We all know about the big publishers (many of which don't even take submissions), but do you know of any good small publishers that put out reputable children's books?Readers?
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Editorial Anonymous' anecdotes are mostly true. Names of authors, illustrators, editors, agents, publishers, manuscripts, and a few random nouns have been changed to protect her ass. Slush Monster courtesy Melinda Beavers. www.melindabeavers.com
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Editorial Anonymous' anecdotes are mostly true. Names of authors, illustrators, editors, agents, publishers, manuscripts, and a few random nouns have been changed to protect her ass. Slush Monster courtesy Melinda Beavers. www.melindabeavers.com
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30 comments:
Albert Whitman & Company! We're best known for the Boxcar Children, but we do picture books and middle-grade novels, too. We have a smaller list than the big houses but starting this year it's growing season by season.
Eerdmans, a Michigan independent publisher, nabbed two ALA awards this year. I think they have a number of Christopher Awards, too.
http://www.eerdmans.com/
Their motto is "The Finest in Religious Literature" although in my opinion their books tend to have wider appeal, encompass a broader range of genres and viewpoints, and have more subtle religious themes than most faith-based presses.
I'd say Flux is pretty decent. :-)
This is a huge topic. First of all, how do you define "small" publisher? Really, it's an arbitrary thing. Second, just because a publisher is small it doesn't mean it's any easier to get published by them. Most have very small budgets or exist because of grant money, and are extremely selective about what they put out.
That being said, I'd recommend getting your hands on the most recent Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Market (CWIM) and look them up. All thje companies, large and small, are listed there along with submission guidelines and all sorts of other nifty facts. Agents are listed too. You can cross reference publishers by age range or genre as well.
And if you are shying away from "big" publishers because of closed submission policies, consider going to a children's writing conference where editors are speaking. Most will waive restrictive submission policies for conference attendees.
Yeah, I didn't give up any specific publisher names. Sorry. But good answers always raise more questions, right?
How small is "small?"
Groundwood puts out some amazing books, but they only really work with Canadian authors.
What about Holiday House?
Flux!
Awesome YA imprint of Llewellyn.
Carolrhoda, of Lerner, here in Minnesota!
Mirrorstone, which is an imprint of Wizards of the Coast.
Marshall Cavendish (pretty sure they're not open to unagented submissions, no matter how small they are--you'd have to look at their guidelines).
Are they asking about small publishers that take unsolicited submissions? Or publishers that have fewer than x employees? Or put out fewer than x titles per season? I don't get it.
My MG is published by Nimbus here in Canada and they just accepted an early chapter book series of mine. Smaller, regional publishers like these are fantastic to work with and are putting out some really great books.
As an aside, I took your suggestion of a couple of months ago during one of your pitch contests and changed my story's title and toned down the environmental themes. I just got an invitation to revise and resubmit from Albert Whitman & Co,and have to put in another vote for them! :-)
Thanks for the suggestions!
I'm a big fan of Barefoot Books. Their picture books are of exceptional quality, and they take unsolicited submissions.
If you're Canadian, try Orca Book Publishers, based in Victoria, British Columbia.We do a bit of everything: books for reluctant teen readers, picture books, early readers, middle grade novels and YA fiction as well as some non-fiction.
www.orcabook.com
To the folks in the know about Albert Whitman: The web site indicates that email queries aren't accepted. Is this still true?
Henry Holt!!!
http://www.frontstreetbooks.com/
Front Street Books and the 3 to 5 other imprints associated with them.
Sleeping Bear Press (I think they are part of the Thompson Gale group now, but might still be operating independently) -- Michigan
Mitten Press -- also Michigan
To go along with Eerdmans, Tyndale also publishes good kids' books with a religious emphasis.
University presses do some books for kids, depending on the topic and the univeristy.
Egmont UK (which are 'big' over here) are expanding into the US. I think they're open for submissions.
Dawn Publications (www.dawnpub.com)
is a wonderful boutique publisher in California, publishing beautiful "sharing nature with children" books that win lots of prizes. They just published my first picture book, and are wonderful people to work with.
also - meant to mention - Dawn Publications does read unsolicited submissions (that is what my book was)
Pelican Publishing Company www.pelicanpub.com
A mid-size publisher with great children's books.
WestSide Books just launched its first list of Y/As. I'm on the second list out in October - yay!
And yes, they do accept unsolicited submissions
We have a couple of books published by Dawn. They are lovely.
Peachtree
Flashlight Press in New York
I belive they publish a great deal of Picture Books
Front Street is no more, alas. Their publisher, editor and art director have reorganized as an editorial/marketing service called Namelos.
Have to put in a word for Raven Tree Press, bilingual publisher of picture books, recently reopened to submissions.
Gibbsmith Publishers. They put out great children's books. Their focus is more on children's activity books but of the picture books they put out all are wonderful.
Bethlehem Books.
Haymarket Books (http://www.haymarketbooks.org) is primarily an adult publisher, but does publish children's/YA books with a left-wing bent.
They have published two Elizabeth Laird books in the U.S. (including the award-winning A Little Piece of Ground) and are publishing IraqiGirl: Diary of a Teenage Girl in Iraq this spring.
Farmer's Hat Productions got a mention about this in an article by The School Library Journal called Land of 10,000 Publishers: Minnesota Children's Book Publishing In the section called; "The Little Companies that Could." The article talks about the vast resources we have in Minnesota on the children's book scene
Thanks for all these answers! I will look into each one.
Good day!
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