Open Call for Boy's Adventure!

Read to the end. Really.

We are looking for middle-grade novels of action, adventures, with BOYS as the main characters. We want excitement, escapades and deeds of derring-do, mystery, and heroism. Stories should be written in clear but intelligent language (we don’t want you to pay any attention to lexile scores), and most of all, they should be FUN!

TLDR Specifics:

• OPEN 11/1/24, NO CLOSING DATE. First contracts in the first week of January. 40k-50k words. Please, no partials with synopsis. We want the full manuscript.

• Action/Adventure, exploration themes with the boy(s) as the central, active character(s).

• Male main characters only. Girls can be part of the gang, but no romance or cute girls creating the conflict in the story.

• Middle grade—accessible to kids age 10 years and up. Don’t be afraid to challenge younger readers!

• Wholesome, healthy family relationships. No unintelligent parents or abusive situations.

• No crude language, excessive violence, or sexual themes.

• Submissions should be sent to racpresssubmissions (at) gmail.com.

Full Details

Why boys? There aren’t enough entertaining books for boys out there, and many girls will look for boys’ books, as they prefer the more rough-and-tumble to the common feminine which is so prevalent on shelves today. The women who work for and with Raconteur Press certainly did.

“That’s when they realized only one of them would be in home in time for dinner.”

These books could be science fiction, fantasy, or mundane mysteries. Harken back to Tom Swift, the boy inventor, or Encyclopedia Brown, the young detective, or perhaps the adventures of the Mad Science Club. We want books that encourage exploration, curiosity, and risk-taking, which can lead to great innovations.

“Billy wondered what grass would feel like under his feet.”

What is middle grade? We intend these books to be accessible to readers from ages ten and up, although a strong reader of a younger age could certainly enjoy them, as well. Main characters should be a little older than the intended reading age, but not fully grown.

“Today, Rodney would keep his lunch money.”

Families of the main characters should be wholesome, and healthy relationships are preferred regarding friendships and associations with adult characters. The child may not be able to get out of trouble himself, but he should display courage, ingenuity, and creativity in his approach to plot conflicts.

“Fishing for gill-men took a lot more patience than Willy thought.”

What we’re NOT looking for: there should be NO use of crude language, and certainly NO sexual themes. Non-graphic violence is acceptable, in moderation and suited to the plot. Consequences for actions should exist, but should never be preachy or scolding. “Safety first” is no way to reach for the stars.

“Thus the mystery of the combustable ants was solved.”

Your homework for this open call: Part 1.

A quick discussion of what we’re not looking for in boy’s adventures (we’re not as sad as we look here).

Guidelines

Any submission must be in Times New Roman (preferred, but you can use Georgian or other readable font), 12PT, double-spaced, with your name, title of the story, and your email on it. Name the file as [STORYTITLE]-[YOURLASTNAME]—[BOYSADVENTURE]. Send it in a .docx format as an attachment—no links. Refer to the submission guideline graphic below for how to format your story—it has all the information you need! Feel free to download it for reference. Submissions should be sent to racpresssubmissions (at) gmail.com.