Submission opportunities for children's authors and illustrators and industry news
May 2025 publishing update
Is it just us or has May flown by? We can’t quite believe that it’s almost June and nearly half way through the year…
Our news
This month we’ve been enjoying the sunshine and working outside in the garden as much as possible. We’ve also been busy getting ready for publication of Naomi’s next picture book The Hug Button in July.
She shared her marketing plans six months ago and on Monday will give paid subscribers a behind the scenes insight into what she’s doing now there’s just one month to go until publication.
We’ve also been developing manuscripts and characters with publishers and really excitingly have a middle grade manuscript which has just gone out on submission so we’re keeping our fingers crossed an editor will love it as much as we do!
This month here at Words and Pictures we’ve shared posts about literary festivals, approaching an agent, helping authors/illustrators and other ways children’s authors can earn a living from writing.
We’ve also interviewed Tom Percival, Mel Taylor-Bessent, Justyn Edwards, Heather Wright from Reading Rocks and Simon Pollard who founded the St Austell Festival of Children’s Literature.
The tables were turned on us in May as we were interviewed by the lovely
. You can read what we had to say here.Anna is a prolific writer, mentor and editor. We interviewed her back in December 2024 about why you need to be fierce to get published, how the industry has changed in the last twenty years and why it's always good to check in with other writers. You can read Anna’s interview here if you’re curious to hear what she had to say.
Mentoring and picture book assessments
This month Naomi has also been busy working with Neelum, the picture book author who was selected for this free mentoring opportunity for a writer from an underrepresented background.
As well as mentoring, Naomi also offers Picture Book Assessments which include detailed notes in tracked changes on a manuscript and a comprehensive three page report about which areas are working well what needs to be developed further.
It costs just £100 and she’s had incredible feedback from other writers she’s worked with:
'This is the clearest, most constructive, most comprehensive and thus the most helpful I have ever received. By a very long way… Your feedback was worth every penny.' R. Burton
'Everything makes perfect sense. I feel like I have such clear next steps on where to go from here.' Laura Lott
'I had a sense that parts of it weren’t working but I couldn’t pinpoint why. Your comments helped clarify that—and made me feel more confident about how to move forward. Not just with this manuscript, but in my storytelling overall.' Valentino Marazziti
If you’re interested in a Picture Book Assessment, or having Naomi as a mentor, just drop her an email or leave a comment at the bottom of this post.
Industry news
The British Book Awards aka the Nibbies announced their winners this month. So did Oscar’s Book Prize which went to
.The Klaus Flugge Prize for illustration shortlist was also announced in May. (Our book The Perfect Fit was shortlisted for this a few years ago.)
For a reminder of why paying attention to awards and doing market research is useful, check out this post here.
There are a lot of literary festivals happening at this time of year too - do check out our recent post about them and our interviews with festival organisers Simon Pollard and Heather Wright to find out more.
This month we enjoyed reading this post by
about how to get a literary agent is well worth a read. Although she works in adult publishing, a lot of her advice is transferable for children’s books too.Submission opportunities
There are lots of opportunities for writers and illustrators around at the moment. Please do share this post with writer/illustrator friends to help spread the word and let people know what’s out there.
Also if you can spare a moment to like this post we’d really appreciate it as this will help it be seen by more people.
Guppy Books are open for middle grade submissions by unpublished and un-agented writers between 16th-20th June.
Curtis Brown are offering Breakthrough Mentoring for LGBTQIA+ Writers. Deadline 8th June.
The Scottish Wildlife Trust are running a writing competition. Deadline 12th July.
For children’s poets, the Dirigible Balloon opens to submissions on 1st June for two weeks.
Wells Festival of Literature Book for Children competition is open until 30th June.
Little Thoughts Press is open to submissions between 10th May - 20th June for stories, artwork and poetry for readers under 10.
World of Books has launched the Sustainable Story Award for children’s authors based in the UK. The deadline is 6th July.
Faber has announced the FAB prize which is now open for writers and illustrators of colour. The competition closes 25th July. You can read our interview with previous winner Mariesa Dulak here.
The Little, Brown Emerging Artist Award for diverse picture book illustrators is open until 15th June to US residents only.
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.)
Write Mentor Idea Idol competition will be open internationally to any unagented writers of Picture Books, Chapter Books, Middle Grade, Teen, and Young Adult fiction between 1st April - 1st July.
Undiscovered Voices 2026 launches on May 22nd for unagented writers of Childrens and YA fiction with a free online event for SCWBI members. The competition itself opens on 3rd July and closes on September 8th.
UPDATE: Words and Pictures
Previously one post a month with advice in for writers and illustrators or invaluable insights about the business of publishing has been free, but from now on they’ll all be for paid subscribers only.
Free subscribers will still be able to read the monthly round up post of submissions opportunities and the interviews we share on a Friday.
For just £5 a month or £50 a year, less than the price of two coffees a month, paid subscribers will be able to read all of the posts on a Monday where we share everything we know about how to write and illustrate children’s books, behind the scenes insights and lots of information about how the industry works.
Paid subscribers will also be able to join us for a live monthly zoom call to ask us any questions they might have about their work in progress or the industry.
It takes time to write all of these posts and we really believe that £5 a month offers excellent value for all the insights and information that we share.
Finally we want to say a HUGE thank you - we are so grateful to all of our subscribers whether you’re free or paid and for the community that we’re building here.
If you’d like to become a paid subscriber but can’t afford it, just drop us a message and we’ll comp you a subscription for six months.
Love Naomi & James x
Another fantastic post! So many resources and so clearly laid out.. thank you 😊 I'm so glad I've upgraded and look forward to being part of the community here 💖 Can I ask.. when is the next monthly live chat please?