GUIDELINES FOR WRITERS - PITSPOPANY PRESS

Pitspopany Press publishes books for children from ages 3 through 14. The age categories of our titles are 3-6, 5-9, 8-12, 10-14. Advances for authors are paid only to those authors who have a proven track record of sales in the children's market. All others will receive a straight royalty package.

The criteria for sending in a manuscript is as follows:

1) The manuscript must have Jewish content. This does not mean that the content must be religious of nature, but it should be easily recognizable as having some Jewish information which can benefit Jewish children. 2) If the material has religious content, the content must be acceptable to the Modern Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform streams of Judaism. 3) When Hebrew words are used, we prefer the "havarah S'fardit", the Sefardy pronunciation which is the standard Israeli pronunciation. 4) We prefer to publish books without glossaries or dictionaries of foreign words. 5) Early childhood manuscripts should not be more than 1,200 words. Picture books for early readers should not be more than 3,000 words. For older children, there is no cap to the number of words a manuscript can have. 6) We are always looking for "series" manuscripts; manuscripts that can be developed into as many as 6 books. 7) We prefer manuscripts that have both boys and girls in them. 8) We only accept manuscripts which are not didactic or preachy. 9) We judge a manuscript by the quality of the story, and then by its religious message, if any, not the other way around. 10) We prefer manuscripts from authors who can actively help promote their work. 11) While we are open to stories about the Jewish holidays, we prefer stories - fiction and non-fiction - which do not have "time" constraints and can be read all year long. 12) The general categories we prefer most are: Humor, Mystery, Jewish Family Life, Israel, Bible, Animals, Holocaust, and Midrash. But we accept manuscripts in almost any category. 13) The specific types of manuscripts we are looking for through 2006 are: Jewish Family Life stories that take place today, specifically for ages 6-9 and 8-12. A collection of non-fiction Israel stories about children living in Israel, both sabras and immigrants. Jewish Camp Stories for Kids, which will be the sixth in our "Jewish Stories for Kids series". Each story should be no more than 5,000 words. We are looking for up to 8 author's stories. Stories for all ages for our "Tikkun Olam" series. These are stories that deal with how to make the world a better place. The first in the series, "God's World" by Sylvia Rouss, will be available January 2005. The stories must all have Jewish content but can be in any age range.

If your manuscript meets the minimum criteria mentioned above, send it by email or regular mail to our offices in Israel. Our email address is pitspop@netvision.net.il and our mailing address is