Hardie Grant Publishing

Submissions open at 10am AEST Monday, 20th October 2025. Entries submitted before this date will not be considered.

Submissions close at midnight AEST Monday, 31st  January 2026. Entries submitted after the closing date will not be considered.

We are accepting fiction and narrative non-fiction (essays, memoir, reportage) submissions only. Poetry, young adult and writing for children will not be considered.

Submissions must be between 30,000 and 40,000 words. Entries outside this word limit will not be considered. 

Submissions must be submitted as a word document using 12pt Times New Roman font.

Submissions must be original works and not previously published elsewhere.

All submitted works that adhere to the guidelines will be considered, however we are unable to provide feedback on unsuccessful submissions.

We are currently accepting submissions for the following categories ONLY:

• Picture books from author-illustrators ONLY
• Graphic novels from author-illustrators ONLY
• Submissions from writers and illustrators from marginalised backgrounds and communities (NB: We welcome submissions about any subject matter and in any genre intended for young readers.)

Please note that currently we are not accepting submissions from unagented writers outside of these categories. 

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

• Submissions should be from citizens or residents of Australia and/or New Zealand. We do not accept submissions from outside Australia, New Zealand or Oceania unless via an agent, or the author has citizenship or residency within the region. 
• We can only consider one manuscript per person at a time. 
• For writers and illustrators from marginalised backgrounds and communities: We welcome submissions about any subject matter and in any genre intended for young readers.
• We are not considering play scripts, screenplays, activity or poster books, individual short stories, technical manuals, cookbooks, how-to guides, travel guides or educational textbooks for the children's and YA lists. 
• Due to the large volume of submissions, we are unable to provide individual editorial advice.
• If you do not meet these guidelines, your manuscript will not be considered.

A note on word lengths:

• Junior fiction manuscripts, for readers aged approximately 4–8 years, should be between 2000 and 20,000 words; 
• middle-grade manuscripts, for readers aged approximately 8–12, should be between 20,000 and 50,000 words; 
• and young adult manuscripts, for readers aged approximately 12+, should be between 40,000 and 80,000 words. 
• There is no word count specification for graphic novels.