Grants for authors: Application tips and budget must-haves

How to make the most of grant opportunities.

Book-writing can come with a lot of hidden costs that first-time authors don’t always anticipate. If you’re lucky enough to get a book deal and an advance, this will no doubt help. But the term advance is a misnomer; for the most part, advances are paid in installments — (generally over a two-year period), so you don’t get the money all up front.

Since you’re likely going to incur expenses while writing a book, there are other funding opportunities worth seeking out, including grants, fellowships, and residencies with stipends.

In this week’s post, I’m going to focus specifically on grants because this is what I have the most experience with. For many years, I wrote grant proposals and reports for the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas and learned a lot about how to articulate the need for funding and how to create budgets that are both accurate and aspirational (in that they help you envision what’s possible if you had more funds to work with).

I carried these skills over into my work as an author while writing my memoir, SLIP: Life in the Middle of Eating Disorder Recovery, which will be published by Simon & Schuster’s Simon Element imprint in August. Hoping to get more financial support in addition to my advance, I applied for half a dozen grants ranging from $1,000 to $50,000. I only ended up getting one of the grants, and it was the biggest one I applied for — from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

I mention this because it taught me an important lesson: Don’t just apply for the grants you think you’re more likely to get; apply for those and the ones that seem like a stretch. If you can make a strong case for why you need the money, and how your book (and ultimately readers) will benefit from it, you might just get the support you’re seeking.

The Sloan Foundation’s support undoubtedly made my book better — by enabling me to expand my reporting, add chapters about the science of eating disorders, and hire additional folks who could contribute to the review process. I’ll explain more below, but first, I want to share a few grants worth checking out. Keep in mind that at least a couple of them require applicants to already have a book deal. Others do not.

Credit: Unsplash

Grants to check out

Sloan Foundation grant: This grant (which requires a book contract) supports authors who are writing books that help to advance the public’s understanding of science, technology, and/or economics. When I first heard about this opportunity, I remember thinking, I probably don’t qualify because I’m not writing a “science” book. But the more I thought about it, the more I started to realize that there is fascinating research being done around the genetics and neurobiology of eating disorders — two science-related topics that I could envision exploring. I made a case for why these topics were important for my book, and I asked for the amount that I thought I’d need. (With this grant, applicants can choose how much they ask for.) I’m glad I didn’t shortchange myself because I ended up getting the amount I sought out.

Whiting Foundation creative nonfiction grant: This prestigious grant also requires applicants to have a book contract. The grant is for $40,000, and it’s geared toward writers who are in the process of completing a deeply reported book. The foundation also offers grants specifically for emerging writers, including playwrights, poets, and authors of nonfiction and fiction.

Silvers Foundation grant: This foundation awards up to $10,000 for writers who are pursuing social reportage, literary criticism, arts writing, or political analysis. With this grant, like many others, you’ll be asked to share what other funding you’ve already received for your project. Some foundations factor this into their decision-making process.

Creative Capital Award grants: Creative Capital provides unrestricted project grants “for the creation of innovative, groundbreaking new artistic works in Visual Arts, Performing Arts, Film, and Literature.” Awardees also receive professional development support.

Pen/Bare Life Review grants: Every year, PEN America offers two $5,000 grants to support “literary works in progress by immigrant and refugee writers, recognizing that the literature of migration is of inherent and manifest value.”

PEN America’s U.S. Writers Aid Initiative: This helpful initiative provides one-time grants for U.S.-based writers who are experiencing acute financial need due to an emergency situation. It’s open to fiction and nonfiction authors, journalists, poets, playwrights, and translators.

Speculative Literature Foundation grant: The Speculative Literature Foundation, which promotes equal access to literary opportunities for marginalized writers, offers a $1,000 “older writers grant” for writers age 50 and up who are in the early stages of writing speculative fiction.

Economic Hardship Reporting Project grant: This grant is for independent journalists reporting on poverty, income disparity, and workers’ rights in the U.S. There are standard grants available for specific journalistic projects, as well as book grants in the range of $1,000 to $5,000.

Barbara Deming Foundation grant: This foundation awards women in the arts with grants ranging from $500 to $2,000. The foundation has two grant cycles — one for fiction and visual arts and another for nonfiction and poetry. The grants are for projects that are already well underway and for women who “express an inclusive vision of social justice.”

Awesome Foundation grants: The foundation has various chapters around the country, and each chapter disperses monthly $1,000 grants — typically for projects that demonstrate a community impact. You can check out this list of chapters to see if there’s one near you.

Additionally, there are a lot of state-specific grants for writers. Check out this helpful list to see if you live somewhere that has grant opportunities for in-state residents.

Credit: Unsplash

What to budget for

Grant applications take a lot of time and energy, and there’s never any guarantee that you’ll win, but it’s still worthwhile to try. The budget part of the application can feel daunting — partly because we may not be accustomed to seeking support for our writing and were probably never taught to do so. When I first started creating budgets, I found it helpful to ask myself: How can I tell the story of my financial need, except in numbers instead of words?

Budget amounts will of course vary depending on the scope of your project and the criteria for each grant. And the budget lines will look different depending on the genre you’re writing in. As a nonfiction author, for instance, I put a significant portion of my Sloan funds toward travel for reporting trips. Keep in mind that most writing-related grants are geared toward supporting writers during the editorial process, and some foundations have strict rules around not budgeting for anything related to marketing and publicity.

In general, here are some budget lines to consider (many of which will be especially relevant to nonfiction writers who are pursuing deeply reported books):

TRAVEL. Will you need to take any reporting trips? If so, where will you go, and how much do you anticipate having to spend? Remember to consider not just the cost of flights, but also hotel stays, ground transportation, luggage fees, food, conference fees, etc. All of these items typically fall under the travel category.

As I wrote about earlier this month, attending conferences related to the topic of your book can be a great way to conduct in-person interviews with speakers and attendees; gain a more in-depth understanding of the topic you’re writing about; and connect with others who care about it (and who can become readers and recommenders of your book).

EDITORIAL SUPPORT. It’s always smart to consider what kind of editorial support you’re going to need. If you don’t yet have a book deal, then maybe you want to hire an editor to review what you’ve written thus far. The edited copy could end up as sample chapters in a nonfiction book proposal, or in the manuscript itself.

Even if you do have a book deal and an editor through your publishing house, you may find that you need more support than your editor can provide. Some publishing house editors, for instance, may only have time to provide one or two rounds of edits as you’re writing your manuscript. (This mostly applies to nonfiction writers, who are typically still writing their manuscripts after landing a book deal. Fiction writers, by contrast, get book deals based on completed manuscript drafts.)

If you think you’ll want more support, especially if you’re a first-time author, consider budgeting for a freelance editor who can provide more frequent feedback. You just have to be ready to figure out how to balance multiple sets of edits in a way that honors your (and your publisher’s) vision for the book.

FACT-CHECKER. Many publishers will provide a copy editor, but far fewer provide actual fact-checkers. (People sometimes conflate the two, but each serves a different purpose.) If your book involves a significant amount of research and reporting, I’d highly recommend hiring a fact-checker. I used part of my grant funds to hire one, and she helped me check not just the veracity of facts but of memory (from all the personal parts of my book). This gave me great peace of mind as both a journalist and an author.

RESEARCH ASSISTANTS. A lot of grant-funded authors hire assistants who can help them cull through research, summarize findings, synthesize data, identify potential sources to interview, etc. Determine how many hours of help you think you’ll need per week, over a set period of time, and then budget accordingly. If you aren’t sure whether you’ll need an assistant, mark it as a “maybe” budget line and return to it later when finalizing your budget. (I did this and ultimately decided I wouldn’t need one.)

Remember that if you budget for something, you need to have a strategic plan for spending that money. I’ve found that it’s OK if you don’t end up spending the exact amount of money you budgeted for each category (in some you may spend slightly more, in others slightly less), but you want to make sure that you’re spending most of what you budgeted for in each category.

SENSITIVITY READER. Sensitivity readers have become increasingly popular in recent years — in both fiction and nonfiction. They can be a great resource and can help you recognize moments where biases and insensitivities may have inadvertently crept into your copy. They can also help you think through how to fairly and accurately describe a diverse mix of individuals, cultures, and beliefs so that your book will be inclusive of, and relevant to, a wide range of readers. To find one, ask your publisher for recommendations. Also, be an active reader of books’ Acknowledgements sections so that you can make note of the sensitivity readers, fact checkers, agents, etc. that authors thank.

ADVISORS. Consider whether there is a subject matter expert who can recommend resources during the writing process and provide feedback on your finished manuscript. As part of my grant, for instance, I hired a science advisor — a well-respected psychiatrist and researcher who studies the neurobiology of eating disorders. She gave special attention to the science-related parts of the manuscript to ensure compliance with industry standards. I found her feedback to be especially helpful as someone who doesn’t have a science background.

CHILDCARE. If you’re a parent, budget for childcare. You may decide, for instance, that you want the grant to cover a percentage of the amount that you pay for daycare or after-school care. If you think you’ll need to hire babysitters, that counts too. Foundations recognize that many writers are working parents who need childcare in order to do their best writing, meet deadlines, and maintain some semblance of sanity!

SUPPLIES. Consider all the supplies you may need to do your best work. These could include a laptop; a printer (including ink and paper); a paid Zoom account for conducting virtual interviews; a recording device; a subscription to a transcription service like Otter or Descript; a subscription to writing software like Scrivener, etc. Once you start listing out the supplies you’ll need, you’ll be surprised by how quickly they can add up.

RESEARCH MATERIALS. Consider what costs you’ll incur when doing research. Will you need to purchase books? How about journal articles that aren’t open access? Will you need subscriptions that will let you access content from medical journals or media outlets? These are all important questions to consider when formulating a budget.

AUTHOR’S TIME. Estimate how many hours you’ll spend on your book during the grant period, and determine what percentage of the funds you’d like to keep as the author. This may feel selfish or pretentious, but it’s not. Budgeting for an author’s time is common practice, especially for larger grants. Your time is valuable as an author, and you should get paid for it. This is especially true for those of you who may feel as though your writing is invisible labor. Make it more visible by letting your value be seen.

What other grants or budget items would you add to the list? And what additional questions do you have? Please feel free to share your thoughts and questions in the comments section, and I’ll do my best to address them.

Posts like this require a lot of time and thought, but they’re worth it to me because I love helping writers. If you’re interested in supporting my work so that I can continue to offer newsletter posts like this for free, I hope you’ll consider becoming a paid subscriber and/or pre-ordering my book SLIP. (To those of you who already have, thank you so much; it really does mean a lot.)