Omnibus Books has moved office location. Please post in your submissions to 175-177 Young Street, Parkside, South Australia 5063.

So You Want to Be a Published Author . . .

Scholastic Australia publishes books for children under three publishing imprints - Scholastic Press, Omnibus Books and Scholastic Australia.

All three imprints publish children's picture books and fiction mainly for primary-school-aged children. There is also some nonfiction published by all three imprints.To get a more specific idea of the flavour of each list, you will need to visit your local bookstore.

Once you have decided that you are going to submit your manuscript, take the following steps:

Due to the rising number of submissions that are not accompanied by return postage we have decided to only read work to which we can respond without incurring costs. All unsolicited work must be accompanied by either a SSAE or a valid email address in order for us to contact you. Without this your work will be automatically disposed of and you will not hear from us. If you wish for us to return your work you must send the appropriate postage and envelope. If you wish for us to recycle unsuccessful submissions please advise us of this in your covering letter. There are no exceptions to this. All submissions received without a SSAE will be recycled and due to the large amount of submissions we receive, we cannot guarantee that your work will be shredded in the process of recycling.

Please accompany your submission with a brief cover letter.

Please do not include your CV in your submission.

Pages must be numbered and contain your name.

Multiple submissions are not acceptable. Please send one manuscript at a time and wait to hear from us before sending more.

Please do not include an electronic version of your manuscript (USB or CD).

Omnibus is working towards a sustainable future therefore we request all submissions are printed double sided. Picture book texts must be presented on no more than two A4 sheets. If a picture book is any longer than this, it is not a picture book. Please DO NOT MAKE A DUMMY.

Send a complete manuscript, not a synopsis or sample chapters. It should be typed with double spacing. The better the appearance of the material the easier it is for us to work with.

For a picture book, send only the text. If we offer you a contract we will be responsible for finding an illustrator.

Please send your manuscript to one publisher at a time.

We are currently overwhelmed with submissions, therefore our usual 12 week response time has lengthened. Please allow for this, but if you don’t receive a response from us after 16 weeks, please don’t hesitate to contact us. Please also remember, if we think your material has potential, it will be read by several people before we get back to you. Also, because we receive several thousand manuscripts each year, some time is needed for your material to move from one reader to the next.

Because of the volume of manuscripts received, we cannot provide guidance on how to write for children nor critiques on the material you have submitted.

If your manuscript is accepted for publication, we will contact you and offer a contract. At that time we will fully explain the editorial and publishing process and your involvement in it.

Please DO NOT SEND REGISTERED POST OR EXPRESS POST. Registered Post causes lengthy delays since these articles need to be collected personally at the post office. At times our work load and resources simply do not allow for this. Nor does Express Post speed up the process – it simply costs you unnecessarily. Therefore, please mail in your manuscripts via standard post, as all submissions are treated with an equal amount of attention.

There is absolutely no advantage in sending your submission with a cover letter from an Assessment Agency. We highly recommend that applicants avoid this expensive process completely, as the letters make no difference whatsoever in our final decision on whether work will be published or not.

All submissions should include your phone number and email address in order to facilitate a quick response should you be successful.

Please send your submissions to:

The Senior Editor
Omnibus Books
175-177 Young Street
Parkside SA 5063
Australia

Please note our office is closed during the Christmas and New Year break. Please do not send in submissions during the last couple of weeks in December through to mid January.

Omnibus does NOT accept email submissions.  If you are successful you will be contacted and asked to send an electronic file of the work

Scholastic Press and Scholastic Australia
Email: manuscriptenquiries@scholastic.com.au

PLEASE NOTE: Scholastic Press and Scholastic Australia does not accept unsolicited submissions.

Don't be too surprised or disappointed if your first attempts are not successful. Children's book publishing is a highly competitive field, and writing children's books is not quite as easy as some might imagine. But we are always ready to find the next Harry Potter or Paddington Bear, so if you believe you can write it, we're ready to hear from you!

Andrew Berkhut
Head of Publishing
Scholastic Australia

So You Want to Be a Picture Book Illustrator . . .

We are keen to look at portfolios of Australian artists who believe they have the interest and ability to illustrate children's picture books. If you would like to show us samples of your work, the best way is to send your portfolio direct to the Art Director.

Your portfolio should consist of a few print outs in colour or black and white in A4 size. Do not send original artwork. Send a variety of samples that show the best of your style and subject matter. Please send a cover letter with some basic information about yourself, including contact details. Enclose a suitable stamped self envelope so we can return the sample portfolio to you if it is not suitable for our file.

Please be aware that we receive hundreds of submissions each week. We prefer to look carefully at the samples and reply with appropriate comments to those we consider publishable. This takes time and so it is not unusual that it takes up to 6 months to reply to artists in some cases.

Please note only Omnibus Books is accepting unsolicited manuscripts.

If you are interested in sending us your sample portfolio, please address it to:

Patricia Howes
Art Director
Omnibus Books
175-177 Young Street
Parkside SA 5063