Membership Categories

The Word Guild offers three categories of membership:

1. Associate Member

Any Canadian citizen or permanent resident who agrees with our statement of faith and is engaged in writing or editing as a personal interest, developing the craft of writing, or beginning to put together a body of published work.
To join, fill out the online membership application. You do not need to fill out the professional assessment section.
Send a cheque or pay online by credit card (follow the instructions after submitting the form). The cost is $66.67 ($59 plus HST) for a one-year membership, with multi-year discounts available.
New members add a one-time $22.60 ($20 plus HST) administration fee. This fee covers your initial membership setup and new member package that will be mailed to you upon registration.

2. Affiliate Member

Anyone who agrees with our statement of faith and is engaged in a related field such as publishing, bookselling, printing, education, other media, public relations, etc.; is a church or public librarian; is an avid reader; is not a Canadian citizen or permanent resident of Canada; or who simply wishes to show support and to keep updated through receiving TWG member mailings and materials.
To join, fill out the online membership application. You do not need to fill out the professional assessment section.
Send a cheque or pay online by credit card (follow the instructions after submitting the form). The cost is $66.67 ($59 plus HST) for a one-year membership, with multi-year discounts available.
New members add a one-time $22.60 ($20 plus HST) administration fee. This fee covers your initial membership setup and new member package that will be mailed to you upon registration.

3. Professional Member

Any Canadian citizen or permanent resident who agrees with our statement of faith and (a) is employed full-time as a writer or editor or (b) has produced a sufficient body of published work to accumulate a total of 50 points according to our professional member assessment.
To join, fill out the online membership application, including the professional assessment section.
Before you fill out the online application, download the professional assessment form as a Word document, to use as a worksheet to tally your publishing credits. Please send the completed Word document as an attachment to TWG's administrative assistant.
Send a cheque or pay online by credit card (follow the instructions after submitting the form). The cost is $107.35 ($95 plus HST) for a one-year membership, with multi-year discounts available.
New members add a one-time $22.60 ($20 plus HST) administration fee. This fee covers your initial membership setup and new member package that will be mailed to you upon registration.
All professional membership applications are subject to peer review. Please allow several months for this process.

To qualify as a professional member in The Word Guild, you must have a sufficient body of work. Any combination of the following that totals 50 points qualifies you for professional membership.

Note: works cited in the professional membership application must have been published/produced/performed (i.e., works in progress don't count).

Professional Criteria:

Type of Work	Points
Print periodical articles, stories, reviews, columns	1 point per 500 words published (e.g. a 2,000-word article equals 4 points)
Major writing projects (e.g. manuals, promotional campaigns, government reports)	10 points each
Radio or television documentaries, plays, screenplays	1 point per 5 minutes of performance time
Published books of fewer than 40,000 words	15 points each
Published books of more than 40,000 words	25 points each
Poetry	2 points for every poem published in a paying market (1 poem per issue of a publication)
Song Lyrics	2 points for every song lyric that has been published, or produced on a recording made for sale to the public
Editing	1 point for every four hours of paid editorial work
Other	May be allowed at the discretion of the membership committee. Send an inquiry describing your experience.