Cicada Books is a children’s book publisher based in London. Initially focused on producing books for adults around art and design, they have now pivoted to fully focusing on publishing children’s books. The books they publish are well-designed and beautifully printed, and intended for kids ages 4-11. They publish activity books, picture books, and nonfiction. All have an illustrated component. They do not publish very many books per year. They say this about the books they publish: “We aim to publish books that are a little bit anarchic, a little bit out-of-the-ordinary and very, very beautiful.”
Their about page links prominently to their 2024 catalog, but if you keep scrolling you’ll also see their 2026 catalog. I’d spent time with their catalog before submitting. Their Instagram also helpfully highlights new releases. Please only submit if you feel like your work is inline with what they currently publish.
They have excellent distribution through Lerner in the US & Canada, and through Thames & Hudson in the UK and elsewhere.
They accept submissions, and they talk about it in their FAQ section of the site which you can see by going here and scrolling down. They do not provide a submission-focused email and so I assume (hopefully correctly), that they expect submissions to go through their info email address. I could not find an additional email address for them.
This is what they say about submitting:
“We accept submissions both of books and of creative talent. If you are submitting a book proposal, please send it to us as a low-res PDF with a clear synopsis of the idea followed by a selection of visuals. If you are submitting a story, a word document is fine, or if you would like to work with us as an illustrator, please send us a link to your website or Instagram.”
They also stress that they are always happy to look at work from illustrators.
Emily Harstone is the author of many popular books, including The Authors Publish Guide to Manuscript Submissions, Submit, Publish, Repeat, and The 2026 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.
