#pitchit
Welcome to the webpage for the annual Just Write For Kids Australia Pitch It! Competition. The aim of the competition is for writers of children’s books to hone their pitches to publishers so that they are polished, well-crafted and submission-ready.
The pitch is like the eyes to your soul. It’s a short marketing advertisement for the manuscript you’ve poured your heart (and soul) into. It’s the face publishing editors will judge to understand what kind of writer they are dealing with – it’s the tone, the voice, the vision that elicits an emotion to what lies within. Sounds a bit heavy, but you know your story better than anyone else, so all you have to do is pitch it in its best light. You’ve got this!
ABOUT
The Pitch It! Competition enables writers – emerging, experienced, published, or unpublished – the opportunity to craft their pitch in a concise, emotive and marketable way that aims to engage and persuade a publisher that their manuscript will be their next best-seller (without directly telling them so!). The practice of writing, and considering marketable elements in your pitch, can also help to refine your manuscript further with language or narrative gaps you didn’t consider earlier.
This competition is also an opportunity to take your pitch and manuscript, and creative career, further with fabulous prizes and professional support! Several of our past winners and runners up have gone on from their manuscript critiques from publishers to securing contracts. Just like our 2018 winner and past picture book judge, Stef Gemmill, and 2020 picture book winner, Cassy Polimeni! On that note, let’s meet the judging team…
MEET THE PITCH IT! JUDGES
In 2024, we have a fabulous line-up of judges, all with incredible experience, knowledge and merit in the children’s book industry.
Picture Book Judges:
Debra Tidball is an award-winning author picture books, short stories, poems and plays for children. With a background in social work and an MA in children’s literature, Debra has a particular passion for picture books and the profound way they can touch children’s lives. She is a zealous supporter of Australian book creators and is the vice president of her local CBCA NSW sub-branch. Debra’s The Scared Book, which was a CBCA Notable Book and won the peer-voted SCBWI Crystal Kite award, was published after a successful ‘elevator’ pitch to the children’s publisher at an open day at the publishing house.
Find Debra at: Debra Tidball – Home
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Aleesah Darlison is an internationally published, award-winning author. She has written over sixty-five books for children including picture books, chapter books, novels, and series. She is well-known for her books that empower children and champion the cause of animals and the environment. Aleesah also runs the Little Darlings Facebook Page which focuses on promoting and supporting Australian picture books.
Find Aleesah at: ALEESAH DARLISON – Aleesah Darlison Award-Winning Children’s Author
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Cassy Polimeni is the author of Ella and the Amazing Frog Orchestra, CBCA Notable Picture Book The Garden at the End of the World, and a forthcoming picture book with CSIRO. The former editor of Destinations Australia magazine, she has also been published in The Guardian, KidTown Melbourne and Peninsula Kids. Cassy won the Just Write For Kids Pitch It! Competition in 2020, and in 2022 was the recipient of an Australian Society of Authors (ASA) Award Mentorship to develop a middle grade novel. She lives with her family on Bunurong Country.
Find Cassy at: www.cassypolimeni.wordpress.com
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Junior Fiction / Middle Grade Judges:
Kate Gordon grew up in a small town by the sea in Tasmania. She is the author of six novels for teenagers, as well as the picture books, Bird on a Wire and Amira’s Magpie, and the junior fiction series, Juno Jones. She also writes award-winning middle grade fiction, including The Heartsong of Wonder Quinn, Aster’s Good, Right Things and its consecutive series, The Ballad of Melodie Rose and The Calling Of Jackdaw Hollow.
Kate has been long-listed in the 2019 CBCA Awards and shortlisted and longlisted in the 2021 awards. She received the 2016 IBBY Ena Noel Award. In 2018, Kate was shortlisted in the Dorothy Hewett Awards for an Unpublished Manuscript, and was commended in the 2018 Vogel’s Awards. In 2021, Aster’s Good, Right Things was shortlisted in the Speech Pathology Book of the Year Awards and won the CBCA Book of the Year for Younger Readers.
When not writing, Kate reads, listens to Josh Ritter, has grand adventures with her daughters.
Find Kate at: Kate Gordon
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David Lawrence is an award‑winning children’s author whose Fox Swift series, co‑written with Cyril Rioli led to a life‑changing trip to the Tiwi Islands. With Shelley Ware he co‑facilitated the 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2022 ILF Create Initiative writing workshops, that produced the wonderful Japarrika trilogy and Tiwi Seasons with Marius. Through the ILF he has seen first‑hand how reading opens doors.
David went from profit and loss statements to TV writing, before penning Anna Flowers with Australian Netballer Eloise Southby in 2007.
Since then, he’s written another twelve fun-filled children’s books, including The Stormy Protest that won the Environmental Award for Children’s Literature in 2019.
His latest series (that kicked off with Ruby and the Pen and Xander and the Pen) is about a magical pen that falls into the hands of kids who are struggling. They soon discover that whatever they draw … happens!
Find David at: Laughing Matters, and on Facebook and Instagram.
PRIZE CONTRIBUTORS
In 2024, we are fortunate to collaborate with the following industry professionals, who have generously provided invaluable opportunities for our winning, runners up, and highly commended entrants.
Jennifer Sharp – Commissioning Editor at Daisy Lane Publishing
Jennifer will be assessing the Picture Book (Fiction), Junior Fiction and Middle Grade winning manuscripts. She is a dynamic wellness and confidence coach, speaker, educator and publisher of stories that inspire, inform, educate and empower.
Anouska Jones – Commissioning Editor at EK Books
Anouska will be assessing the Picture Book (Fiction) winning manuscript. As a publisher, editor, author and reviewer, her world is all about books and she enjoys stories where complex issues are made engaging and memorable for even the youngest readers.
Rowena Beresford – Commissioning Editor at Riveted Press
Rowena will be assessing the Picture Book (Fiction), Junior Fiction and Middle Grade winning manuscripts. Riveted Press are actively looking for junior fiction, middle fiction, YA and graphic novels that remind readers of the good things they might have lost sight of in these tough times – like wonder, joy, hope, friendship, adventure, imagination, creativity and possibilities.
Dani Vee / James Layton – Commissioning Editors/Publishers at Larrikin House
Either Dani or James will be assessing the Picture Book (Fiction) winning manuscript. They have an unwavering commitment to creating quirky, edgy, original, funny kid-focused books that push boundaries. At Larrikin House, they believe in the importance of engaging readers at an early age, and they believe in fun!
Kath Kovac – Children’s Non-Fiction Editor
Kath will be assessing the winning Picture Book (Non-Fiction) manuscript. Dr Kath Kovac is an editor of award-winning children’s nonfiction books. Kath worked as Managing Editor of CSIRO’s Double Helix magazine and is now a freelance editor and workshop presenter for all manner of projects.
Mary Anastasiou – Managing Editor, Marketer, Book Creative, Author and Presenter
Mary will be assessing the final entries in the Picture Book category, as well as offering winners a FREE Marketing Matters consultation. She has 30 years of design and marketing experience, and works with authors and illustrators to help them realise their publishing goals.
Larrikin House’s School of Larrikins is their way of working with aspiring authors to smash (and survive) the slush pile! Each of our winners will receive a School of Larrikins voucher to attend a workshop of their choice.
Crystal Corocher – Editor, Mentor, Journalist, Author and Presenter
Crystal will be providing an invaluable prize to our winners. She loves to immerse herself in a world of Children’s Literature, Rhyme and Madness!
Adam Wallace – Bestselling Author, School Presenter, Screenwriter, Illustrator, Funny Guy
Adam will be providing an invaluable prize to our winners. Adam’s mission is to entertain and inspire millions of children around the world. And to eat hot chips. But mostly the inspire children thing.
Aleesah Darlison – Internationally published, award-winning author
Aleesah will be providing an invaluable prize to our winners. She has written over sixty-five books for children including picture books, chapter books, novels, and series.
QUESTIONS?
Please send any questions to jwfkcompetition@gmail.com.
WINNING PITCH EXAMPLE
Need some inspiration for your pitch? Please have a look at Cassy Polimeni‘s winning pitch for her incredible real-life fairytale, The Garden at the End of the World from our 2020 Pitch It! Competition:
“At the end of the world is an island covered in ice. On the island is a mountain. Inside the mountain is a room. And inside the room are a million magic seeds.”
Isla and her mother are on a mission to deliver a package to the Global Seed Vault in Svalbard, Norway. With its polar nights and northern lights, the Arctic landscape provides food for Isla’s vivid imagination as they journey by plane, snowmobile and on foot and learn why a frozen mountain is the perfect place to keep seeds safe for future generations. With echoes of ‘One Small Island’ and ‘Where The Forest Meets The Sea’, ‘The Garden at the End of the World’ is a 466-word environmental picture book for 4-7 year olds, inspired by the real life ‘doomsday vault’ in Spitsbergen.
The Garden at the End of the World was published by UQP in April 2023.