Slush Pile Challenge - July 2016

We are pleased to announce the July 2016 Slush Pile Challenge


Felicity Trew
Felicity Trew, literary agent at Caroline Sheldon Literary Agency is setting this challenge.
Talented and enthusiastic, Felicity Trew is keenly building up a list of children's writers and illustrators at Caroline Sheldon Literary Agency. Clients she already represents include Joseph Coelho, Sheena Dempsey, Wendy Meddour and Yuval Zommer.   

Felicity has particular love for quirky and imaginative children's books. 
Felicity holds an MA in Renaissance Literature and is eagerly spotting talent to develop in the future.  

THE CHALLENGE: 

I’d love to see a brief synopsis and first chapter of a fantasy novel to appeal to 9-12 year olds. It must have wonderful characters whose adventure we want to follow; it must be set in a world with its own habitat and rules. Think The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton. It could be high fantasy that takes itself very seriously; it could be light with humour. All I ask is that you feed my need. (Or if you're not a fantasist just tickle my humour with anything funny).  

THE REWARD:
Felicity will pick a winner from 15 randomly chosen entries. She will arrange to have a 30 minute meeting with the winner. It will be in person, via Skype or a phone call.



THIS COMPETITION HAS CLOSED



Who is eligible?

You need to be a current SCBWI un-agented member, resident in the UK. (With effect from 29th July 2014, it is open to European residents as well).

If you win a challenge, you will not be able to enter any other Slush Pile challenges.

To join SCBWI and take advantage of the many opportunities to: raise your profile, market your work, meet fellow writers, artists, the gatekeepers to publication, while being supported in the development and pursuit of your craft, visit scbwi.org.


What do you need to do?

Send in your entry as a single Word Document to competitions@britishscbwi.org  


The document should contain only the title, brief synopsis and first chapter that the judge has requested. Do not include your name, address or email address in the word document or the document name. The word document should be named in the following format - 'your title' July2016 Slushpile.docx


In the email please write your full name as it appears in SCBWI membership records and your email address. Also include the title of your work.

Only the first entry will be considered. Please do not send revisions, multiple entries or multiple attachments.


The Process

We will choose 15 entries randomly and send to the agent for review. This is to ensure that agents are able to judge a reasonable number of entries and to ensure the W&P team is not pre-judging the entries. In many cases, our judges request to read more than fifteen entries.

The agent will pick a winner and also tell us why.  Sometimes the agent who set the competition may quote a few sentences or phrases from the winner's submission in the blog announcing the winner.  

The winner will be put in touch with the agent so they can arrange the 30 minute discussion, in person, by Skype, or on the phone.

Good Luck Everyone!


  
The Words and Pictures team are aware that our members write for different ages and genres. With this in mind, we endeavour to provide at least one Slush Pile Challenge a year that our un-agented members feel able to enter.  



Elaine Cline has been a SCBWI member for over 3 years and loves to write picture books, middle-grade and teen books. She lives by the sea and has two soft and silly cats.

Elaine is a member of the Words & Pictures editorial team, managing The Slush Pile Challenge for writers.

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