta­tus changes over the course of the grant appli­ca­tion peri­od, the book may still be eli­gi­ble for a grant but the author or agent must prompt­ly noti­fy Jew­ish Book Council.
• Acquired projects: Books that have already been acquired by pub­lish­ing hous­es, pro­vid­ed that they are sched­uled for pub­li­ca­tion between Sep­tem­ber 1, 2026 and Sep­tem­ber 1, 2027.

Books may be fic­tion or non­fic­tion, for chil­dren or adults, and should be intend­ed to reach wide audiences.

These grants are meant to assist books as they begin the jour­ney toward the mar­ket­place, giv­ing authors and pub­lish­ers a pro­mo­tion­al boost along with extra flex­i­bil­i­ty and sup­port to mar­ket the book effec­tive­ly. While grants will be deter­mined at pre-pub­­li­­ca­­tion stages, they will be des­ig­nat­ed for use in the mar­ket­ing and pro­mo­tion of the book to read­ers in the six months before or after the book’s pub­li­ca­tion date. 

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

To apply for a grant, an author or agent must com­plete the form below, and send in a full pro­pos­al and man­u­script by March 1, 2026. 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 already pub­lished books. Authors may be asked to speak with rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the grants com­mit­tee dur­ing the review process. Final­ists will be noti­fied by June 30, 2026. 

Please note that the appli­ca­tion will prompt you to upload a com­plete pro­pos­al and/​or man­u­script, along with any relat­ed mar­ket­ing materials. 

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 as ini­tial­ly sub­mit­ted and/​or approved by JBC (as applicable).

This ini­tia­tive is made pos­si­ble with gen­er­ous sup­port from Mai­monides Fund.