Here are a few resources to help publishers access the best of the world’s literature for young people, both books in English, and books (yet to be) translated into English.

Celebrate World Kid Lit Month!

Join us on social media with a celebration of the international and translated books you publish, and share what you’re reading and what you’ve discovered lately! World Kid Lit Month is a great time to hear about authors, illustrators and translators you haven’t heard about before, and broaden your horizons and the diversity of your publishing list.

Do you have a small team either in an office or working together remotely? Why not take the World Kid Lit group challenge together? Find out more here: What is World Kid Lit Month?

Finding new global books

Our contributors highlight books under the #SeekingaPublisher tag (formerly Translate This!). If you have a specific regional interest, contact us and we’ll try to help.

Other ways to find new international children’s and YA books not yet published in English:

• Bologna Children’s Book Fair Illustrators’ Exhibition 
• dPictus Unpublished Picturebook Showcase and 100 Outstanding Picturebooks
• dPictus platform: explore picture books from around the world and connect with agents
• IJB’s White Ravens: annual selection of international children’s and youth literature
• IBBY’s annual selection of Outstanding Books for Young People with Disabilities

Bilingual readers for a reader’s report

We keep a curated list of World Kid Lit champions. This includes bilingual readers with international children’s book expertise, who may be able to provide a reader’s report, to help you assess new titles that you can’t read in-house, or to explore a publishing market you’re not yet familiar with. These readers may also be able to act as book scouts or translators, though not every bilingual reader is also a translator. The list includes readers of over 30 languages.

Please contact us for the latest copy of the World Kid Lit champions list.

Literary translators

There are several professional organizations worldwide where you can find a literary translator for a children’s or YA book, a sample translation, or reader’s report.

• Bologna Children’s Book Fair translator directory
• CEATL, the Conseil Européen des Associations de Traducteurs Littéraires / European Council of Associations of Literary Translators. CEATL lists the 34 member associations here, with links to their websites and translator directories
• Society of Authors/Translators’ Association. Translator directory here. 
• ALTA – the American Literary Translators Association. Translator directory is here
• AALITRA – The Australian Association for Literary Translation
• Irish Translators’ and Interpreters’ Association (ITIA) / Cumann Aistritheoirí agus Ateangairí na hÉireann​. Translator directory here
• ATA – American Translators Association) has a Literary Division. Translator directory here
• SCBWI – the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (and translators!)

Model contractual terms

• 3 Cs for Translators: Copyright, Compensation, Credit by Avery Fischer Udagawa
• Authors Guild Literary Translation Model Contract
• PEN America A Model Contract for Literary Translations

Funding and prizes for literary translation

• Literature Across Frontiers has an extensive list of grants available
• PEN Presents: funding for sample translations
• PEN Translates: funding for book translations
• Book Trust In Other Words: toolkit of resources for UK and International Publishers
• There are numerous prizes for which translated children’s and YA books are eligible

Promoting your translated and globally inclusive books

Please send us your books to review if they meet our criteria: What do we mean by ‘world literature’?

Here at World Kid Lit, we feature everything for readers aged 0-18: picture books, chapter books, middle grade, YA, nonfiction, poetry, graphic novels and comics.

Besides the blog, we include recent and forthcoming books on social media, in our reading lists, and in our annual lists of children’s books translated into English.