Membership
Membership to the Young Alberta Book Society is open to anyone who wishes to join, though certain criteria must be met for eligibility to participate in our programs as an artist member. The annual full membership fee is $50 for touring artists and Taleblazers host schools and libraries.
We also have a supporter membership category which is for individuals or institutions who wish to be a part of the organization, have voting rights, have artist webpages maintained, or be part of our referral efforts, but who do not wish or intend to participate in any of our programming. The membership fee for this category is $25. A supporter membership can be upgraded to a full membership at any time of year. Full memberships may not be downgraded mid-year, but may be renewed as supporters the following spring upon expiry. The membership year for both categories is July 1-June 30.
Benefits to being an artist member:
Literary artists who wish to apply to join the roster of touring artists will be asked to submit a completed application package which may include, as applicable to artist type: samples of work/performance, references, relevant experience, bibliography, etc. Successful applicants will be required to sign a code of conduct and provide a vulnerable sector police information check. Please email info@yabs.ab.ca to discuss general eligibility and to request an application package.
At this time, we are only able to accept authors who have been published through the traditional publishing model.
We do recognize that there are many quality works being published outside of the traditional model. However, this policy remains in place due to guidelines from national arts bodies.
To be considered traditionally published, all five of the below criteria must be met:
1) The artist’s work must be chosen by through an editorial selection process
2) The artist has signed a royalty-paying contract
3) The artist has paid no costs towards production of the book
4) The artist was not required to purchase a minimum number copies of the book as part of the agreement with the publisher
5) No more than 25% of the published artists may be employees or owners of the publishing house
