Dear authors,

I want to share why we offer appraisals at Wombat Books.

FAQ: 

Are you a traditional publisher and if so why do people pay for appraisals?

We are a traditional publisher that means once we contract a title we do not charge for any of thing in the process. But we get 100s to 1000s of submissions are year. Early on in the business someone asked me if we give feedback. Unfortunately feedback costs time for it to be valuable and we are unable to give feedback to unsolicited submissions. So for those people who want feedback on their work we decided an appraisal was an option. It is completely up to you. It is just an option to get editorial suggestions from a small publishing team. If a book is contracted nothing in the editorial process or design or production is ever charged for. 

What do you get for a picture book appraisal?

Firstly we send a template we suggest you use to send in your picture book for appraisal. We review the things that work, characters and synopsis and then look at areas we can give suggestion for. An appraisal is normally a 2-3 page document including areas you can improve in both script and your pitch where needed.

Will an appraisal help me in anyway in my picture book submission next year?

It might or it might not. Consider an appraisal as a way of improving your manuscript before you pitch it. Where it can help is that the publishing team see it and spend more time on it, but you still need an amazing story to get to publication. So it could help you, but it is still about your picture book being what we are looking for when we do our submission call.

Can I use an appraisal if I want to self publish or send to another publisher?

Of course. Our appraisals are a simple service to help you with feedback on your titles. 

Will an appraisal help me get through to submissions?

We will look at appraisals where authors request review, however the pitch process is purely to get feedback and editing. It does allow you a submission invite outside of submission windows. However you can also just submit in our normal open window January 15 2025.