Submission opportunities in December
Plus an update on what happened in publishing in November
Apollo Sunshine print © James Jones
It is cold and sunny here today in Cornwall as we write this and it feels hard to believe there are just 21 days until Christmas and even less until the Winter Solstice.
Do make time amongst all the festive celebrations for writing and illustrating though, as there are some amazing competition and submission opportunities coming up over the next couple of months…
Competitions and submission opportunities
Naomi is offering three hours of free picture book mentoring for a writer who feels their voice is underrepresented in children’s publishing. Find out more details here. Deadline is 31st January 2025.
In response to the research from the NTL, Faber has announced a new action writing competition for writers of children’s fiction. Deadline is 30th January 2025.
The GLL Literary Foundation is offering 20 paid author placements in libraries in: Bromley, Greenwich, Wandsworth, Dudley and Lincolnshire. Nominations close 10th January 2025.
The Books That Help 2024 Mentorship scheme in partnership with Little Tiger Press is now open for unagented picture book author or author/illustrators. Deadline 31st December.
Bursary applications for the Jericho Writers Self-Editing course are now open. Deadline 6th December.
Sponsored by Bonnier Books, the WriteMentor Picture Book and Novel Awards 2025 are now open to picture book and fiction writers. Deadline 1st February 2025.
The Alice Corrie Award at Orange Beak Studio invites picture book authors to submit a manuscript by 3rd March 2025. The winner gets £200 and have the opportunity to meet a publisher online. This award is in memory of editor Alice Corrie who Naomi worked with on her books How to Catch a Rainbow and How to Make a Story.
Hachette Children’s Novel Awards for writers living in the north of the UK writing children’s middle grade and YA fiction. Deadline 13th January 2025.
Inkubator is a 6-month development programme for writers and freelancers living in Newcastle, North Tyneside and Northumberland. Application deadline 20th January 2025.
Bestselling author Sophie Anderson is offering a six-month free mentorship to a racially minoritised children’s writer in the UK working on a middle grade book. Full details of how to apply can be found on her instagram. Deadline is end of December.
Author Lui Sit is offering a package review for a contemporary middle grade author. Deadline end of Dec.
City Lit’s Malorie Blackman Scholarships for Unheard Voices provides three annual awards to fund one year’s study within the Creative Writing department at City Lit. Deadline 2nd February 2025.
Tyger Tiger children’s poetry submissions on the theme of Big Things, closes 31st Dec.
The Kelpies Prize for writing - they have categories for picture books, children’s fiction and non-fiction but writers must live in Scotland. Closing date is 28th Feb 2025.
What happened in publishing in November?
Well, November was a busy month in the world of children’s publishing.
The nominated titles for the Carnegies 2025 were announced and Waterstones shared their book of the year winners.
The National Literary Trust also released research revealing that children’s reading enjoyment was at its lowest level ever.
And the CLPE shared research showing that ethic representation within children’s literature declined significantly in 2023.
Recommended substack posts
We found these posts really interesting this month and thought you might too:
What did we get up to in November?
Naomi took part in the Derby Book Festival and ran events over two days for over 300 children with illustrator Rebecca Ashdown which was a lot of fun.
We were also really excited to take part in Children For Change, an ebook collection of over 80 stories and illustrations from some of the UK’s best storytellers.
How to Make a Story by Naomi , illustrated by Ana Gomez was gifted to every P2 child in Scotland this year through their P2 Read Write Count bag with the Scottish Book Trust which was amazing.
We’ve also been getting ready for some Christmas markets and have made new cards and prints which can be found in our shop and on Not on the High Street.
And although it isn’t 2025 yet, we’ve already started taking bookings for World Book Day week author and illustrator visits. If you know a school that is interested, you can find out more about our events here.
Join us live
For all our paid subscribers, our next live zoom call will be Sunday 15th December at 8pm.
We cannot wait to chat to you in person. It’ll be a chance to meet us and ask us anything you’d like to about making children’s books and getting published.
If you can’t make it but have a question you’d like answered just drop us a message as we’ll send a recording around to paid subscribers afterwards and will answer as many questions as we can.
It costs just £5 a month or £50 a year to subscribe and access all the benefits from being a member of the word and pictures community. If you’d like to upgrade your subscription to a paid one before then you can do so here: