The funds received from the North Texas Book Festival, along with gifts and donations, are given in grants to school and public libraries, adult and children literacy programs, and reading programs. These agencies in Denton County are eligible to apply. The expenses involved in organizing and promoting the festival are met through dues and contributions. The North Texas Book Festival, Inc. is a 501 (c) (3) organization and does not have any paid employees.

All grant proposals are number-coded without committee members knowing the writers. After the committee, composed of four members and a chairman, has completed the selection, they check the list provided by the members of the NTBF, Inc. for groups that performed an outstanding promotional campaign. One of the questions on the application is how the library or program applying for a grant generated public interest in attending the North Texas Book Festival. The official flyer and poster material can be copied from the web site. Any of the libraries or reading programs given a grant is eligible for a $100 bonus.

THE NORTH TEXAS BOOK FESTIVAL / PELICAN PUBLISHING JAMES RICE AWARD The North Texas Book Festival, Inc. and Pelican Publishing have designated $1,000, each contributing $500 in cash or books, to fund a grant in memory of author James Rice. Author and illustrator of more than 60 books, Rice was the featured author at the 2002, 2003, and 2004 North Texas Book Festivals. He is well known for his inventive twists on the poem by Clement C. Moore, The Night Before Christmas. A few of his well-known books that he wrote and illustrated are: The Texas Night Before Christmas, The Cowboy Night Before Christmas, The Cajun Night Before Christmas, Texas Alphabet, Gaston the Green-Nosed Alligator, Texas Jack at the Alamo, Gaston Goes to the Alamo. Some that he illustrated are: The Night Before Christmas, Why Cowboys Sleep with Their Boots on, Redneck Night Before Christmas, Trucker's Night Before Christmas, The Teacher's Night Before Christmas, Nurse's Night Before Christmas, The Principal's Night Before Christmas. The author and illustrator set the Christmas classic in the Louisiana Bayou in the Cajun dialect, the open range of the American west, and Ireland, to name but a few. A native Texan, Mr. Rice passed away at his home in Hico, Texas in 2004.

School libraries, public libraries, and literacy programs in Denton County are eligible for grants ranging from $500 to $1,000. The grant applications are to be filled out and returned by the date of the next festival, which will be held in the Denton Civic Center, April 17, 2010.