Manuscripts wanted for early reader/children's book collection | $4,000 per manuscript

COMPANY/PUBLICATION: ROOM TO READ

Deadline: 21 February 2023

Call for Manuscripts: Room to Read’s Youth in Care Children’s Book Collection

Room to Read is excited to share this call for manuscripts for our first Youth in Care Children’s Book Collection! We are a nonprofit organization that has published over 5000 titles and distributed millions of books in 49 languages to 21 countries around the globe. This upcoming collection will have a total of 3–4 titles from the United States featuring youth in care as protagonists. These titles will be part of a global collection on youth in care of 10 children’s books for children between the ages of 4–9. The U.S. titles from the collection will be distributed throughout the United States and potentially adapted for global distribution in other regions where Room to Read operates.

When Room to Read completed a book publishing landscape analysis in the United States, we discovered a lack of children’s books that feature youth in care as protagonists. Across the U.S. there are few to no books that are written for and about children in the foster care system. Our goal with this collection is to fill some of that gap as well as to:

• Foster a love of reading in young children;
• Provide youth in care an opportunity to read stories that reflect their diverse experiences and present futures of possibilities;
• Create bonding between youth in care and their supportive adults as they engage with these stories together.

Room to Read also conducted focus groups with youth who have transitioned out of the foster care system across the United States to learn about the stories they would like to see represented in a children’s book collection. The following themes emerged:

• First night in a new home
• Developmental differences and disabilities within the foster care system
• Fear and uncertainty transitioning out of care
• Navigating relationships and building trust
• Belonging
• Opportunity
• Overcoming stigmas and negative stereotypes
• Socio-emotional skills/Life skills
• Acceptance
• Reimagining family

We would love to see manuscripts addressing one or more of these themes, particularly from authors with lived experiences. We encourage authors to draw from their own memories or perceptions on what they would have liked to have read as a child in care. Our review will be based on how engaging and child-friendly the story is, and how reflective it is of a child’s thoughts and interests.

Each book will be published in English, with possibly also a bilingual edition in English/Spanish.

Selected authors will be compensated in the amount of $4,000 USD for their completed manuscripts. As part of the Global collection, authors will be offered a work-for-hire contract for the project.

To submit a manuscript for this collection, please adhere to the following instructions:

• Manuscripts should be aimed at children within the 4–9 age group; they can be picture books, early reader books, or early chapter books.
• Submissions (as well as any questions) should be sent to Submissions@roomtoread.org with the subject line youth in care book _Last Name
• Manuscripts should be attached in an email as a Word file named LastNameFirstInitial_ManuscriptName. Links to a manuscript will not be accepted.
• Manuscripts may be submitted in English or Spanish.
• Complete the manuscript submission form: https://shorturl.at/dgLW7

The deadline to submit manuscripts is February 21st, 2023, at 11:59PM EST.

As with any professional publisher or agent, Room to Read respects your inherent copyright to your submission.

Authors may be required to attend a virtual global youth in care collection workshop series in 2023. There, they will begin revising, polishing, and finalizing their manuscripts with other authors from across the globe.

ABOUT ROOM TO READ

Room to Read’s children’s book program has published more than 5,000 titles and has distributed more than 34 million books in 21 countries, providing primary school students in over 49,000 schools with the resources and guidance they need to build a strong foundation in literacy and a love of reading.

Founded in 2000 on the belief that World Change Starts with Educated Children®, Room to Read is creating a world free from illiteracy and gender inequality. We are achieving this goal by providing resources for children in underrepresented communities to develop literacy skills and a habit of reading, and by supporting girls as they build skills to succeed in school and negotiate key life decisions. We collaborate with governments and other partner organizations to deliver positive outcomes for children at scale. Room to Read aims to benefit 40 million children by 2025. Learn more at www.roomtoread.org.

CONTACT INFORMATION (please do not share the email address publicly):

Questions/submissions: submissions@roomtoread.org

Website: https://www.roomtoread.org/

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