Who We Publish

We are principally interested in submissions from Canadian writers. We only consider submissions from outside of Canada if the author is Canadian and if the book has extraordinary interest to Canadian readers. We publish works by both established and up-and-coming authors. Many of the authors who publish with the Goose have contributed to distinguished literary journals and magazines such as the Fiddlehead, Antigonish Review, New Quarterly, Malahat Review, and Maisonneuve; newspapers such as the Globe and Mail, the National Post, the Telegraph Journal, and the Ottawa Citizen; magazines such MacLean's, Walrus, Geist, Canada's History, Reader's Digest and Toronto Life; or broadcasters such as CBC, Radio-Canada, and PBS. In sum, many of them have had long and distinguished careers in periodical publishing before they began to publish in book form.

How to Make a Submission

In the interest of preserving trees and the backs of our editors, we only accept manuscript submissions in electronic format. Please don't even ponder printing a copy of your manuscript for us or asking a postal carrier to lug it to our offices! It may seem radical, but that's just who we are. Please do not send a query to ask whether we would be interested in seeing your work. If you have doubts about whether your book would fit in at Goose Lane, browse our catalogue to get a better sense of what we have already published (or better yet, pick up some of our books in a bookstore or library). If you still are unsure, send us your work anyway. The worst we can do is say, "No, thanks."

When You'll Hear From Us

When we receive your submission, we will acknowledge its receipt via email. If there's something missing, you will likely hear from us within 1-2 weeks. However, if the submission is complete, you probably won't hear from us again for at least 6-8 months, maybe longer. Sometimes we just can't keep up with the volume, and we like to give every submission our complete attention.

General Guidelines for all genres of writing:

Please submit the following, combined into a single MS Word (.doc, .docx) or PDF format file, in an easy-to-read, 10- to 12-point font, with margins of at least 2.5 cm (1 inch):

• A cover letter that summarizes your relevant professional and personal information. Address your letter to the appropriate editor so we know that the right person is looking at your submission.
• A list of previous publications, including any portions of the manuscript that have been published elsewhere.
• A synopsis or outline of your book.
• For prose fiction (novel or short stories) or non-fiction, a sample of 30-50 manuscript pages (or 3-4 short stories). The text must be double-spaced on consecutive numbered pages.
• If your proposed book is illustrated, describe the nature of the illustrations in your outline or embed images in your manuscript sample (i.e. as part of the Word document or PDF). Do not send images as separate attachments.
• Please do not mail any original artwork, slides, or photographs. Do not send any work on CDs, external hard drives, flash drives, or any other digital storage device. Only work submitted through our website form will be considered.
• We are happy to consider simultaneous submissions. However, please let us know if you accept an offer to have your manuscript published elsewhere.

Click here to make a Fiction submission. 

Click here to make a Non-Fiction submission.