Submission Guidelines
Starfish Bay Publishing is comprised of two imprints: Starfish Bay Children’s Books and Tiny Seed Publishing. Traditional publishing is Starfish Bay’s main focus, and both our imprints operate using the traditional publishing model while following traditional publishing processes. All books that were published by Starfish Bay Children’s Books and Tiny Seed Publishing before December 2023 followed the traditional publishing model. Under this programme, all costs related to publishing a picture book are covered by Starfish Bay. These costs include editing, illustration, design, printing, sales, marketing, and distribution. We also pay authors royalties which are generated from the sale of their books.
Due to the severe effect the pandemic had on our publishing business, we recently announced two new publishing programmes that run alongside our traditional publishing programme. These programmes are the Author Supported Traditional Publishing Programme and the Secondary Publishing Programme. The Author Supported Traditional Publishing Programme that had been running by our imprint, Starfish Bay Children’s Books, closed at the end of December 2024. Our Tiny Seed imprint will continue running our Secondary Publishing Programme during 2025. We have also added an Author Advance Programme under our Tiny Seed imprint.
If you are interested in having your picture book published by Starfish Bay, please select a publishing programme from the list below and share your work with us following these guidelines.
Traditional Publishing Programme
Although traditional book publishers commonly reject unsolicited submissions, our ambition when establishing ourselves in 2014 was to publish and promote emerging talent. We have had the privilege of working with many exciting authors through receiving unsolicited submissions and are proud of the work they have produced. However, we regret to announce that we will no longer be accepting unsolicited submissions for our Traditional Publishing Programme.
We deeply appreciate all authors who have participated in our Author Supported Traditional Publishing Programme and Secondary Publishing Programme, as well as those whose work is due to be included in these programmes. To show our gratitude for their contributions, these authors will now be considered solicited authors. From 1st January 2025, our Starfish Bay Children’s Books imprint will only accept submissions from solicited authors for the Traditional Publishing Programme.
Secondary Publishing Programme
This programme runs under Tiny Seed Publishing and requires authors to contribute by purchasing 200 hardback copies of their picture book. We offer a 20% discount on this purchase. The typical retail price for one of our hardback picture books is 24.99 Australian dollars. This new publishing programme remains very similar to our Traditional Publishing Programme, with the only difference being the purchase of 200 copies. All costs involved with publishing a picture book under this programmeare covered by Starfish Bay. The termination date for this programme is 30th June 2025. Therefore, from 1st July 2025, our Tiny Seed imprint will only focus on our Traditional Publishing Programme.
Author Advance Programme
This new publishing programme under our Tiny Seed imprint requires a temporary loan of $6600 from an author. This loan must be repaid to the author within two and a half years of receiving the payment without any conditions. With the exception of this temporary loan, the remainder of the publishing programme follows a standard Starfish Bay traditional publishing offer and all costs related to publishing a book will be covered by Starfish Bay. We will offer authors a Traditional Publishing contract and provide authors with 66 complimentary hardback copies of their work in recognition of their support.
What We Are Looking For
Starfish Bay is proud of our children’s picture books which feature unique, original ideas and lots of personality. We are looking for picture books that will appeal to children through creativity, excitement, and strong storytelling. As an Australian publisher, we are particularly interested in promoting and supporting homegrown talent from Australia and New Zealand; however, we also welcome submissions from authors around the world. As a traditional book publisher, we will need to guarantee sales of our books under our programmes. Therefore, we have rather high standards when selecting picture book stories.
As a traditional children’s book publisher, we understand how important it is to select a suitable illustrator for each picture book. Therefore, we would not encourage authors to contract an illustrator when submitting picture book stories to us. However, if an author has already contracted an illustrator, please indicate this when submitting your manuscript(s) to us. In that case, we will need to make a publishing decision based on both the story and the illustrations. Please be aware that this may make it more difficult to be selected for one of our publishing programmes.
Submission Policy
We currently accept submissions by email only. We will not accept any hard copies of submissions and will not accept any responsibility for the loss or damage of your work. Starfish Bay accepts submissions to the following email address:
starfishbaypublishing@outlook.com
Please use one of the following email subject suggestions depending on your choice of model when submitting your work:
If you would like to have your submission(s) reviewed under our Author Advance Programme, please use the following email subject:
” Author Advance Programme: [Manuscript Title]”
If you would like to submit under our Secondary Publishing Programme, please use the following email subject:
“Secondary Publishing: [Manuscript Title]”
Please ensure that any emailed submissions are less than 15Mb. If any files you wish to send are larger than this size, please send them via WeTransfer. Here is the link to our WeTransfer account:
https://starfishbay.wetransfer.com.
Please note that if you have not heard from us after two months of sending your submission, we will be unable to proceed with your project. Due to the high level of submissions we receive, we are unable to always track the receipt of submissions and, therefore, will be unable to provide feedback on unsuccessful submissions.
About Our Traditional Publishing Process
We can confirm that the same publishing team looks after all stories accepted under our publishing programmes. The two additional programmes also follow the same processes as our Traditional Publishing Programme.
We understand that the traditional book publishing process can be rather complex – particularly for new writers who have not experienced being published by a traditional publisher. Therefore, we would like to provide some general information about our traditional publishing process.
At Starfish Bay, we oversee a range of processes such as editing and design, proofreading, printing, sales, marketing, and distribution (ensuring that our books are available at bookshops, libraries, etc.). We always use the same publishing processes for picture books published under our publishing programmes. In general, it will take a traditional book publisher 24 months to complete the publishing process. Here is the schedule we work to when publishing a children’s picture book:
Step 1: Editing
After signing a publishing agreement with Starfish Bay, our editors will start to review the picture book story and provide authors with feedback on ways to make further improvements. It is usual to have two editorial rounds for each picture book story as this ensures that the books we publish reach their full potential. For each editorial round, our editorial team can deliver a line-edited manuscript by marking up the manuscript and including notes and comments on ways to tighten or improve the flow of text and correct any mistakes. The author can then work on the story based on these comments and supply us with a revision. If a picture book requires any additional editing, a third editorial round will be undertaken. All editorial rounds are free of charge. In general, this process should be completed within two months. Once a story is to a satisfactory standard and the editorial process is complete, no further changes can be made. Only errors related to grammar can be highlighted and corrected after this process.
Step 2: Contracting an illustrator
Once the editorial process is complete, we will start to source a suitable illustrator. We choose illustrators for our books from all over the world and believe that one of the most important aspects of publishing a children’s picture book is finding an illustrator whose style complements the content of the story. We carefully match illustration styles from different illustrators to each picture book we release. We do not want to rush this process, which may take up to five months to complete.
Step 3: Illustrations
We wish for authors to be aware that a professional illustrator will be the co-creator of the picture book and should be allowed to interpret the text themselves. After an illustration agreement has been signed, our Art Director and our art team will work closely with the illustrator to ensure this entire process runs smoothly. Authors are not required to contribute to the illustration process. We will be unable to provide authors with specific updates regarding the illustration process.
Step 4: Design
After we receive the final illustrations, our designer will begin to prepare the layout and create a full PDF of the picture book. It takes roughly one month to complete this process.
Step 5: Proofread
After the layout for a picture book has been finalised, we will need to proofread the book. We will provide our authors with a full PDF of the cover and interior spreads of their book. Authors are not asked to participate in the proofreading process as this is undertaken by our editors. Please note that only grammar and spelling errors can be changed during this process and there will be no further changes to the illustrations.
Step 6: Teacher Notes
Teacher notes are a valuable resource for educators. They can be used in school and kindergarten settings to create discussion and awareness of the themes and characters found in our books. We welcome our authors to assist us in creating this resource. Information that can be found in teacher notes includes the reason for creating the book, questions that can be asked about the themes or situations within the story, and simple activities based on the book that children can take part in – everything that will encourage young readers to learn while having fun.
Step 7: Submission of new title information to our sales agencies and distributors
Next, we will set a publication date and submit new title information to our sales agencies and distributors. Each agency and distributor has its own new title submission policies.
Step 8: Printing and binding
We usually begin printing a picture book five months before its publication date. Printed copies of the book will then be shipped to our four distributor warehouses, which are located at the following destinations:
• 30 Amberwood Parkway, Ashland, OH 44805, USA.
• 50 Freshwater Road, Chadwell Heath, London RM8 1RX, UK.
• 39 Woodside Avenue, Northcote, Auckland 0627, New Zealand.
• 9 Pioneer Ave, Tuggerah, NSW 2259, Australia.
Step 9: Book sales and marketing
We would like to mention that there will be no need for our authors to promote their books themselves. We have four sales agencies that are based in the US, the UK, New Zealand, and Australia. Each has its own sales and marketing plans for our books. Our sales agents and distributors will sell our books to bookshops (online or in-store), wholesalers, and library vendors. If you view the Sales and Distribution category on our website, you will gain more information on where our books will be sold.
Step 10: Selling subsidiary rights
In addition to selling and distributing books, Starfish Bay sells translation rights to publishers in non-English-speaking countries through foreign rights agents and international book fairs. As a result, we are able tomaximise the potential audience of our titles. Starfish Bay held stands at both the Bologna Children’s Book Fair and Frankfurt Book Fair before the pandemic; however, we were unable to attend in the years following this. Therefore, we are very pleased to announce that we will once again have a presence at future book fairs. Our stand number at Bologna Children’s Book Fair 2025 will be A91 in Hall 25. Starfish Bay will also be attending the Taipei International Book Exhibition 2025. The exhibition runs between the 4th-9th February 2025. Our stand number for this event will be A1121. Translation rights are bought and sold at exhibitor stands, which will enable our stories to travel the world.