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Member only guide to the Australian book industry.
MIN READ
After the success of our debut Picture Book Matchmaker event in 2025, we were thrilled to bring it back for another round in April of this year. We launched this pitching opportunity as an alternative to our flagship Virtual Literary Speed Dating event, tailoring it specifically to picture book authors, author-illustrators, and illustrators. A key difference in our process was allowing an extended pitch appointment length to ensure creators have sufficient time to share aspects of their work publishers and agents are most eager to know. We also enabled the option to screen-share, providing an avenue for author-illustrators and illustrators who need to visually display their work as part of their pitch.
For the 2026 event, we received a total of 194 applications from picture book creators. These applications underwent the assessment and ‘matchmaking’ process with our assessment panel, which this year comprised author Jane Godwin, illustrator Jade Goodwin, and author-illustrator Zeno Sworder. Our assessors examined each application for their potential and readiness for publication, and also determined who among the attending publishers and agents would be the best fit for the body of work.
Following the assessment process, 78 picture book creators went on to pitch at Picture Book Matchmaker. Of these, 55 authors, one pair of co-authors, and 11 author-illustrators pitched their manuscripts, and 11 illustrators — including a cohort from the ASA Style File — presented their portfolios.
Over two days, the 22nd and 24th of April, 7 children’s publishers and one agent met with these creators, and for the majority it was their first time attending Picture Book Matchmaker. We were once again delighted by the positive feedback these representatives shared with us following the event. All remarked upon the high quality of the pitches and work presented, and we hope all those who participated walked away with a great sense of achievement. It’s a high-pressure environment, but your preparation and enthusiasm shone through.
We’re thrilled to share that 56% of creators who pitched at our 2026 event have since received an expression of interest from a publisher or agent. We have been particularly excited to see a marked increase in the number of author-illustrators who had their work requested this year, which is reflective of both the increase in applications from author-illustrators as well as the interest from publishers and agents to meet creators working in this space.
One of the key reasons we created Picture Book Matchmaker is to help address the limited publishing opportunities available to picture book authors, author-illustrators, and illustrators. This scarcity stems from the challenges facing the picture book market within the Australian industry, such as rising costs and declining sales and reading rates. Picture book submission windows are narrow, and the field is highly competitive. Our assessment and matchmaking process is designed to ensure the picture book creators who present their work are in the strongest position to garner interest, and we’re encouraged to see our creators receive such a positive response to their hard work.
Of course, we’re always looking for ways to improve how our pitching events work and what they offer to our creators, and taking note of what we learn along the way. We’ll continue to beaver away behind the scenes to prepare the 2027 Picture Book Matchmaker event, but in the meantime we’d love to share with you some observations from this year’s event.
Publishers and agents working with picture books need to gain an understanding of your writing style in order to make a decision about whether your manuscript is something they’d like to seriously consider, and the best way to provide this during a verbal pitch is to read an excerpt aloud. It’s particularly important to demonstrate whether your manuscript is written in prose or rhyme. We offer a longer pitch appointment length at Picture Book Matchmaker to allow for readings, and we strongly encourage all picture book creators to plan out their pitch accordingly.
For author-illustrators and illustrators, it’s vital to showcase your illustration style and samples, and to describe your preferred mediums, particular areas of interest, and professional experience. These are some of the key points publishers and agents want to learn from your pitch.
If you yourself are not an illustrator, and you do not intend to be the author-illustrator of your manuscript, there is no need to provide illustration examples as part of your pitch as an author. Picture book publishers love to have the opportunity to envision the illustrations as they listen to you read the manuscript aloud or describe the work, so visual cues are unnecessary and can in fact detract from your original work.
Some publishers are on the lookout for shorter, 24-page picture book manuscripts with commercial appeal. This is a bit of a change from the industry standard 32-page picture book, and something to keep in mind for creators working on commercial concepts.
Although a publisher or agent will always be interested to know if your work has series potential, market pressures mean they are increasingly unlikely to be able to acquire a series upfront, so it could be helpful to keep this in mind when composing your pitch.
Seasonal manuscripts and concepts are not as commonly submitted to publishers as you might expect, so publishers who need to publish a certain number of seasonal titles per year will always be interested in seeing seasonal works with a distinctive hook and commercial appeal.
While some may think crafting a picture book is one of the easier writing projects to tackle, it is in fact deceptively artful. Add to that the fact that the Australian picture book market is notably small, competitive, and hard to crack — for both emerging and established creators — and you have a real challenge on your hands.
Pursuing picture book publication requires creators to seriously undertake their market research, to develop their craft, concept, and hook, and to keep trying. This applies to authors, author-illustrators, and illustrators: with such a short word count, every word of a manuscript should be carefully considered and chosen; the interplay of words and pictures on the page should showcase your understanding of the picture book’s unique format; and illustrator portfolios should be thoughtfully curated to target the kind of work you’re seeking from your target publisher or agency.
If you’re unsure if your work is developed or refined enough to submit to publishers or agents, and you don’t have a community of creators around you who you can turn to for advice, there are avenues for professional guidance that can be worth exploring. You can find various options available through writing organisations and writers’ festivals. Through the ASA, authors and author-illustrators can undertake a picture book mentorship to workshop a manuscript with an experienced creator, author and illustrator duos can share a picture book collaborations mentorship to gain input from both the writing and illustrating perspectives, and illustrators can receive help curating their illustration samples and determining their publishing goals through a portfolio mentorship. Creators with a completed manuscript in the late stages of development can also benefit from pursuing a picture book manuscript assessment, through which you receive a comprehensive report detailing the strengths and weaknesses of your manuscript, and feedback on how to situate it more strongly within the market.
We also cannot overstate how helpful our Pitch Perfect: Picture Books course is for creators wanting to develop a foundational knowledge of the Australian picture book publishing landscape. Courses like this can be a vital part of the education and research process of picture book development for creators struggling with the opacity of the publishing industry and its processes. Pitch Perfect: Picture Books will run ahead of the next Picture Book Matchmaker event in 2027.
Finally, if you would like to learn more about any aspects of the picture book industry or the next steps available to you, ASA members can access personalised support at any time through our free member advice service.
Picture Book Matchmaker will be returning in 2027! If you aren’t already a subscriber, you can sign up for our monthly events newsletter to be the first to know when the key dates for the next event are announced.
In the meantime, we encourage you to continue seeking out pitching and submission opportunities. There are other pitching events hosted by organisations and by writers’ festivals, and you can find a list of publishers, literary agents, and their submission guidelines in the ASA’s Book Industry Directory. The submission windows for picture book publishers can be short, so you need to be savvy to avoid missing out. You can keep a close eye out for updates by following your favoured picture book publishers on social media or by subscribing to their email newsletters.
