Submission Guidelines

Please read guidelines carefully and to the end. Submissions that are submitted incorrectly will not be considered.

Flashlight Press publishes fictional children’s picture books. Make sure your manuscript:

• targets 4–8 year olds
• is under 1000 words
• has a universal theme
• deals with family or social situations
• feels like a Flashlight Press book. Study our books to determine whether your story is a true fit.

    If you are an:

    – an AGENT who would like to submit a project on behalf of a client, please contact agent.submission@flashlightpress.com.


    – an ARTIST who wants to be considered as an illustrator for our projects, please insert or attach a few low-res samples and make sure to send your URL to artsubmissions@flashlightpress.com.


    – an UN-AGENTED AUTHOR with a text-only manuscript, or an ARTIST with an illustrated manuscript, please send an email to submissions@flashlightpress.com, following these steps:

    1. Email Subject:  Query for [title of your manuscript]
    2. Copy the following into the body of your email, and fill in every field.
      Title of Story:
      Word Count:
      Target Age:
      Subject or Theme of story (1-5 words):
      Summary (3 sentences or less):
      Your Name:
      Occupation:
      City, State, Country:
      If you have been published previously, list titles, publishers, and pub dates:
      Anything else you’d like to tell us:
    3. Attach your manuscript ONLY as a .doc, .docx, or PDF. Do NOT send a link to a file on Google Drive. Any query that includes a different file format will not be accepted.

    IMPORTANT NOTES FOR UN-AGENTED AUTHORS:

    • Do not send AI generated art with your submission.

    • Multiple submissions are allowed, but please send only one query per day. Within 10 days, you should receive an automated reply that we’ve received your submission. If we are interested, we will contact you within three months.

    • We DO accept simultaneous submissions.

    • Make sure that editor@flashlightpress.com is in your safe senders list. If our automated reply to you bounces back, we will not resend it.

    • Snail mail submissions are not accepted.

      Some Very Useful Articles: 

      The Importance of Picture Books by Lisa Von Drasek

      An interesting article, “Writing the Dirty Cowboy,” by Amy Timberlake, published on The Purple Crayon

      Rachelle Burk’s Resources for Children’s Writers

      Manuscript Submission Mistakes to Avoid, by Erica Young Editorial Services