We have recently updated our submission policy!

MidnightSun is always accepting submissions.

Please send a digital copy of your manuscript to submissions@midnightsunpublishing.com Please include a subject line stating your name, the title of your manuscript, and its genre (eg: Jane Doe, ‘High Tea’, Picture Book). Please attach your manuscript as a Word document titled, ‘Name: Manuscript Title’ (eg. Jane Doe: High Tea).

Send the first 20 pages only! If we are compelled to read more, we’ll ask for the rest. We want digital manuscripts with 1.5 or double line spacing. Choose Times New Roman or another easy-to-read font.

Please proof-read thoroughly and always let someone else read it too before sending us your manuscript. Typos really put us off and we don’t want to turn away an otherwise fantastic project because we have spotted a simple mistake in the first paragraph.

Include a cover letter in the body of the email with your name, the title of your manuscript, your contact details (including email address and phone number) and the word count of your project. If you have previous publications or other relevant experience, please feel free to include it in the letter and also write a paragraph about yourself and your interests if you wish. We would also like to know how you would classify the genre and where it fits in the market. For example, are there any other authors or books you would compare your manuscript to?

If you follow these guidelines, your manuscript submission will be read by one of our editors. If you have already sent your manuscript according to our previous guidelines, please don’t panic, we will still read your manuscript and respond in due course.

If we love what we read, we will be in touch by email to request a hard copy of the full manuscript to be sent to our office. Please be aware it may take 3-6 months for us to get back to you about your submission. Unfortunately, due to our large workload, we cannot provide individual feedback on submissions.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Hi all, it’s Fern again, MidnightSun’s favourite intern. Also their only intern, but I digress. In my brief time at the company I’ve mostly worked with Heaven Sent, the YA novel by S.J. Morgan. My tasks have been to find reviewers and speaking with writers’ festivals to invite Sue along. But that cannot begin to compare to the work Sue has spent writing the novel, and the time Anna and Lauren have spent refining and preparing it for its debut. The moment of truth finally arrived and MidnightSun was proud to launch Heaven Sent this past Sunday.

The hall the launch was held in was deftly transformed from what looked like an office into a cosy reading room, made even better by the inclusion of wine and nibbles.

A friend of Sue and her partner performed on his guitar, the perfect accompaniment to the quiet buzz of excitement in the air.

Most incredible, Sue had ordered an enormous cake decorated with the cover of her novel, which she said with a laugh was the combination of her two favourite things.

Whenever I wasn’t working to sell copies of the novel, I chatted with the guests around me. I was impressed by the range of people who attended the launch: from friends who wanted to congratulate Sue, to fans of the young adult genre, to authors who had never met Sue before but wanted to do their part to support fellow writers.

There is a certain special air to book launches, I’m finding, when a large group of people are brought together by a single focus. It becomes an incredibly comfortable place because the guarantee that every person you speak to will have at least one thing in common: their love of books.

Anna spoke to us all about her first meeting with Sue at the Salisbury Writer’s Festival in 2016. Anna told us how Sue nervously introduced her premise that day, and what a contrast there was with Sue now, confidently presenting her novel to the world.

Anna also announced MidnightSun’s involvement in Sue’s next novel Boomerang, which is set to be published next year. I can’t deny I’m excited to read it after my thorough enjoyment of Heaven Sent.

After the speeches Sue read aloud the first dynamic chapter of the novel. At its completion there was a rush of people buying copies of the book, eager to have their questions answered. Many others had bought the book before the speeches so I watched them, children and adults alike, settling into the arranged reading nooks, already absorbed by the novel.

As the launch was reaching its conclusion I had a chance to have Sue sign my copy, and I had the opportunity to chat with her, thanking her letting me be part of the team. Before the launch I’d only corresponded with her via email, and in speaking to her in person I realised how true to her real voice she was in writing this novel. Sue is just as kind, generous, and earnest as the voice she portrayed in Heaven Sent.

And now I am sorry to inform you that while you will all have the opportunity to read more of Sue’s voice in the future, this will be the last you will hear of mine. As the university comes to an end, so does my internship at MidnightSun Publishing. It’s been an incredible experience to see behind the scenes of how the industry works, and I could not have asked for better people to learn from. I’ll miss it, but who knows, maybe one day I’ll write something that could be published here. Wouldn’t that be exciting?

I’m Fern, the second intern to grace the halls of MidnightSun. I’m in my final year of studying Creative Writing at Adelaide University, and I’ve been fortunate to have the chance to look inside the world of publishing. I’m the sort of oddball who researches as much as they can about any given situation before heading into it, but the internet can only prepare you so much. Luckily, Anna has been a wise and gentle support in guiding me through this busy new world.

Before I even had my first session at MidnightSun, I was invited to the book launch of Beneath the Mother Tree by D.M. Cameron. Talk about coming in at the end of the process. It was a night of joy and tears as Donna spoke about the journey of creating her novel, the endless trials of research, re-writing, and refining.

She thanked her family members for supporting her throughout the experience, and I felt tears prickling in my eyes for this woman I had never spoken to. I mean, I’m a bleeding heart, but there was something special about being in the function room of The Jade surrounded by these people brought together by her story.

There was magic in the air, just as there was in the reading she gave of her first chapter. Yes, I bought a copy that night. But despite how the speeches that night moved me, I couldn’t entirely comprehend how much work had gone in to making this novel a reality.

Upon setting foot in the studio of MidnightSun on my first day, I was introduced to the novel that is to be published in October. Heaven Sent is a young adult novel by debut novelist S.J. Morgan, set in the Adelaide Hills. However, before I actually had a chance to read the novel, I had to write an impassioned speech to reviewers about why they should drop everything they’re doing and give this novel a chance. There was some hurried flipping through the book to look for key words, that’s for sure. It was to my extreme relief when Anna loaned me the proof copy so I could understand what I was writing so enthusiastically about. My lecturer the next day must have hated me, because I ended up reading it throughout my class on Editing for Writers. It was on topic! I was understanding what a novel looks like before it is sent to copy editing! Or at least that’s what I tried to insist when I was told to put away the book for the third time.

Most recently we’ve been working to prepare Heaven Sent for its launch, and hunting down writers’ festivals who would be delighted to have Sue attend. It’s not hard to appear passionate in my emails to festivals and reviewers now. Having read the book for myself I’m excited to show it off to whoever I can. It was even more exciting to see the newly printed copies of Heaven Sent when they arrived. There’s something special about opening up a box to see a fresh book which is waiting to be passed out and read.

I feel like I’m going backwards through the publishing process so far. I’ve attended a book launch, asked reviewers to look over a completed novel, and enjoyed the thrill of the arrival of new books. I’m looking forward to seeing the earlier stages of the process of seeing how Anna gives advice and suggestions to her authors, how she decides how much time she needs to prepare everything for launch, how she decides to publish a novel in the first place. If I can see all this, I might be able to comprehend how Donna felt when she stood in front of everyone at her book launch and moved to tears by how much of herself she poured into her novel.

Here are some more photos from the wonderful launch:

MidnightSun acquires debut novel Beneath the Mother Tree

MidnightSun has acquired world rights to playwright and radio dramatist D M Cameron’s debut novel Beneath the Mother Tree for publication in 2018.

Beneath the Mother Tree is a ‘fast-paced’ mystery and love story set in an Australian town similar to the one in which Cameron grew up, and uses Indigenous and Irish mythology to create a spiritual subtext.

‘We are thrilled to have won the rights to this exciting novel, which generated a great deal of interest as a manuscript,’ said MidnightSun publishing director Anna Solding. ‘There were several other publishing contracts on the table, and we had to fight for this book!’

Solding said she sees ‘potential’ for the novel in the international market. ‘We anticipate Beneath the Mother Tree will garner interest overseas, with its Australian setting, contemporary love story and universal themes,’ said Solding. ‘We will be taking it to both London and Frankfurt Book Fairs.’