SPECIAL FEATURE Guppy Books YA Open Submission Competition


Guppy Books is to open submissions for young adult fiction between 11 - 25 May 2020


A great opportunity for YA writers! 


Bella Pearson, founder and publisher at Guppy Books, will be opening submissions for young adult fiction, giving one writer the opportunity to win a publishing contract. Unagented writers can submit their stories for readers aged 12+ between 11th - 15th May 2020. Ten stories will be shortlisted by mid-June. Judges will be announced shortly.

I have been passionate about books for young adults since I was a teenager and lucky enough to be the right age when the Puffin Plus imprint first appeared. The YA community is vibrant, its readers passionate about books, and I would love to find another fabulous young adult author to join the Guppy list. I’m looking for a voice that sings, that leaps off the page, that provides a vision looking forwards for young people in a world which seems increasingly fragile. A carefully-selected team of judges and myself will choose the winner and offer a publishing contract with Guppy Books to the one we love the most. - Bella Pearson

Guppy Books was launched in 2019 with critically acclaimed YA novel Gloves Off by Louisa Reid. The verse novel has been nominated for the Carnegie and been the Sunday Times Children’s Book of the Week. Pearson has worked in children’s publishing for over 20 years and has acquired worldwide bestselling and award-winning titles such as The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne, The Art of Being Normal by Lisa Williamson, Jessica’s Ghost by Andrew Norriss, Bone Talk by Candy Gourlay and Before I Die by Jenny Downham. She won the Branford Boase Award with Siobhan Dowd for A Swift Pure Cry in 2007.

More information, including on how to submit, can be found at https://bit.ly/GuppyYAComp

Pearson says she is not looking for perfection,
but an understanding and way of telling that is truly representative of the teenage experience and of the breadth of our life today. We especially encourage writers from underrepresented backgrounds to apply.

Start polishing your submissions today. Good luck!

You can follow them on: Twitter @guppybooks, Facebook and Instagram @guppypublishing

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