Call for Submissions – Prose pamphlets, children’s poetry, and children’s fiction only

Dear Writers,

We’re excited to announce that our first 2023 call for submissions will run from Tuesday 7th February to Tuesday 14th February.

This time, we will be accepting prose pamphlets, children’s poetry and children’s fiction. We’re not looking for poetry pamphlets or picture books in this call. You can find all the details you will need to submit on our Calls for Submissions page. The links on this page will go live on 7th February when the window opens.

As previously, in the run-up and during our submissions window we’ll be sharing tips, prompts, and updates via our newsletter, so you may find it helpful to sign up for that here!

We’ll be hosting live Q&A sessions via Instagram and Twitter for any queries you have about submissions:

Instagram Q&A: Tuesday 17th January

Twitter Q&A: Tuesday 7th February, 2pm

If you’re not sure how your work would fit with the Emma Press, we recommend that you check out our recent publications to get a better idea of what we’re looking for. We’ve curated two Bundles which showcase a range of our prose (here and here); we have a new Children’s Poetry Bundle, and two of our translated children’s fiction titles are currently on promotion.

As always, thank you for trusting us with your submissions! We’re looking forward to reading your work and seeing where it will take The Emma Press. We aim to respond to all submission before opening for the next call, and will keep you updated on our review progress via our newsletters.

SUMMARY OF SUBMISSION GUIDELINES ~ PLEASE VISIT OUR CALLS FOR SUBMISSIONS PAGE FOR FURTHER DETAILS:

We’d like to see a proposal and a sample for each submission, or else a proposal and full manuscript if you have it.

Your proposal document should tell us: 

• What your book is/what you are trying to do with it/what themes you explore in it
• Who you think would enjoy reading it/who it would really speak to
• Why you think it would be a good fit for The Emma Press
• What are your expectations for publication – what do you hope will happen if you have this published?
• How you would help us publicise your book

PROSE PAMPHLETS:

Please send us a proposal and sample pages (or the full manuscript if you have it). 

• Advice for submitting a sample: Include at least three stories/essays/chapters, which should give us a flavour of the pamphlet as a whole. 
• Advice for submitting your full manuscript: Our prose pamphlets contain around 15-20,000 words. 

CHILDREN’S POETRY (aimed at children no younger than 8 years old):

Please send us a proposal and a sample of at least 10 pages of poems, or the full manuscript if you have it ready. 

• Advice for submitting a sample: Don’t feel restricted to the ordering you have in mind – we’d recommend you include your most striking poems, which give a good flavour of the pamphlet as a whole. 
• Advice for submitting your full manuscript: Bear in mind that our children’s poetry collections contain around 35-45 poems. 

CHILDREN’S FICTION (aimed at children no younger than 8 years old):

Please send us a proposal and sample chapters (or the full manuscript if you have it).

• Advice for submitting a sample: Include at least five chapters or stories, which should give us a flavour of the book as a whole. 
• Advice for submitting your full manuscript: Our children’s fiction books contain around 24,000 words.