Houghton Mifflin Harcourt wants children's books

The Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children's Book Group encompasses three award-winning imprints and accepts unsolicited manuscripts.

Houghton Mifflin (home) introduced its list of books for young readers in 1937. Houghton Mifflin Books for Children published luminaries such as H. A. and Margret Rey, Virginia Lee Burton, Bill Peet, Holling C. Holling, Scott O'Dell, and James Marshall; its contemporary authors and illustrators include Steve Jenkins, D. B. Johnson, Toni Morrison, Marilyn Nelson, Eric Schlosser, Brian Lies, Chris Van Allsburg, Allen Say, Lois Lowry, and David Macaulay.

Houghton Mifflin is also home to some of the best-loved children's book characters: Curious George, Lyle the Crocodile, George and Martha, Martha of Martha Speaks, and Tacky the Penguin.

Clarion Books (home) became an imprint of Houghton Mifflin in 1979. Clarion's award-winning authors include David Wiesner, Linda Sue Park, Karen Cushman, Katherine Paterson, and Gary Schmidt.

Harcourt Children's Books (home), known for classics such as The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge and The Little Prince, features notable authors and illustrators such as Avi, Janell Cannon, Margaret Chodos-Irvine, Lois Ehlert, Mem Fox, Han Nolan, Gennifer Choldenko, David Shannon, Janet Stevens, Susan Stevens Crummel, and Helen Oxenbury.

Guidelines:

Clarion Books and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children's Books are both accepting unsolicited manuscripts. However, they’ll no longer respond to an unsolicited submission unless they’re interested in publishing it.

Please submit by conventional mail only. We do not accept e-mailed or faxed manuscripts. Because confirmation postcards are easily separated from the manuscript or hidden, we do not encourage you to include them with your submission.

Please do not include a self-addressed stamped envelope. Submissions will be recycled, and you will not hear from us regarding the status of your submission unless we are interested. We regret that we cannot respond personally to each submission, but we do consider each and every submission we receive. If we're interested, expect to hear back within 12 weeks.

You do not have to furnish illustrations, but if you wish, copies of a few comprehensive sketches or duplicate copies of original art will suffice.

For fiction we prefer to see the entire manuscript, and for nonfiction a synopsis and sample chapters.

We prefer a typed (letter-quality), double-spaced manuscript on unfolded plain white paper in a 9 x 12 envelope. We do not accept manuscripts that are handwritten or submitted on computer disk.

Please send your submission(s) to:

Submissions
Clarion Books
215 Park Avenue South
New York, NY 10003
or
Submissions
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children's Books
222 Berkeley Street
Boston, MA 02116-3764

Submitting art for children's books:
• Do not send original artwork or slides
• Send color photocopies, tearsheets, or photos
• Send a SASE if you would like your samples returned to you
Please submit only your strongest work. As to subject matter, illustrations that feature children or animals are always welcome, but feel free to submit other subjects as well. It is also a good idea to look at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt books in your local bookstore or library to get a sense of what kinds of books we publish.

Please send art submissions to
Art Department
Children's Trade Books
222 Berkeley Street
Boston, MA 02116-3764

Complete submissions information here.

For information about Brian Henry's writing workshops and creative writing courses, see here.