Grants to Publishers Scheme
About the Scheme
The History Group offers grants to publishers to enable them to publish works which will make a significant contribution to the understanding of New Zealand's past, but which are not commercially viable. Although all forms of historical non-fiction writing are eligible for grants, special consideration is given to works which deal with the activity of the state. Grants provide a reasonable proportion (up to a maximum of 50%) of the production costs of the book, including typesetting, printing, binding, design and paste-up, but not including royalties or promotional costs.
Publishing grants are not normally available to authors. Applications should be made by the publisher, who must accept the work before a grant can be considered. Retrospective grants will not be considered. The History Group will make its own assessment of the economics and literary merit of the proposal.
Requirements
If you receive an award, you will be required to:
- Acknowledge in the publication the assistance of 'The History Group of the Ministry for Culture and Heritage';
- Send two copies on publication to the History Group;
- Agree to refund the grant if the book is not published within two years of receipt of the grant;
- Provide a report on sales 12 months after publication.
Applications
Applications close on 30 April and 31 October each year. An application form is available. We also have a Frequently Asked Questions page.
Tips for Applicants
Your application should include the following information:
- Your contact details;
- Why it is important that the book is published;
- Why you need financial help;
- How you intend to promote and distribute the book;
- Details of any other assistance you have received;
- A full description of the intended format-size, binding, number of pages, print run and intended retail price;
- Production costs-typesetting, printing, binding, cover design and paste-up charges;
- Royalty arrangements (as a general rule we expect a 10% royalty to be paid to authors).
Recent Publishing Grants
October 2007
Otago University Press: $1,500 for The Pavlova Story
total $1,500
April 2007
Auckland University Press: $3,000 for Kiwi Keith, $3,000 for Looking Flash, $2,000 for The Face of War, and $1,500 for The Future of Tokelau; Exisle Publishing: $2,500 for Devils on Horseback; Huia Publishing: $3,000 for Reimenscheider: a History.
total $15,000
October 2006
Auckland University Press: $2,500 for The New Zealand Family from 1840 and $1,500 for The Age of Enterprise; Bridget Williams Books: $2,500 for The Fabric of Welfare; Victoria University Press: $2,500 for 'The Best Man who ever Served the Crown': Donald McLean.
total $9,000
April 2006
Auckland University Press: $2,000 for Chiefs of Industry by Hazel Petrie, $1,500 for Final Approaches by Gerald Hensley, and $1,500 for Over the Mountains to the Sea by David Hastings; Otago University Press: $1,000 for Unearthly Landscapes: New Zealand’s Old Cemeteries, by Stephen Deed; Penguin: $2,000 for Opotiki Mai Rawhiti by Ranginui Walker; and Polygraphica: $2,500 for An Excellent Recruit by Margaret Alington.
total $10,500
October 2005
Auckland University Press: $1000 for The Bookman's Dominion by Chris Hillard, and $2000 for Ngamatea by Hazel Riseborough; Steele Roberts: $2500 for Mervyn Taylor: Artist, Craftsman by Bryan James, and $2000 for Sea Devils by James Bade; University of Otago Press: $2000 for Disputed Histories, edited by Tony Ballantyne and Brian Moloughney.
total $9500
April 2005
Auckland University Press: $2500 for Dirt, by Pamela Wood; $2000 for Going Up, Going Down, by Helen Laurenson; $2000 for New Rights New Zealand, edited by Dolores Janiewski and Paul Morris; University of Otago Press, $1500 for Women and Children Last by Charles Clark.
total $8000
October 2004
Auckland University Press: $3000 for Historical Fictions: Reinventing Maori History Through the Courts, and $3000 for Ourselves in Prime Time; Exisle Publishing: $3000 for That Bloody Death Trap! NZ’s Mounted Riflemen on Gallipoli; University of Otago Press: $3000 for Tackling Rugby Myths.
total $12,000
May 2004
Auckland University Press: $3000 for Remembering: Writing Oral History, edited by Anna Green and Megan Hutching; Canterbury University Press, $3000 for Anthony Wilding: A Sporting Life, by Len & Shelley Richardson; Ngaio Press, $2500 for A Driven Man: T.S. Grace, by David Grace; Reed Books, $2000 for The Reed History of New Zealand, by Matthew Wright, and $2000 for Sweetness in Some of the Claws: A Radical Historian’s Life, by Dick Scott; Victoria University Press, $2500 for State Authority/ Indigenous Autonomy: Crown-Maori Relations in New Zealand 1900-50, by Richard Hill.
$15,000 total
October 2003
University of Auckland Research Centre for Germanic Connections with NZ and the Pacific, $1,414 for Von Luckner: A Reassessment, by James N. Bade.
$1,414 total
May 2003
Auckland University Press: $3000 for While You're Away: New Zealand Nurses at War 1899-1948, by Anna Rogers, $3000 for Leisure and Pleasure: The Reshaping and Revealing of New Zealand Bodies 1900-1960, by Caroline Daley, and $3000 for Sites of Gender: Change and Continuity in Southern Dunedin 1890-1939, edited by Barbara Brookes, Annabel Cooper and Robin Law.
$9,000 total
October 2002
Auckland University Press, $3000 for A Voice for Mothers: the Plunket Society and Infant Welfare in 20th Century New Zealand, by Linda Bryder.
Clerestory Press, $2500 for Bravo Neu Seeland! The Maori-Austrian Connection in 1859-60, edited by Helen Hogan.
Reed Publishing, $4000 for 19th Century New Zealand Cabinetmakers and their Furniture, by William Cottrell.
$9,500 total
May 2002
Auckland University Press: $4000 for A Sort of Conscience: the Wakefields by Philip Temple; $2500 for Rere Atu, Taku Manu! Discovering History, Language and Politics in the Maori Language, edited by Jenifer Curnow, Ngapare Hopa and Jane McRae.
David Bateman, $1500 for A History of Civil Aviation in New Zealand by Maurice McGreal.
Bridget Williams Books, $3000 for Looking For the Phoenix: a Memoir, by Bill Oliver.
Victoria University Press: $3000 for Worlds in Collision: the Gay Debate in New Zealand 1960-85 by Laurie Guy, and $1500 for The Canoes of Kupe: Nga Waka a Kupe: a History of Martinborough District c. 1000-2002 by Roberta McIntyre
$15,500 total
November 2001
Bridget Williams Books, $3000 for Prophetic Histories
Dunmore Press, $2000 for Choir of the World by Simon Tipping
Huia, $4000 for Wiremu Tamihana by Evelyn Stokes
University of Otago Press, $3000 for No Idle Rich: the Wealthy in Canterbury and Otago 1840-1914 by Jim McAloon
University of Auckland Research Centre for Germanic Connections with NZ and the Pacific, $1000 Race & Realpolitik: the Politics of Colonisation in German Samoa by Evelyn Wareham
$13,000 total
May 2001
Auckland University Press, $2000 for People and Policies: Making the New Zealand Native Schools System (Judith Simon and Linda Smith, editors); $4000 for From Tamaki-Makau-Rau to Auckland by Russell Stone; and $2000 for The Nationbuilders by Brian Easton
Bridget Williams Books, $4000 for Boundary Markers, by Giselle Byrnes
Penguin, $2000 for He Tipua, a biography of Sir Apirana Ngata by Ranginui Walker
$14,000 total
Enquiries
Before contacting us, please see our Frequently Asked Questions page.
Any enquiries should be addressed to Gavin McLean, Senior Historian.
E-mail: gavin.mclean@mch.govt.nz
Telephone: (04) 496 6342
Fax: (04) 496 6354
Postal Address:
History Group
Ministry for Culture and Heritage
P O Box 5364
Wellington
New Zealand