The ‘really rather good’ ones are problematic for us. The reason is that we get lots and lots of manuscripts, some of them fabulous, some of them really rather good and some of them just not working. So you will have the best chance if you send us your book when it is as sparklingly wonderful as you can possibly make it. This means we have to absolutely love a book before we can even think about publishing it. We only publish about eight or nine books a year. Stories that start from the premise that the main character’s father has got a new job and the family has had to move Horror (No, you can’t count The Nightmare Club!)ĭystopian fiction (Nothing against it, but we’re full up on that one.)Ī book your children/grandchildren love because you wrote it and it’s about them (Great if they love your book for other reasons, of course.)īooks that treat children as if they are under-cooked adults Issue-driven books (Stories that deal with issues are fine, that’s different.)īooks about fairies or angels (They are just not our kind of thing.) Trilogies (or books with several sequels planned)īooks that have been previously self-published (Take a look at Grounded or Primperfect.)īooks by children (Sorry if that sounds mean we have our reasons, but we can’t go into them here.) Funny, sad, romantic, fantastical, sassy, grittily realistic, tough, amusing, puzzling – we’re open-minded. Novels for teenagers (max 65,000 words, shorter is better) We publish novels for younger teenagers and also for ‘young adults’ (15+). (Take a look at The Keeper or Bartolomé – super writing, great stories.) Novels for older children (25,000–45,000 words) We are on the lookout for well-written novels for children that tell a good story. (Take a look at The Powers, for example.) Storybooks for younger children (max 20,000 words, shorter is better) Funny, adventurous, sad or thoughtful. If you can write a funny spooky story for the 7+ age group in Annie’s voice, we’ll consider it. Nightmare Club stories (1800–2000 words) Annie Graves doesn’t really write these books. Great stories (Take a look at Fennymore and the Brumella.) As an Irish publisher, we tend to give preference to books with an Irish connection (though we also publish books in translation).įabulous writing (Take a look at Good Red Herring.) You don’t need to have an agent – but submissions from agents are also welcome. Little Island is always on the lookout for quality fiction for children and teenagers, and you are welcome to send us your manuscript for consideration. We would therefore encourage you not to use excess paper clips, staples, folders, etc. Please do bear with us.Īt The O'Brien Press, we are very conscious of the environment and recycle as much paper as we possibly can. As the number of unsolicited manuscripts requiring review by our editorial team can be quite high, sometimes this process can take longer. Please allow a minimum of 8/10 weeks response time. Please send submissions to Submissions Department, The O'Brien Press, 12 Terenure Road East, Rathgar, Dublin 6, Ireland. We will only accept submissions/proposals/artwork etc, via the post. For anything in excess of this length - for example a children's novel - a synopsis and 2 or 3 sample chapters is more than adequate. Please number all the pages of your submission appropriately. Should your submission be 1000 words or less then you may submit your work in its entirety. Unfortunately, due to time constraints, O'Brien Press is not in a position to offer critiques of any unsolicited manuscripts we receive. Note also that stamps from countries other than Ireland are of no use to us! As such, please do not send us any original work, illustrations etc. We generally do not publish poetry, academic works or adult fiction.ĭue to the high level of submissions we receive, unsolicited manuscripts will not be returned. We publish mainly children's fiction, children's non-fiction and adult non-fiction. We are committed to new and developing talent, and encourage any aspiring authors to send their writing in to us. Thank you for considering sending your manuscript to The O'Brien Press. Good luck! O'Brien Press - Submission Guidelines The Little Island guidelines are particularly useful. The information is taken from their websites. Here are the submission details of the main Irish children’s publishers who accept unsolicited manuscripts: O’Brien Press, Little Island, Penguin Ireland, Poolbeg Press, and Mercier. I put this together for my writing class at the Irish Writers Centre.
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