Submission Policy

Eligibility

Harbour publishes about twenty books a year in many genres, but mainly on topics concerning the Pacific Northwest. Over the decades Harbour has offered a friendly home for writers from under-represented West Coast communities including workers, women, Indigenous people, LGBTQ2+ people, Asians, South Asians, people of colour and other minorities and continues to strive for inclusiveness in its program.

Some recent titles are Voices from the Skeena by Roy Henry Vickers and Robert Budd, Asa Johal and Terminal City Forest Products by Jinder Oujla-Chalmers; Being Ts’elxwe’yeqw by David Schaepe; Iron Road West by Derek Hayes; Grizzlies, Gales and Giant Salmon by Pat Ardley and Go Do Some Great Thing: The Black Pioneers of British Columbia (3rd Edition) by Crawford Kilian. We publish guidebooks and natural history, such as Luschiim’s Plants: Traditional Indigenous Foods, Materials and Medicines by Luschiim Arvid Charlie and Dr. Nancy J. Turner; Whelks to Whales: Coastal Marine Life of the Pacific Northwest (3rd Edition) by Rick M. Harbo; and A Field Guide to Edible Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest by Daniel Winkler. We also publish children's titles such as A is for Anemone by Roy Henry Vickers and Robert Budd and The Great Grizzlies Go Home by Judy Hilgemann. Recent poetry releases include Orrery by Donna Kane and Marry & Burn by Rachel Rose. Other titles include novels, gardening titles, art books, cookbooks, humour and anthologies. Prospective authors may consider any one of the above titles as typical of Harbour output in terms of content and style. Under its Lost Moose imprint the press also publishes books about life in Canada's North with titles such as From the Klondike to Berlin: The Yukon in WWI by Michael Gates and The Boreal Gourmet: Adventures in Northern Cooking by Michele Genest.

Please consider browsing this website for a better knowledge of Harbour's program

 

Submissions Policy

No phone calls, please.
We accept unsolicited manuscripts and regularly receive 1,000 per year, which we read as time permits. 

We accept submissions through CanSubmit. Click here to submit your manuscript or proposal

Please register a CanSubmit account and then complete the form with information about you and your book, including the manuscript as an attached Word doc file or PDF, and a separate attachment of your biography and publication credentials, if applicable. There are (optional) fields available for uploading a chapter-by-chapter summary and/or illustrations.

Submissions to Raincoast Chronicles must focus on BC history and be 3,000 words or less. Use Cansubmit in the normal way, indicating the submission is for Raincoast Chronicles in the description.

We no longer accept unsolicited submissions via email. If you experience technical difficulties using CanSubmit, or have a query about the submissions policy not covered below, please write to submissions@harbourpublishing.com.

Acceptance Procedure

Once your manuscript is uploaded, you will receive an automated email acknowledging receipt. If the press is interested in publishing your work, you may be asked to submit an author questionnaire listing previous publications, vital statistics, etc. We may also make suggestions as to how your manuscript can be changed to make it more publishable. You may be also shown a contract for perusal so you may understand the terms under which Harbour authors work. None of these things constitute a commitment to publish the work. That occurs only when a contract is signed by both parties.

Contract Terms

Harbour offers full distribution across Canada and into the U.S. and U.K. where appropriate. Foreign language rights and subsidiary rights (film, etc.) are actively marketed. The press acquires world rights to the work and pays industry standard royalties. Advances are negotiable, based on the commercial potential of the book.