UPDATED August 12th, 2024: They now are accepting Middle grade manuscripts. Pajama Press is a publisher of books for children and young adults. They focus on publishing literary works. They publish books that fall into a wide range of categories including: picture books, board books for the very young, young adult novels, and non-fiction for all juvenile categories.
Pajama Press has good distribution and I have encountered their books at various bookstores and libraries. Their books are reviewed by the New York Times and other reputable publications.
They were established in 2011 so they are a relatively young press. They were founded by three individuals who all had over twenty years of experience publishing or editing children’s books.
Their books have won a wide variety of awards, mostly in Canada, as they are a Canadian publisher. Most Canadian publishers only accept books by Canadian authors due to government funding. However there is currently no mention of submission restrictions based on nationality on their website.
They only accept unsolicited queries (so do not submit manuscripts) from authors without agents. They only respond to queries that they are interested in, but they try to respond to those queries within three months. If you have not heard from them after three months it is safe to assume that they are not interested in seeing your manuscript.
They do not publish series or books that are specifically aimed at the educational market.
In your query include a summary of your book, an excerpt (one or two pages of your book), and information about your writing background.
To learn more about the books Pajama Press has previously published, visit their main page here. To learn more about their query submission guidelines visit this page.
