The market for children's writing

The market for children's books is highly demanding. There are probably 1000 manuscripts written for every one that ends up in print. Our job is quite simply to do what we can to help you get published.

This page deals primarily with fiction for older children - Harry Potter age and upwards. If you have written a picture book for a younger child, then please see our Picture Books page. We do also have specialist editors for educational works - please ask for further details.

For general advice we recommend that you invest a few pounds in the Children's Writers & Artists Yearbook - an invaluable source of advice, listings & info.

What services do we offer?

Our core service is simple. We give you an honest, expert and market-aware appraisal of your work. The appraisal will be offered by one of our editors, all of whom are published writers of children's fiction and experienced editors of other people's work. For more about our editors, please see: children's editors.

The appraisal works as follows:

First we read your work. Attentively and with care.

Secondly, we write a detailed report on your book. The report will tell you if your writing is ready to be marketed. If not, we'll tell you what needs fixing and how to fix it.

Thirdly, we give you the opportunity to talk at length to your editor, so you can ask all the questions you need to. This might be about our writing, about our report, or about the publishing industry in general.

Fourthly, and where appropriate, we'll put your work direct into the hands of a senior literary agent specialising in children's literature. That agent will then be able to market your work to publishers in the UK and internationally.

Last but not least - we are well aware that you are a first-time writer and may know very little about the publishing industry. That's fine - it's our job to help you learn.

What fees do we charge?

Our fees are £150 + £3.50 for each thousand words. So for example, if your book is 35,000 words, then our charge is £150 + £122.50 = £272.50. If your MS is 60,000 words, then we charge £150 + £210 = £360

For more info on fees and how to send us work, please just click here.

We are well aware that these are significant amounts of money to invest in your manuscript - and are always really happy to talk things over with you before you decide whether to go ahead or not. It's important to us that you make whatever decision is right for you.

Please also note that we encourage long term relationships between writers and editors, and we always discount our fees for a "second read" of the same manuscript to make this possible. Our aim, quite simply, is to help you get published.

How do you submit work to us?

Easy. You simply send it to us with a cheque. (We can also take payment by Visa or Mastercard if you prefer.) As soon as we receive your work, we'll acknowledge receipt by email. After that, it normally takes us 3-4 weeks to prepare our report and send it out to you (generally by email). Further details are available on our Fees & Submissions page.

Our address is:

Writers Workshop

Pritchards Cottage

Steeple Barton

Oxfordshire OX25 4QP

Other questions

You may well have further questions. Many of these will be answered elsewhere on this site. Either browse the site, or feel free to contact us at any point. We look forward to hearing from you.