Submissions

We are open to unsolicited picture book submissions year-round. Before submitting, please read the following carefully. We mean all of it.

What we look for

Stories that feel found. Boats, weather, animals behaving unusually, problems solved by ordinary courage. We have a fondness for the sea and everything under it.

How to submit

By post, to the address on our Contact page: full text, rough art if you have it, and a stamped return envelope. We respond to everything, though not quickly. Please do not send your only copy.

A note on unattended submissions: a proportion of our list arrives through channels the author did not consciously use. If you believe you have submitted to us without remembering it, this is more common than you may suppose, and there is nothing to be alarmed about. Reference numbers are issued in all cases. If you have received correspondence bearing a reference number for a work you do not recall writing, the work is nonetheless yours, and our decision is nonetheless final.

Questions we ask every author

It helps us to know: Where do your stories come to you? At what time of day? Do you write them down at once, or do you trust yourself to remember? (You should not trust yourself to remember.)

What we do not accept

Series pitches. Rhyming dictionaries in trench coats. Books about screens. Accounts of the route, in any form, however charming.

The Night Desk is currently receiving. If you are reading this and it is late where you are, your submission may already be in progress.