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Saturday, September 4, 2010

Penguin Young Readers Group is open to children's books submissions

Note: Brian Henry regularly leads “Writing for Children & for Young Adults,” workshops with editors from children’s publishing houses, noted children’s authors and literary agents specializing in children’s books and YA novels as guest speakers. See details of upcoming Saturday workshops and weekly Kid Lit classes here (and scroll down). 

Update Aug 2016: This posting about Penguin Young Readers Group is out of date. Check out current submission information from Penguin's Dial Books imprint, which is still open to unagented authors, here.

And see listing for many, many more publishers of children's lit here (and scroll down). 

Penguin has nine imprints accepting submissions of children’s books: Dial Books for Young Readers, Dutton Children’s Books, Grosset & Dunlop, Price Stern Sloan, Philomel, Puffin, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, and Razorbill.

Bonnie Bader, Editor-In-Chief, of Grosset & Dunlap and of Price Stern Sloan! is particularly open to new authors.  Ms. Bader often prefers to work with unagented authors and reads everything that comes to her – agented or otherwise. She adds that she has found several writers from her “slush pile.”

Grosset & Dunlap (website here)
Price Stern Sloan! (PSS!) (website here)
• Publishes all book formats except for picture books
• Submit a summary and the first chapter or two for longer works
 
Dial Books for Young Readers & Dutton Children’s Books.  Publisher: Lauri Hornik

Dial: http://us.penguingroup.com/static/pages/publishers/yr/dial.html
• Submit entire picture book manuscripts
• A maximum of 10 pages for longer works (novels, easy-to-reads) from the opening chapter(s) of the manuscript
• Submission guidelines for Dial and Dutton here

Dutton Children’s Books: http://us.penguingroup.com/static/pages/publishers/yr/dutton.html
• Query letters only (must include SASE)
• A query letter should be typed and, ideally, fit on one page. Please include a brief synopsis of your manuscript and your publishing credits, if any.

Philomel http://us.penguingroup.com/static/pages/publishers/yr/philomel.html
• Submit entire picture book manuscripts
• A maximum of 10 pages for longer works (novels, easy-to-reads) from the opening chapter(s) of the manuscript
• When submitting a portion of a longer work, please provide an accompanying cover letter that briefly describes your manuscript's plot, genre, the intended age group, and your publishing credits, if any.

Puffin http://us.penguingroup.com/static/pages/publishers/yr/puffin.html
• A maximum of 30 pages for longer works (middle grade and YA manuscripts)
• All novel submissions must include an SASE. Picture books are not accepted.

G. P. Putnam's Sons http://us.penguingroup.com/static/pages/publishers/yr/putnam.html
• Submit entire picture book manuscripts
• A maximum of 10 pages for longer works (novels, easy-to-reads) from the opening chapter(s) of the manuscript
• When submitting a portion of a longer work, please provide an accompanying cover letter that briefly describes your manuscript's plot, genre, the intended age group, and your publishing credits, if any.

Razorbill http://us.penguingroup.com/static/pages/publishers/yr/razorbill.html
• Submit a maximum of 30 pages for longer works (middle grade and YA manuscripts)
• When submitting a portion of a longer work, please provide an accompanying cover letter that briefly describes your manuscript's plot, genre (middle grade or YA novel), the intended age group, and your publishing credits, if any.
• All novel submissions must include an SASE. Picture books are not accepted.

For all Penguin imprints:
Submit by mail. Never send submissions by e-mail or fax. Never send cassettes, CDs, marketing plans, or original artwork.

• Please refrain from calling, faxing, or e-mailing to inquire after the status of an unsolicited submission, as we will be unable to assist you. If you have not received a reply from us after four months, you can safely assume that we are not interested in publishing your work. You will not hear from us regarding the status of your submission unless we are interested in publishing it, in which case you can expect a reply from us within approximately four months. We regret that we cannot respond personally to each submission, but rest assured that we do make every effort to consider each and every one we receive.

Mail submissions for all Penguin imprints to
345 Hudson Street
New York, New York 10014-3657

Penguin Young Readers Group submission guidelines here.

Update June 29, 2011: Nico Medina has joined the Grosset & Dunlap/PSS! team as senior managing editor. He returns to Penguin Children's after working at Egmont USA. Bonnie Bader has taken the role of editor-in-chief for Warne and Early Readers, and Gillian Levinson has been promoted to assistant editor at Razorbill.

Note: Don't ever miss a post on Quick Brown Fox. Fill in your email in the box to the right under my bio, and get each post delivered to your Inbox.  ~ Brian

See Brian’s complete current schedule here, including writing workshops and creative writing courses in Algonquin Park, Bolton, Barrie, Brampton, Burlington, Caledon, Georgetown, Guelph, Hamilton, Kingston, Kitchener, London, Midland, Mississauga, Newmarket, Oakville, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, St. John, NB, Sudbury, Thessalon, Toronto, Windsor, Woodstock, Halton, Kitchener-Waterloo, Muskoka, Peel, Simcoe, York Region, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.

11 comments:

  1. Mr. Henry,

    Thank you for this very comprehensive submission information.

    Can you provide the name of an editor at Puffin? I hope to submit a chapter book for the 7 to 9 year old readers. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous,
    I'm afraid I don't know any of the eidtors at Puffin.
    The publisher is Eileen Bishop Kreit, but I wouldn't address a submission to her.
    I suggest you do some web research, and please let me know who you come up with.

    ReplyDelete
  3. A few days later...

    No joy. I've searched countless websites. I guess "Dear Submissions Editor" is going to have to do.

    ReplyDelete
  4. i have a question, that doesn't have to do with the competition. i actually sent my manuscript to Eileen Kreit about 3 months ago, how long does it normally take for her to respond? and will she send it back if she isn't going to publish it?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks for the info! Good stuff to know.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Since Bonnie Bader is with Warne and Early Readers, who is the new Editor-in-Chief of Grosset and Dunlap? Should submissions be sent to Nico Medina?

    ReplyDelete
  7. I have a poem that I would like to submit to Penguin as a possible picture book manuscript. Do I just send it in an envelope to that address or do I need to send a cover letter or address it more specifically somehow?

    ReplyDelete
  8. I want, a set of seven stories written in poetry form written by my daughter, published in your children's division

    ReplyDelete
  9. Does anyone know the address for the Penguin Young Readers Group Philomel imprint? I want to send in my manuscript but I cannot seem to find an address anywhere. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Mail submissions for all Penguin imprints to
    345 Hudson Street
    New York, New York 10014-3657

    ReplyDelete
  11. Read the following up to date submission guidelines for all Penguin Imprints:
    How do I submit my manuscript or abstract to Penguin for publication?
    Penguin does not accept unsolicited submissions, proposals, manuscripts, illustrations, artwork, or submission queries at this time. This includes submission of work previously published elsewhere. We are also unable to provide draft support, translation or ghostwriters for aspiring authors.

    If you would like to have your work or manuscript considered for publication by a major book publisher, we recommend that you work with an established literary agent. Each agency has manuscript submission guidelines.

    ReplyDelete

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