What we at Tu Publishing want to do to celebrate the month: We would like to receive more stories about African American kids and teens having fantastic or science-fictiony adventures. Or black British kids. Or teens from Mozambique. We know they’re out there! Keep writing!

Our first two books will be fantasy or science fiction, and I’ll specifically be looking for books that feature characters of color, characters from minority or non-Western cultures, and/or non-Western/minority cultures. That’s pretty broad–it could be Japanese or Jamaican, Alaskan Inuit or African American settings and/or characters, and I’m not looking for books where race is necessarily the issue–just really great stories that will entertain readers from 7 to 18 (and up, if you count me and all you folks like me!). So if you’ve got a children’s or YA novel that you think will fit this criteria, if we make our Kickstarter goal I’ll be acquiring manuscripts beginning January 1. That means you’ve got just over three months to whip that manuscript in shape! I’ll be posting more specifics for our submission guidelines as that time comes closer, so keep an eye on the Tu Publishing Submission Guidelines page.

Let’s go into that in a little more detail. What will we be looking for?

For our first book, we’ll be looking in particular for a middle-grade novel with wide appeal, one that is set in a world inspired by one of the many non-Western cultures in the world, and featuring a strong main character who might be from any race or culture–as Stacy said, from Japanese to Jamaican, from Alaskan Inuit to African American. There’s such a wide world of stories out there, and the plot might be inspired by a folk tale or be completely new.

You’ll note the list of multicultural fantasy and science fiction that we recommended in our last post. This non-exhaustive list shows some of the most excellent examples of fantasy and science fiction for young readers that feature the kind of adventure and excitement we’ll be looking for in the future.

But we’ll emphasize again: that’s not an exhaustive list. There are so many great ways to tell a story, and “we’ll know it when we see it” is, unfortunately, often the most specific a publisher can get, because we don’t want to rule out good stories that might not fit what we anticipate.

We can give you some guidance, however:

• We’re looking for fantasy and science fiction.
• We love stories that feature a good mystery, a great magic system, or an interesting historical period.
• We want to learn about new (to us) cultures, so introduce us to one that might not be featured in the mainstream that often.
• We’ll be looking for one middle grade (ages 8-12) and one young adult (ages 12 and up) book for our first season, so either way works. We won’t be looking for chapter books (ages 6 to 9) just yet, but may be in the future.
• We will not be looking for picture books, poetry, or realism. There are a number of great books out there featuring multicultural characters in picture books and realistic novels. You can find a great list of them (and a few fantasy titles we haven’t mentioned here) at Cynthia Leitich Smith’s excellent website, broken down by culture, ethnicity, and other subjects. We seek to fill a gap in fantasy and science fiction. Though multicultural literature is important in all genres, we feel there is a greater need at the moment in children’s and YA SFF and other genres–adventure, mystery, historical fiction (not related to civil rights books, which tend to dominate the market).
• Keep an eye out on our Submission Guidelines page, because there’s a possibility we may be interested in short stories of this same nature as time goes on, as well. Details will be released when they are final.

For novels, we won’t be open for submissions until Jan. 1, if the Kickstarter campaign is successful. Please do not send any submissions until we announce that we are ready to receive them.