Submission Guidelines

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:

    • AGENT who would like to submit a project on behalf of a client, please contact agent.submission@flashlightpress.com.
    • ARTIST who wants to be considered as an illustrator for our projects, please insert or attach a few lo-res samples and make sure to send your URL to artsubmissions@flashlightpress.com.
    • UN-AGENTED AUTHOR or ARTIST  with a book/illustrated manuscript you’d like us to consider, 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 as a .doc, .docx, or PDF. Any query that includes a different file format will not be accepted.


                                  Multiple submissions are allowed, but please send only one query per day.

                                  Snail mail submissions are not accepted.

                                    Within a week, you should receive an automated reply that we’ve received your submission. If we are interested, we will contact you within three months. 

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                                    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