Financial-Needs Scholarships
As part of our commitment to create a world that works for all, we have established a scholarship fund to support authors who need financial support in order to attend either the Marketing Workshop or the Annual Authors Retreat.
Purpose
As part of our commitment to create a world that works for all, we have established a scholarship fund to support authors who need financial support in order to attend either the BookPlan Marketing Workshop or the Annual Authors Retreat.
Our community is built on trust. As such, we do not ask scholarship applicants to demonstrate or prove financial need. We trust that if you are applying for financial assistance, it is because you need financial assistance.
BookPlan (Our Nonfiction Book Marketing Workshop)
Any nonfiction author (whether published with Berrett-Koehler or not) can apply for a scholarship covering either 25%, 50%, or 75% of the cost of the workshop, depending on the level of their financial need.
Our scholarship form for the 2027 BookPlan workshop is not open yet. Please check back in fall 2026.
BK Authors Annual Retreat
The number of scholarships available for the BK Authors Annual Retreat is set annually by the board based on funds raised in previous years. This scholarship is only available to Berrett-Koehler authors and associate BK Author members.
The financial assistance fund for the Retreat is called the Ellen Augustine Scholarship Fund.
Read more about Ellen’s legacy
BK Authors has named its scholarship program the Ellen Augustine Scholarship Fund. Ellen Augustine, who died in 2015, was a Berrett-Koehler author who championed the inclusion of BK social change authors at the annual BK Authors Retreat. Many social change authors have had a difficult time devoting the time and money to attend our retreats. They write about the root causes of social, economic, and environmental injustice, topics that don’t lend themselves to big incomes. When the BK Scholarship Fund was created around 2008, Ellen recruited many social change authors to attend the annual retreats. Her efforts led to one of our largest retreats ever in 2011, with roughly 70 attendees. And the conversations were especially rich with the addition of these broad thinkers.
As we continually seek to diversify the participation of authors at our events, we are proud to name the scholarship after Ellen. We encourage social change authors—and all authors—who need financial assistance to tap the Ellen Augustine Scholarship Fund in order to attend the BK Authors Retreat.
Berrett-Koehler authors can apply for a scholarship covering either 50%, 75%, or 100% of the cost of the retreat (excluding travel to and from). We ask that you request only as much financial assistance as you need.
Retreat scholarships must be received at least a week before the registration deadline.
The BK Authors Executive Committee will disperse available scholarship funds among applicants. Depending on demand, we may not be able to grant the full amount of assistance requested or to honor all scholarship requests.
BK Author Retreat Scholarship Application
If you have any questions, contact us at [email protected].
Note: Information submitted below will be treated confidentially.