Guppy Books is a respected publisher of children’s fiction. Founded in 2019 by Bella Pearson, the books they have published have been finalists and winners of a number of awards. They also have excellent distribution. You can learn more about the company and their track record, here. They are based in the UK, and generally not open to unagented submissions except via their free contest. They do gently encourage those that can afford to, to buy one of their books to get a better feel for what they publish, but it is not a requirement. It’s a good idea to spend time with their catalog to get a better feel for what they publish, no matter what, and you can do that here. I personally loved the books of theirs that I have read.
The contest is not open yet, but because it will be open only for a week, we’re including it in this list. The contest will be open to submissions from 9am on Monday 16th June to 5pm Friday 20th June 2025 GMT. It will only be open to Middle Grade Fiction. They are only open to new authors or self-published authors, they are not open to writers who have been traditionally published in other genres.
They want to see the first few chapters (up to 2,000 words of the novel). They also want to see a short synopsis. They are open to .doc, .docx, and PDF documents, sent via email. Only one submission per author.
At the longlisting stage, which should be in late July, they will reach out to everyone on the longlist and ask for the full novel. They hope to announce the winner in fall 2025. They will offer all shortlisted authors an editorial meeting with their founding editor, Bella Pearson. The winner will be offered a contract with Guppy Books. They are not obligated to buy it.
The contest is not held every year, the last one was in 2023, and that book was just released and you can read it here.
To learn more about the planned contest, go here.
Emily Harstone is the author of many popular books, including The Authors Publish Guide to Manuscript Submissions, Submit, Publish, Repeat, and The 2024 Guide to Manuscript Publishers. She regularly teaches three acclaimed courses on writing and publishing at The Writer’s Workshop at Authors Publish. You can follow her on Facebook here.
