The Children's Author Certificatefrom EK Books
Become a Confident, Publishable Children's Author in One Month
A small group of (future) children's authors, convened by EK Books and taught by our publishers and award-winning authors.
- Learn the craft from published, award-winning authors
- Build the author profile publishers look for
- Have your manuscript read and assessed by our editorial team
- Finish submission-ready — with a certificate and a private publisher call
100% online — live on Zoom, or self-paced Either way you get personal editorial feedback on your manuscript and a private meeting with an EK Books publisher. Writers welcome from Australia, New Zealand, the UK, the USA, Canada — and anywhere else in the world.
Next cohort begins Wednesday 9 September 2026
A small cohort. Every manuscript is read by our editorial team.
Why this is different
The people teaching you are the very people you're trying to get your book in front of.
Designed and delivered by EK Books, an award-winning publisher currently contracting authors like you. Our authors teach it. Our editors read your manuscript. We decide who earns the certificate.
Three times nominated Publisher of the Year at the Bologna Children's Book Fair · Twice winner of the SCBWI Crystal Kite Award · Published across the UK, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand
Award-winning books. Award-winning publisher.
Why it's hard, and what it takes
Children's publishing is competitive. Publishers are looking for professionals.
A good story is no longer enough. Every list has room for a handful of new books a year, and a publisher isn't buying a manuscript — they're choosing an author to build a career with.
- It means understanding exactly what publishers expect from a manuscript — the conventions that are invisible until someone shows you, and obvious to an editor from page one.
- It means building a brand and a platform, before you're published — because your profile is read alongside your story, whether you realise it or not.
- It means learning not just the craft, but the business — pitching, rights, royalties, and how acquisition decisions get made.
Very few writers are ever shown all three.
That is what this month unlocks.
Your journey
What happens over the next month
1Live Workshop One — The Craft of Children's Books
with Dimity Powell, award-winning EK Books author
What publishers are looking for right now, and how to strengthen story, structure, character and pacing from an editorial perspective. Ask your questions live.
2Live Workshop Two — Make Your Name as a Children's AuthorNew
with Samantha Smith, award-winning author and brand strategist
Before readers get to know your writing, they need to get to know you. Finding your voice and building a name worth taking seriously. Networking and social media done right. And the specific strategies that get you through to publishers, reviewers, booksellers and awards judges.
Sam's Zoom meetings have been incredibly helpful. She guided me through website creation and helped prepare a bio for Instagram. I love her energy and she really knows how to make one feel valued.Carol Harrison
3Live Workshop Three — The Business of Authorship
with Nathan Thomas, Publisher at EK Books
How to pitch professionally and position yourself as a publishing partner. Rights, royalties, contracts and submissions. And how acquisition decisions are made.
4Ten Concise Chapters, Yours for Life
Structure, voice, character, theme, rhyme and visual storytelling — plus the business side, and ready-to-use templates for pitches, cover letters, school visits and press kits.
5Personal Editorial Feedback on Your Manuscript
Your book, read closely and answered at length by the people who assess submissions for a living. Not a checklist and not a grade. What's working, what isn't, why, and what to do next.
6Certification & Your Private Publisher Call
Revise, resubmit, and if your work meets today's professional standard you earn the Children's Author Certificate. Then take a private one-to-one call with an EK Books publisher — plus priority submission to EK Books for life.
The most useful writing feedback you will ever receive
Are you ready for when a publisher reads your book?
Friends are kind. Writing groups are guessing alongside you. Freelance editors polish what's already there. A publisher tells you what is missing — and what it may be costing you.
What it looks like when it works
Spot the Dot spent fifteen years in a drawer
Spot the Dot
Kris Herbert · EK Books
Kris Herbert wrote it in 2011, in the months after the Christchurch earthquakes, when her family had been moved out of their damaged home and everything was scattered. A little dot who has forgotten where he came from goes looking for somewhere he belongs. She put the pages in a drawer and got on with her life.
Years later she came back to the draft, brought it into one of our programs, and did the work on it that a publisher's reading makes possible. Fourteen words to establish a character and a problem. Simple enough for a three-year-old, big enough to matter to the adult reading it aloud.
Kris wasn't discovered. She got ready, and then she was.
Your teachers
Taught by the people who create great children's books
Dimity Powell
Workshop One — Craft
Award-winning author and reviewer with over thirty published stories. Winner of the SCBWI Crystal Kite Award for At the End of Holyrood Lane.
Samantha Smith
Workshop Two — Author Brand
Harriet's Hungry Worms (EK Books) won the 2024 NYC Big Book Award. Alongside writing, Sam is a communications strategist and brand consultant, and a CYA judge.
Nathan Thomas
Workshop Three — Business & Editorial
Nathan is the managing editor of Exisle Publishing, the parent imprint of EK Books. He reads hundreds of children's manuscripts per year and plays a key role in EK Books acquisitions.
The schedule · Online, wherever you are
How the month unfolds
Everything happens online. Come live on Zoom at the times below and ask your own questions — or take the month self-paced, working through the recordings and notes when it suits you. Either way, the personal parts don't change: your manuscript is read and answered in writing, and your publisher meeting is booked around you.
Workshop One — The Craft of Children's Books
Workshop Two — Make Your Name as a Children's Author
Workshop Three — The Business of Authorship
Can't make a live session?
Don't worry — nothing is lost. Every workshop is recorded and posted to your student area within two days, together with the notes and slides. They're yours to keep for life, and you can email your questions in at any time.
Then…
Submit your manuscript by Monday 5 October · receive detailed editorial feedback within about two weeks · take up to a month to revise · resubmit for certification · book your private publisher call and advance into the world of publication.
Enrol now
Start Learning Today!
All ten chapters, every template, every checklist — open them tonight, and keep them for life.
Instant access to everything
Begin tonight if you want to. By the time the first workshop arrives you'll already know what you want to ask.
- All ten course chapters, unlocked at once
- Pitch letter and submission templates
- Manuscript checklists and structure guides
- School visit and press kit templates
- Every workshop recording, kept for life
Real people, working on your book
The part no video course can give you. Named publishing professionals, reading your manuscript, twice.
- Detailed written feedback on your own manuscript
- A second full assessment after you revise
- A private one-to-one call with an EK Books publisher
- Live Q&A in all three workshops
- Email us directly — a real person answers
A direct path to EK Books
Most writers spend years trying to reach a publisher. You'll have one reading your work in week four, and one on a call with you at the end.
- The person teaching you is the person assessing you
- Your certificate is issued by a real publishing house
- Priority submission to EK Books — for life
- Considered for publishing and development opportunities
This isn't just an investment in one book. It's an investment in your lifelong career as an author.
The craft, the templates, the author brand, the relationship with a publisher — you keep all of it, and it works just as hard on the third book you write as it does on this one.
Choose how you'd like to pay
The Children's Author Certificate is $1,500 USD. Pay in full today and it's $1,250 — you save $250.
Pay in full
$1,500
$1,250USD
You save $250
One payment. Everything unlocked immediately.
Enrol Now — $1,250The lowest price we offer, and the simplest.
Three monthly payments
$500USD
$500 today, then $500 in each of the next two months. $1,500 in total. Everything unlocks immediately, just the same.
Enrol Now — $500 todaySpreads the cost. Costs $250 more overall.
If the investment is what's stopping you
The Future Author Scholarship
A small number of places on each cohort are set aside for writers whose books belong on our list but for whom the investment is out of reach. Partial awards cover 25%, 50% or 75% of a place.
“It is thoroughly worth the money.”Clare, Course Graduate
Our promise to you
Come to the first workshop. If it isn't what you hoped, we'll refund you.
Attend Workshop One, and if you don't believe the program will do what we say it will, email us within seven days and we'll refund you in full. No forms, no argument.
And if your revised manuscript isn't yet at standard, you aren't failed. You'll be told where it falls short and given another attempt.
Places on each cohort are strictly limited. Once it fills, registration closes. Priced in USD; conversion is applied at checkout and prices include all relevant taxes.
Before you enrol
Questions
Where does it take place? Can I join from my country?
The whole program is online, and you can take it live or self-paced. The three workshops run live on Zoom, and every one is recorded if the hour doesn't suit you. The chapters and templates are downloaded, your feedback arrives by email, and your publisher meeting is a video call at a time that works for you. Nothing personal is lost by going self-paced — the editorial feedback and the publisher meeting are yours either way. Our writers join from Australia, New Zealand, the UK, the USA, Canada and beyond — wherever you are, and whatever your hours are, you can do this.
What if I can't make the live workshops?
Come live if you can — that's where you get to ask your own questions. But every session is recorded and uploaded within two days.
What if I don't pass the certificate?
You will be given specific pointers on where your manuscript falls short, and another chance. We want you to pass, properly.
What if I need more time to revise?
Tell your instructor and we'll build a timeline that suits you. Nobody gets left behind because life got busy.
Can I submit to EK Books afterwards?
Yes — graduates receive priority submission for life, on every book they write. We also encourage graduates to submit to other prestigious imprints.
Is this for picture books, or longer work too?
Primarily picture books. If your manuscript runs over 1,000 words, or you're working on middle grade or YA, email us before registering and we'll tell you whether it's a fit.
What if the investment is out of reach?
There is a three-payment plan, and a small number of places each cohort are set aside for the Future Author Scholarship — partial awards covering 25%, 50% or 75% of a place. Apply if that's you.
Become a Confident, Publishable Children's Author in One Month
You have a story children need. What you've been missing is someone on the inside who will tell you the truth about it, show you what to fix, and open the door once you have.
Enrol Now →100% online, from anywhere in the world · Live on Zoom or self-paced, with personal feedback and your publisher meeting either way · Begins Wednesday 9 September 2026
Questions? Email [email protected] — a real person answers.