Two Publishers Seeking YA Submissions
Good news for those of you with a stellar unpublished YA manuscript sitting on your desk right now: The Poisoned Pencil and Carolrhoda Books are now accepting submissions. Opportunities abound!
Let's start with The Poisoned Pencil, the brand-new YA imprint from independent mystery publisher Poisoned Pen Press. Firstly, you have live in the U.S. or Canada and must not have published a YA mystery before. If you've got an agent, they can submit for you, but you don't need one, so feel free to skip that whole finding-the-right-one process.
Per Poisoned Pencil's submission guidelines, they are looking for manuscripts between 45,000 and 90,000 words with a protagonist between 12 and 18 years old. Fiction only. No short stories or collections. Steer clear of serial killers, excessive gore or horror, vampires (hallelujah, y'all!) or other "heavy supernatural, SF, or fantasy content." If that sounds like something you've got in the bag, get to it. Response time is four to six weeks.
Another option is to submit to Carolrhoda Books, a division of Lerner Publishing Group, between October 1 and October 31. Editorial director Andrew Karre is unapologetically opinionated, so read the submission guidelines carefully so that your masterpiece doesn't end up the dreaded Land Of Deleted Emails.
He is looking for completed manuscripts under 100,000 words. Your submission should NOT have series potential, dragons, anything to do with Hamlet (yes, seriously), or protagonists who are in college. Among other things, Karre is into "grit that shows breathtaking sparkly bits when the light hits it just so," sex, awkwardness, awkward sex, foreigners, and doomed romance. Read more about what he wants, right down to a link to the Fugazi song he hums when he's reading good YA, then submit your manuscript if it's right for you. Response time is "maddeningly slow" and probably around six months.
Anybody thinking of submitting to one of these? Which one?
News by Kimberly Turner
Kimberly Turner is an internet entrepreneur, DJ, editor, beekeeper, linguist, traveler, and writer. This either makes her exceptionally well-rounded or slightly crazy; it’s hard to say which. She spent a decade as a journalist and magazine editor in Australia and the U.S. and is now working (very, very slowly) on her first novel. She holds a B.A. in Creative Writing and an M.A. in Applied Linguistics and lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with her husband, two cats, ten fish, and roughly 60,000 bees.
Our Upcoming Classes
Editor's Picks
We Think You'll Like This Class
To leave a commentLogin with Facebook