Applying for a publication or translation grant
Below, you will find more information about the main grants offered by the Centre National du Livre (CNL) and by the Institut Français.
The CNL, a body of the French Ministry of Culture, operates a grant program to help cover the cost of translation and, exceptionally, rights acquisition for foreign publishers wishing to publish French-language works.
The amount of the translation grant is calculated on the basis of the translation costs. The sums granted represent between 30% and 60% of the total translation costs.
The amount of the grant for rights acquisition may cover as much as 100% of the advance settled by the Grantee.
For additional information, please visit the CNL website.
“Extraduction” – Translation grant
General eligibility
With the exception of special cases left to the discretion of the CNL president, any professional publisher may request CNL grants, regardless of its legal structure, as long as they holds the rights to the work to be translated.
The original work must be in French, under copyright, and fall within the subject categories of one of the thematic commissions of the CNL. Teaching materials, practical guides, reviews, as well as works in the public domain are not eligible.
All foreign languages are eligible.
Commissions meet three times a year, in:
- February – application deadline: November 3,
- June – deadline: February 22,
- October – deadline: June 10.
Each publisher may submit up to 10 application dossiers per session and per commission: February (application deadline: November 3), June (deadline: February 22) and October (deadline: June 10).
Projects benefitting from another form of public translation funding are not eligible.
For more information about “Extraduction” – translation grant, please click here.
Finally, the CNL is in charge of a residency program for translators who wish to spend time in France while working on a translation. More information can be found here.
The Institut français, a body of the French Foreign Affairs Ministry, operates a Publication Assistance Program (PAP) divided into two sections.
The first section is a grant program for the purchase of rights by foreign publishers wishing to publish French works and is run by the main Institut Français in Paris. The program subsidizes part or all of the cost of the advance paid on royalties by the foreign publisher. For each session, a publisher may submit two applications corresponding to two separate French works.
Commissions take place twice a year, in February and in June, with application deadlines in January and May. More details can be found here.
In addition, the local Institut Français branches run grant programs in the foreign publisher’s country of origin. These programs help to cover the costs of translation or, in certain countries, the production or promotion of the book.
See below for links to the programs of individual countries.
- Algeria
- Argentina
- Austria
- Canada
- China
- Croatia
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Egypt
- Estonia
- Georgia
- Germany
- Greece
- Hungary
- India
- Israel
- Italy
- Japan
- Lebanon
- Lithuania
- Mexico
- Poland
- Romania
- Russia
- Serbia
- Slovania
- South Korea
- Spain
- Taiwan
- Thailand
- Tunisia
- Turkey
- United Kingdom
- Ukraine
- Uruguay
- USA
- Venezuela
Occasionally, grant programs are reinforced for certain countries, particularly at times of increased cultural exchange between France and that country. For example, since France was the guest of honor at the 2017 edition of the Frankfurt Book Fair, the CNL’s grant program for Germany provided exceptional subsidies of up to 70 % of translation costs for works scheduled for publication before the Fair.
The “Jules Supervielle” Co-Publication Program is special regional program designed for publishers in Latin America wishing to work together to publish works in Spanish translation. Co-publication projects must involve at least two publishers from two different Latin American countries. The program funds the purchase of rights and/or the publication of the work.
