The School Magazine and you

We all want to reach young readers, don’t we? Well, did you know that THE SCHOOL MAGAZINE is always looking for new texts to engage and inspire young readers between the ages of 8 and 12?

THE SCHOOL MAGAZINE, Australia’s iconic literary magazine for children, has always accepted unsolicited manuscripts. Submissions are assessed purely on their merits, so emerging writers and established authors alike are welcome to send in their work.

So what types of texts does THE SCHOOL MAGAZINE want? The short answer is: whatever children love to read.

Writers:

Young readers love suspense, action, comedy, twists, science fiction, fantasy and credible characters. They love original and fresh texts that are written just for them.

  • short stories—particularly for the younger readers—with a word length of 300-800 words

  • plays—easy-to-stage with a maximum of 1500 words

  • articles—dynamic, interesting and soundly researched. Again, keep these short.

  • Familiarise yourself with the magazine. Visit their website to view lots of writing examples.

  • Remember that young readers are part of a multicultural, diverse and inclusive society and the magazine aims to reflect this.

  • Avoid being overly didactic and message-driven.

  • Remember that The School Magazine is part of the Department of Education so carefully consider the portrayal of teachers, schools and controversial topics.

 Submitting is easy! Go to their contribute page to upload your text. Authors retain copyright of their material. A recent policy change has seen an increase to the payments writers receive which are now paid on publication. 

Illustrators:

THE SCHOOL MAGAZINE rarely opens their eligibility list. This usually happens mid-year but it pays to check their page for illustrators from time to time.

The magazine DOES accept one-panel cartoon submissions at any time.

They also accept short graphic texts such as re-tellings of traditional tales.

Each year, the magazine calls for comic serials - usually in June. Read the guidelines and perhaps start creating one now so that you’ll be ready to submit in 2022!

Success Story - Danny Snell and Katrina Germein

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ONE LITTLE DUCK is a book idea that I submitted to SCBWI’s 2021 Picture Book Illustrator Award. It’s an idea that I’d been working on with fellow Adelaide author Katrina Germein. Our submission only made it as far as the short list, but it did catch the eye of Lisa Berryman from HarperCollins, who was one of the judges, and has now been contracted for release in 2023.

The idea for the book originally came about while working my other job as a swimming teacher. I teach preschool aged children and sometimes I sing to them the first few lines of Five Little Ducks, but substitute quack for another animal sound like moo or woof. So, it becomes Mother Duck says, Moo Moo Moo. It’s a good distraction tool when kids get upset, and usually gets a laugh.

I’d always thought it was a good idea for a book but didn’t know how to expand it. I mentioned it in conversation one day with Katrina (we were actually in Melbourne for the 2019 Speech Pathology Awards for which our book, Let’s Go Strolling, was a winner). Katrina worked on the idea for a couple of months and when she showed me the first few verses I was thrilled.

We decided to flesh it out further with some storyboards, and hoped to submit it to some publishers down the track. It’s around this time that the SCBWI Picture Book Illustrator Awards were announced, offering a cash prize to help develop a book project or idea. I decided to submit ONE LITTLE DUCK, and as they say, the rest is history.

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