FRIDAY PITCH
Allen & Unwin expands its Friday Pitch program to incorporate all adult fiction and non-fiction submissions (excluding academic) to the company
Knowing it’s important to authors to have their manuscripts read as quickly as possible – and building on the success of our existing FRIDAY PITCH program –we’ve decided that ALL unsolicited adult fiction and non-fiction submissions to Allen and Unwin will be incorporated into an expanded FRIDAY PITCH.
Hence, from Friday 12th February 2010 we will only accept unsolicited adult fiction and non-fiction manuscript submissions – apart from those aimed at our academic list (see separate guidelines) – if they are sent electronically to fridaypitch@allenandunwin.com.
So what should you send? It's simple: copy and paste the title information sheet (see below) into the body of your email, and fill in the gaps. Then attach the FIRST chapter of your manuscript and a short synopsis (of no more than 300 words) as separate Word documents.
Our title information sheet is designed to ensure your manuscript is assessed quickly by the appropriate department in-house. You can assist us with this by using the subject line of your email to tell us whether your book is literary fiction, commercial fiction or non-fiction and what genre or subject it deals with.
For example:
To: fridaypitch@allenandunwin.com
Subject: Non-fiction, diet book
Subject: Commercial fiction, fantasy
TITLE INFORMATION SHEET
For fiction submissions:
Title:__________________________________________________________________
Author:________________________________________________________________
Commercial or literary fiction?_____________________________________________
What book would you see as a comparison title to yours?_________________________
List any previous publishing history and/or any awards or residencies (eg at Varuna) you’ve received_________________________________________________
If commercial fiction, what genre would you categorise it as (eg, fantasy, crime, thriller, chick lit etc)?___________________________________________________________
For non-fiction submissions:
Title:__________________________________________________________________
Author:________________________________________________________________
Category (eg health, history, current affairs)___________________________________
What book would you see as a comparison title to yours?_________________________
Tell us why you are the right person to write this book?__________________________
Do you have an expertise in the area?________________________________________
List any previous publishing history and/or any awards or residencies (eg at Varuna) you’ve received__________________________________________________________
When you send us your submission, you’ll receive an automatic email acknowledging receipt. No other acknowledgement will be sent to you. The synopsis and one chapter only of your emailed submissions will be read and if we’re keen to read more of your manuscript, we’ll contact you by email within a fortnight. If we do not contact you, please assume that we have decided not to pursue your manuscript for our lists. No further correspondence will be entered into and we will not provide you with reasons for our decision.
What are we looking for?
Allen & Unwin publish a wide range of literary and commercial fiction and non-fiction. See detail and examples listed under Company Profile>What we Publish on the website. We are not interested in assessing poetry, straight romance, short stories or scripts.
For academic submissions and books for children and young adults, please see the separate submissions instructions on the A&U website.
4 STEPS TO FOLLOW WHEN YOU SEND YOUR FRIDAY PITCH
On any Friday:
1. In your email subject line, indicate whether your submission is fiction or non-fiction and say what genre or subject area it deals with.
2. Fill in the title information sheet supplied by A&U and attach it to your email.
3. Also attach your double-spaced FIRST CHAPTER and a one-page synopsis in Word.
4. Send your email to fridaypitch@allenandunwin.com and expect an automatic bounceback acknowledgement indicating we’ve received your submission.
PLEASE NOTE:
We will accept email submissions ONLY – henceforth hard copy submissions will be recycled.
If we have not contacted you within a fortnight of your email submission being acknowledged, it means we have decided not to pursue your manuscript. No reasons or feedback will be provided and no discussion will be entered into.