Wombat Books Submissions

How to Submit

Please do not send us query letters or emails. You must submit using our online form when the submission date is open. Do not submit outside of the submission months.

Turn around time for manuscripts can be up to 9 months. We will respond; please do not contact us about your submission. All submission contacts will be automatically added to our mailing list to keep up to date with Wombat news.

Manuscript Formatting Guidelines

Please follow our guidelines carefully in order for us to be able to assess your manuscript. Your manuscript must be:

Typed (we recommend doc.x and PDF)
12 size font
Times New Roman
1.5 to double-spaced
Pages should be numbered
Include your name and address

Please note: all other formatting is at the discretion of the author and should be formatted for ease of reading.

Cover Letter

Please demonstrate your understanding of the industry, including any achievements or awards you have received, and any events you have presented at. If you have specific ideas on marketing for your book, you may include some of your plans in your submission.

Please investigate other titles similar to your own in the market to ensure your book is unique.

We are happy for you to include editor or assessor comments in the submission.

Please note that Wombat Books only accepts manuscripts submitted digitally. We no longer accept submissions through email and mail channels.

Description Box

Your submission's description box on our website is the most important spot of all to get your pitch past the unsolicited submissions. Put your best pitch in that description box. If you do not, it is unlikely to get through the slush-pile. Pitch should be about 100 words but a max of 300 words if you have more to say.

Picture Book Submission Information

Wombat Books accepts unsolicited manuscripts for review to be considered for traditional publishing.

We have limited spaces for publication. We are looking for entertaining, original manuscripts that leave a lasting impression. We strongly recommend you have a read of our recent releases before submitting a manuscript to us. It is important to demonstrate in your cover letter an understanding of the type of manuscripts we are interested in.

Before any submission, please ensure you have looked at our other Wombat titles to see the style of books we publish. In your submission form you will be asked for the Wombat titles you have read. You can get a peek into the sorts of stories and characters we look for at Wombat Books with our suggestions at the bottom of the page.

Things to keep in mind to improve your chances:

We take very little rhyming books.

We are looking for picture books that are 4-7 year old, not 3-6 year old. Not pre-school specific nor counting or alphabets. Though they are great things in books, it is not our speciality.

More than one story to submit?

If you have multiple ideas you need to follow a new process. You need to combine ALL of your stories into one document with ONE cover letter. You must only submit once to our platform per submission period, any further submissions will be deleted.

In one attachment, combine all of your stories and cover letter with a clear indication of what each story is.

You will then write the names of all the stories in the manuscript title box.

In the IMPORTANT description box start with the words: "(insert number) separate picture books included". Then proceed with a two sentence description for each, all in the one description box.

If your attachment for some reason doesn't work, do not email us. When we review, if it hasn't worked and we want to read it based on your pitch/description, we will contact you.

Need Some Inspiration for Picture books?

To read some of our bestselling titles, purchase some of our best-selling picture books!

Purchase a special collection of our titles here.

Children's Fiction Submission Information

Wombat Books accepts unsolicited manuscripts for review to be considered for traditional publishing. When referring to children's fiction, we are specifically looking for books aimed at 7-12 year olds, in either junior or middle fiction categories.

Before any submission, please ensure you have looked at our other Wombat titles to see the style of books we publish. In your submission form you will be asked for the Wombat titles you have read.

Early reader and middle fiction submissions are only open certain months per year, but check out our current titles to find out about what we like and follow our Facebook page for updated information. However, any submissions that arrive outside of our submission window will be deleted.

How to Submit

Please read this carefully as middle fiction submission requirements vary from our picture book submissions.

Only one submission of early reader or middle fiction per submission round. Any second submissions will be deleted.

Our word counts are fairly flexible depending on the age group of your story. Ensure you include that in your cover letter.

Junior fiction word lengths:
1500 - 12000 words

Middle fiction word length:
12000-50000 words

You will only need to submit your cover letter, synopsis and first three chapters.

Format and cover letter should follow the same protocols as our general submissions, as outlined above under "Formatting Guidelines".

To help know you are on track, it is vital you have read our other titles. As Wombat Books in a boutique publisher, we are unlikely to publish books exactly the same as we have before, and if you don't know our style of books you run the risk of not pitching us the best work.

Read other Wombat titles to know what we like.