On Wednesday 12th February and Wednesday 19th February HarperCollins Australia is requesting manuscript submissions for romance, erotica, and women's fiction.
Here is the twitter link.
Here is the HarperCollinsAU page on their all-year-round Wednesday submissions.
Psst, note that the Wednesday submissions call is international!
Best of luck!
Got a finished (unpublished) manuscript?
Well, this is for you! Australian publisher Twelfth Planet Press is having a Pitch Anything Friday for TODAY ONLY. It's open internationally - all you have to do is tweet your pitch and use the hashtag #12thPlanetPressPitch. It can be for any genre, any style. Fiction, nonfiction, art, craft, promotion, anything!
If you missed the window but still want to find out how to submit to Twelfth Planet Press, check the website.
And if you need help pitching using less than 140 characters, I did a post on how to do that here.
Good luck!
Look, I'm a writer. Writing is ingrained into my soul. I'm not happy if I'm not writing. I always have one foot in reality and the other in my imaginary world. I'm sure most of you feel the same.
So naturally when I meet someone at a party or social gathering, who I am comes up in conversation. "Oh, I'm a writer," I'll say.
And then it happens. Every. Single. Time. That dreaded question. "Have you had anything published?"
Being a writer isn't about being published. I'm not claiming to be a "published author." But those non-writer types (more fondly referred to as muggles) don't understand that. If you don't have a book on the store shelves, you're not a legit writer.
After having had to answer this question more times than I can count, I've come up with a way to keep myself amused until I can finally answer, "Yes. Go buy it." Here are some answers to use and enjoy:
1. No. Drink?
2. Yes. I'm the ghost writer for J.K. Rowling.
3. Sure. Why not?
4. Yup, it's coming out in four years. The title's subject to change. So is my pen name. Keep an eye out for it!
5. Oh look over there, a pigeon! *runs away*
6. Yeah, but it's stuff you wouldn't read. Trust me. *shifty eyes*
7. These tapas are amazing.
8. No. You?
9. Give me your money and I'll send a copy to you. Honest. (Bonus points if you can get them to "buy" one for their friends.)
10. *set self on fire à la Hyperbole and a Half*
Any more suggestions?
Today I was lucky enough to receive 20 precious minutes and a critique from the managing director of a major Australian publisher. She'd read the first ten pages and synopsis of my WiP last week.
That 20 minutes turned into 40, and she gave my writing so much praise I was starting to repeat my thank yous out of sheer astonishment. I definitely used the words "you're so nice" too many times - someone could've turned it into a drinking game and gotten smashed.
Now this woman is a total stranger. She didn't know me from boo. But she saw something lurking beneath the surface of my writing, and it's something I've been struggling with for about a year.
The writing lacked ME.
It was good, she promised me. Excellent, even. But where was the passion, the uniqueness, the voice that made it stand out?
Her question brought back memories of a time in 2011 when I was writing PRINCE OF CITY NIGHTS. I had read so many "how to" guides and so many blogs that the rules/guidelines/whatever you want to call them were whirling around in my head every time I sat down to write. I struggled with a blank page for almost a month. Eventually I stopped reading blogs, shut the voices up, and just wrote.
So it's happening again. While I can switch those immediate voices off, it seems subconsciously I'm still thinking of my target audience (and getting published) over writing what's in my heart.
I'm not sure how to overcome this problem because it's so hard to get out of the mindset, but I'm thinking if I work on the story I'm writing purely for me and my friend (just for fun), as well as practicing some stream-of-conscious writing, I might be able to shake the nay-sayer voices off. If you have any extra advice, I'd be glad to hear it.
And, yes, for those of you who are curious - she asked to see the full manuscript once I'm done with revisions *insert flailing here*
It's been a while since I've done a personal post. I thought I'd better update you on the two AWESOME things that happened yesterday:
Exciting news one:
Have you joined SCBWI yet? I thought nah, it's more an American thing. I thought nah, I'm in a teeny tiny isolated city - it's not worth paying money for conferences I can't attend.
And then I joined.
And there's a branch in my teeny tiny city.
And better than that, there was a callout to meet with Sarah Foster, managing director of Walker Books.
And I got in.
I get to meet with Sarah Foster and talk about my latest WiP for twenty minutes. She will read and crit my first ten pages and synopsis. Some people have snagged publishing contracts this way.
Now I'm not looking specifically for a publishing contract, but wouldn't you say this is a mighty fine opportunity? Wouldn't you like a similar opportunity?
Get out there. Join SCBWI. It's worth it.
Exciting news two:
I am now officially an intern at Twelfth Planet Press, a boutique Australian publishing company run by one of the most successful, hard-working women I know. I found out yesterday, and by this morning I was swamped with emails of things to do. Not a lot of it makes much sense to me (there may have been panicked tears for a bit there), but I'm going to sit down today and go through it slowly, googling the terms I don't understand.
My first jobs involve making up a sales kit for a distributor and writing a feature article for a blog. It's so great to see this side of the publishing world, and while I'm slightly terrified, I'm also really, really excited. I hope to do the best job I can, and I'm looking forward to the learning experience that comes with it. I think this will definitely make me a better, more worldly writer.
And that's the news!
