I'm researching some children's publishers with the intention of sending out an 11 000 word novel for 7 - 10 year olds. There's one publisher I think would be great, (the style of their list fits what I've written) but, they have a sheet of author guidelines, on which they divide their list into sections, specifying appropriate word length. The divisions that would be relevant to my book are either
1)7-9 year olds, 6 - 8 K words, or
2) 8 - 12 year olds, 15- 50 K words.

Which section should I pitch my book for? Or do you think they genuinely don't publish any books between 8 and 15 thousand words?

<Added>

To give an idea of length, 11 000 words is as long as younger Jacqueline Wilsons, like The Mum-minder or Cliffhanger.

I think 7-9. If I were you I'd be thinking about how a 12 year old would react to what you've written. If you're pitching at children as young as 7, I don't think 12 year olds would be too interested. The story and who you're writing for is more important than how much you've written.

Nik.

I think that level too (7-9). I was just a bit worried that if I write a cover letter saying "I've got this 11 000 word story that I think will suit 7-9s", they'll think "useless woman, she has clearly not read our guidelines where we specify 6000 - 8000 words for this age group" and then throw my MS out of the window untouched...

I see what youre saying, and unfortunatley, yes that is a possibility. Some publishers are very specific about the word counts of the books they produce. My advice would be to go through an agent if you can. They will know who best to approach with your novel and might also know ways around issues such as word counts. Failing that, there are a lot of other publishers out there who are far more flexible. Is there any reason why you wanted to go to this pub? If there is, it might outweigh the word count issue.

Nik.

They showed interest in my stuff before (this was the whole unfinished book fiasco that I was just telling MF about in the Children's Writer's forum) and they are open to unsolicited. I even have a contact name there, the person who asked to see the rest of my MS before - but I am wary of going to her direct because it will mean I have to explain I sent her 1st 3 chapters of an unfinished novel before, and maybe this means she has me down as a timewaster. Don't know. Maybe just being paranoid!

I think that's the main problem with sending in something that's not been finished - you only get one crack at each agent so it's much better to have a crack with something you've worked on and refined.

If you have a contact why not email/telephone him/her and ask whether they'd be interested in seeing you novel despite it being over their specified word count? Must be worth an ask.

Nik.