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.