THE FRIDAY PITCH
Allen & Unwin know how difficult it can be for writers to get their work in front of publishers, which is why we’ve been running our innovative and pioneering Friday Pitch service for the last 5 years. Through Friday Pitch we have given new and emerging writers a chance to have their work read by our publishers within a reasonable time.
ALL adult submissions – both fiction, non-fiction, children's and young adult – to Allen & Unwin should now come via Friday Pitch. To do this, email us a short synopsis and the first chapter of your work. If we like what we read, and want to read more, we will get back to you within a fortnight.
Friday Pitch has discovered several bestselling Allen & Unwin authors, including Fleur McDonald, the author of Red Dust and Blue Skies; Helen Brown, whose book Cleo has sold throughout the world and is currently being made into a film; and Mary Groves, author of An Outback Life.
Read on for detailed instructions:
Knowing it’s important to authors to have their manuscripts read as quickly as possible, ALL unsolicited adult fiction, non-fiction, children's and YA submissions to Allen and Unwin must be sent electronically to The Friday Pitch (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 (please, no PDF 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 or diet book or commercial fiction or fantasy, etc
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: |
| ______________________________________________________________________________ |
| |
| For children's and young adult submissions: |
| |
| Title: |
| _____________________________________________________________________________ |
| Author: |
| _____________________________________________________________________________ |
| Age group: |
| _____________________________________________________________________________ |
| List any previous publishing history and/or any awards or residencies (eg at Varuna) you've received: |
| _____________________________________________________________________________ |
| What genre would you categorise it as (eg, fantasy, mystery, romance, family drama, social issue, thriller, literary, memoir etc)? |
| _____________________________________________________________________________ |
| Please summarise the story in one sentence (eg: An unrequited love story between a vampire and a teenage girl/A boarding school story set in a school of magic/A child's eye view of an escape from war-torn Vietnam) |
| _____________________________________________________________________________ |
| What book would you see as a comparison title to yours? |
| _____________________________________________________________________________ |
| What recent children's book have you read and liked? |
| _____________________________________________________________________________ |
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 for adults, young adults and children. See detail and examples listed under Company Profile>What we Publish on the website. We are not interested in assessing poetry, picture books, straight romance, short stories or scripts.
For academic submissions, please see the separate submissions instructions on the A&U website. For more information about our submission process for children's and young adult books, please see the Children and Teenagers page.
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.
Please note: Allen & Unwin UK cannot accept any unsolicited manuscripts, in either electronic or printed form. No material will be returned.