New submission opportunities for children's authors and illustrators

Plus industry updates from March 2025

March is a BUSY month in the publishing calendar - between World Book Day, multiple book fairs and prize shortlists being announced, there is a LOT going on.

As well as sharing some updates from us, we’ve rounded up key industry highlights for you as well as all of the amazing submission opportunities that are currently available for children’s authors and illustrators.

But first…

It’s our book birthday!

It’s been four years since our debut book The Perfect Fit published. The Perfect Fit has been translated into twelve languages, selected for the Scottish BookTrust BookBug scheme, shared on CBeebies Bedtime Stories and was also shortlisted for the Klaus Flugge Award.

To celebrate we’re offering a 20% discount for anyone who subscribes to an annual plan using this link before 5th April. (The reduced price will continue indefinitely.)

This means for just £40 a year you’ll be able to read all of our subscriber only posts including recent ones about what actually happens at book fairs, how to write a query letter and the pros and cons of having a literary agent.

Plus you’ll be able to join us for a live monthly zoom call (our next one is Sunday 30th March at 8pm GMT) where you can ask us any questions you like about the industry.

Special offer for feedback on picture book texts

Naomi is also running a special offer for feedback on picture book manuscripts in April. If you have a picture book text (up to 1000 words) that you’d like some guidance on then she can help.

As well as being an award winning author, Naomi worked in publishing for eight years and has been a freelance editor and mentor for over six.

For just £50 she’ll provide notes on your manuscript as well as written feedback in an email. Do get in touch if you’d like to know more.

Industry news

World Book Day was on Thursday 6th March this year and saw children up and down the country celebrating their favourite books. The aim of World Book Day is to promote reading for pleasure as just 1 in 3 children now say they enjoy reading.

London Book Fair took place on 10th-12th March and will be followed by one that is just for children’s books in Bologna from 31st March - 4th April. You can read Naomi’s post about what actually happens at a book fair here.

The British Book Awards aka the Nibbies announced their shortlisted books which you can see here. The Independent Bookshop of the Year winners were revealed too.

The Carnegies also announced their writing and illustration shortlists - the winners will be announced in June.

The winners of the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize were also recently revealed.

We’ve written before about the importance of market research - paying attention to which books get shortlisted for, and win prizes is part of that so it’s always worth checking out the shortlists.

On 20th March The Atlantic published a searchable database of over 7.5 million pirated books which Meta used to train AI on. You can read more about this on the Society of Author’s website here.

Using someone’s work without permission or payment is theft, plain and simple. Affected author

Katie Hale

wrote a brilliant post about why it’s so wrong and how it’s made her feel here.

This of course all comes hot on the heels of the Make It Fair campaign launched by creative industries earlier this year in opposition to the UK government’s proposed changes to copyright law.

In happier news this month writers have received payments from ALCS - if you have written any articles for magazines or had poems/books published it is well worth singing up for.

This post by New York Times selling author

Laura Steven

also caught our eye this month. We found it fascinating reading about her (non-linear) writing journey over the last twelve years.

We’ve heard before that it takes ten years to become an overnight success. Discovering how authors and illustrators got where they are now is one of the reasons we love interviewing creatives every Friday.

This month we’ve been lucky enough to hear from Mo O’Hara, Adam Ming, Ian Eagleton and Claire Powell. It’s free to watch/read all of our interviews and we have lots more coming up over the next few months.

Our news

Like most authors and illustrators in March, we had a busy few weeks of school visits. Some were in person and some were virtual. We were having too much fun to take many pictures but there are a couple below!

We do take booking for school visits directly but Naomi has also recently joined Author Aloud.

As well as lots of school visits, this month Naomi helped out on our youngest son’s school trip to a local farm where they met some very cute lambs. She also popped up to London for a couple of days of consultancy work and caught up with friends while she was there (the train ride along the coast in Devon is particularly beautiful).

As well as giving a lecture to illustration students at Falmouth University, James went up to North Wales for a few days to visit his grandparents and also went to London to go to the Academy of British Cover Design awards.

We’ve been finalising our brand new picture book this month and can’t wait to share more about it very soon…

Submission opportunities

There are a few submission opportunities for chidlren’s authors and illustrators this month:

Applications for WriteMentor 2025 are open from 7th-11th April.

The Jericho Prize is now open to picture book manuscripts from Black British writers. The deadline is 30th April.

The Little, Brown Emerging Artist Award for diverse picture book illustrators is open until 15th June to US residents only.

Lemon Jelly Press in the UK are open to picture book, poetry and short fiction submissions until 14th May.

The Chicken House fiction competition is now open. Deadline is 2nd June. (You can read our interview with Jasbinder Bilan who previously won this competition here.)

Indie publishing house Hashtag Press are running a competition seeking diverse young fiction and middle grade writers. Deadline 1st May.

The Shirley Hughes Sketchbook Award for observational drawings by Orange Beak Studio is free to enter and open from 13th Feb - 16th May. First prize is £1000 plus an Orange Beak tutorial.

Finally if you’ve ever been interested in working in the publishing industry and live in the north of England, the Children’s Book North Network are currently running a free annual mentoring scheme. Successful applicants will receive four hours of 1 to 1 mentoring sessions from a matched industry experts in a variety of fields, including editorial, sales, design, marketing and production. Applications are open between 10th-30th April.

We keep our resources post updated with any new author/illustrator substacks we spot so do check it out if you haven’t already.

Why subscribe to Words and Pictures?

• We’ll share everything we know about making books and how the industry works in a new post each Monday.

• Every month we’ll hold a live session for community members to ask us anything and everything they want to know about writing, illustrating and getting published. The next live session is Sunday 30th March 8pm GMT.

• There will also be free interviews every Friday with authors, illustrators and publishing professionals as they spill the ink about life behind the scenes making books.

• Every month we’ll also highlight submission opportunities and exciting new releases in the world of children’s books.

“Kid lit writers, do not sleep on Naomi & James's monthly subscriber zoom calls. In our half hour chat, I gained a wealth of helpful insight into my own manuscript and the publishing world. This type of access to creative's with their credentials is pretty astounding.”

We hope you all have a brilliant April full of Easter egg hunts, sunshine and creative fun.

Love Naomi and James x