Little Island operates an open submissions policy. That means you don't need an agent, you don't need to have published before, you don't need a million followers on Instagram... If your book is good enough, that's good enough!
So please, be bold, send us your book!
But first – please read the guidelines below.
How to submit and what to expect
- Only send submissions (books) to us as Word documents to submissions@littleisland.ie
- When submitting please send three things:
- Your book, or a few sample chapters of it
- A summary of the whole book, which includes a description of the plot (or the non-fiction content) and the age group you have written it for
- Some information about yourself
- Please don't send us anything by post. We can't return anything that comes to us by post.
- We get a lot of submissions. We only publish about 10 books a year, but we get several submissions a week. So, that means we have to absolutely love a book before we can even think about publishing it. If we don’t love it, we won’t publish it – but that doesn’t mean it’s not good. We might have liked it. A bit. Or a lot. But we just didn’t absolutely love it.
- We look at everything. We reply to everyone. But it takes a lot of time so please allow at least 3 months before giving us a nudge.
- We are a publisher for children and teens only. Please do not send us anything written for adults.
What we are looking for
- We are especially keen on finding writers that reflect modern Ireland in all its variety. That means we're looking for writers who come from outside the Irish literary mainstream – on account of their class, race, ethnicity, sexuality or anything else.
- We want diverse stories. We want Irish children of all identities and backgrounds to have the opportunity to see themselves represented in our books. We mean this: Ireland needs new stories.
- Tomorrow’s classics. OK, easier said than done! But when we read a submission we ask ourselves: would a child reading this book today love it so much that in 30 years they’ll want a child in their life to read it too? So, we want to publish books that will last.
- Great writing (like Wolfstongue), fresh and innovative ideas (like The Philosophy Resistance Squad), new approaches (like Tangleweed and Brine), super storytelling (like The Wordsmith).
- Books with commercial potential. Our first concern is always with quality. But we need to keep the lights on, and publishing is a very tough industry for small companies. Not every book will be a bestseller, but we need to feel that every book has the potential.
What we are not looking for
- Books that have previously been self-published or sequels to self-published books.
- Individual short stories. (Your book should be a book, even if it is short.)
- Books that treat children as if they are under-cooked adults. We publish books that respect young readers as people in their own right.
