Get your book published by Stone Soup!
Stone Soup is thrilled to announce that we are accepting submissions for our annual book contest.
This year, we plan to accept two books for publication–one novel or short story collection and one book of poems. However, we do consider all submissions for potential publication.
Contest Details
Genre: Fiction (novel, novella, short story collection) or Poetry.
Length: For fiction submissions, the minimum length is 20,000 words. For poetry submissions, the minimum length is 40 pages. There is no maximum word or page limit.
Age Limit: For this contest, we will accept manuscripts written by those age 14 or under.
Deadline: Monday August 16, 2021 11:59 p.m. (Pacific Time).
Entry fee: $15.00.
Submissions of multiple manuscripts by the same author are accepted but you must submit each as an individual entry and pay the fee each time.
Results and Prizes: We will select two winning manuscripts—one in fiction and one in poetry—to be published and distributed by Stone Soup in both print and ebook forms, available for sale on Amazon, in the Stone Soup store, via our distributors, and advertised along with the rest of our books to libraries and other vendors.
We will also name a handful of finalists.
Publication: We will consider all submitted work as part of the contest for potential publication in the magazine or as standalone volumes.
Previous Submissions: If you submitted to last year's contest, and have substantially revised your manuscript in the meantime, you are welcome to resubmit it this year.
Submission Fee: The submission fee is important to us; it helps us defray the costs of the contest and of producing and publishing the two winning books. However, if the submission fee represents a financial hardship to your family, please write to editor@stonesoup.com.
Submissions: All entries must be sent to us before the closing date via our Submittable portal, here.
We reserve the right to select no winners in a given year.
Can you submit a manuscript written by multiple Stone Soup contributors?
Yes, you can. Although only one author can technically send the submission via Submittable, you should name all of the authors on the submission form and on your manuscript; and you can send us a note, too, to confirm there are multiple authors!
Do all of the authors have to be subscribed to Stone Soup, or does only one have to be?
You do not have to be a Stone Soup subscriber at all to submit or to enter one of our contests. Contest entries have a separate fee which applies equally to all entrants. For regular submissions, subscribers can send their work in free while non subscribers pay a small fee. I hope that helps!
If our book doesn’t win the contest, will we be able to publish it elsewhere or will it become property of Stone Soup?
Every author of a manuscript, whether they win our contest or not, retains ownership and copyright of their work. As with most contests and publishing submissions, you should not submit or publish elsewhere until the contest is closed; but you may do whatever you wish to with your manuscript after the results of the contest are announced.
If you’re one of the winners, can you still submit your manuscript to a publishing house or literary agent? Just curious.
Also, I’ve been working on a book for about a year now, and I’ve found someone to do a developmental edit on it. Am I still allowed to submit it even if I have an editor helping me?
Hi Kaidyn, thanks for your questions.
If you are a winner in our contest you cannot submit your manuscript elsewhere. Children’s Art Foundation–Stone Soup Inc. is a publisher, and the prize is that we will publish the book.
Yes, you may submit work that you have had editorial help with. We would not necessarily know if this had been the case, and we don’t forbid it in our rules as we don’t think we could (or would want to) police that – but thank you for asking!
Can enter something and then have my friend enter another entry that is authored by both of us?
Yes, you may. They must be entered separately, as two distinct entries.