THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO SUBMITTED HISTORICAL NOVELS TO US IN OUR SPECIAL SUBMISSIONS PERIOD OF FEB 1-28, 2022.

SUBMISSIONS IN ALL GENRES ARE NOW CLOSED.  WATCH THIS SPACE FOR ANNOUNCEMENTS OF FUTURE SUBMISSION PERIODS.

Historical fiction submissions:

Eagle Books is all about adventure and we want well-written stories that grip the reader and are impossible to put down!

We are looking for stories  with strong characters, good pacing and a great story. Our editors are partial to cosy elements and food, but they aren’t essential.

• Historical Fiction (see below for definition)
• Any genre as long as it fits the Historical Fiction definition
• Middle grade and YA (25 000 — 80 000 words)
• Well written and paced
• Exciting

Historical Fiction definition:

1. The definition of the genre set by the Historical Novel Society Australasia (HNSA) is a novel in which the majority of the narrative, ie more than 50% of the events described, must have taken place at least 50 years before publication.
2. Historical sub-genres considered to be historical fiction include historical mystery, historical romance, and historical fantasy and alternate history. Time-slip novels, multiple-time period novels, and parallel narrative novels are also considered historical fiction with flexibility to crossover between eras stretching from 50 years or more in the past until contemporary times provided more than 50% of the events described take place at least 50 years before publication.

What we DON’T want

• Stories that are obviously for teaching kids a lesson — morals are fine, just don’t shove them down our throats
• Anything that we’ve read before
• Picture book submissions
• Illustration submissions

Please read our submission guidelines (below) and email your submission to submissions@christmaspresspicturebooks.com.

Submission guidelines:

• The first three (3) chapters ONLY
• Attach a synopsis — no more than 300 words
• The stories cannot have been previously published
• Submissions MUST be sent as an attached word document — no PDFs
• Please put Historical Fiction Submission in the subject line
• 10pt, double spaced, no indents, in Times New Roman or other normal font
• Please include a short bio about yourself in your cover letter
• You can submit as many times as you like, but please send each one separately
• Please check your spelling and punctuation! We have a very fussy editor who picks on things like that.
• Only open to Australian and New Zealand residents

Please note that IF we are interested we will contact you! Please do not send any follow up emails. If you have not heard from us in three months, please assume that your story was not what we were looking for at this time.