Slush Pile Challenge 2013


We are pleased to announce our first 2013 Slush Pile ChallengeThis competition is now closed.

This time we are launching the challenge to coincide with the launch of Words & Pictures and the challenge is going completely online.

Our inaugural challenge is from the amazing 
Anne Clark of Anne Clark Literary Agency.

Over to Anne, now.
I have been lucky enough to work in children’s books for twenty years. Until late 2012, I was a commissioning editor at independent publisher Piccadilly Press and before that a commissioning editor/editorial director at Hodder Children’s Books. I cut my editorial teeth in educational publishing, having started my career with a brief spell in marketing, following an English degree at Oxford. www.anneclarkliteraryagency.co.uk


Anne's challenge sounds simple. Or is it?

THE CHALLENGE: Send in a paragraph pitch for a middle grade novel by 28th April 2013.

THE REWARD:
Anne Clark will pick a winner and arrange to have a meeting with the winner by phone or in person for 30 minutes.

Do you have the winning pitch? Send it in NOW! 

THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED.
Results and details of the next challenge will be announced soon.


Who is eligible?
  • You need to be a current SCBWI un-agented member, resident in the UK. 
  • If your entry is selected for a given Slush Pile Challenge, you will not be able to enter for any other 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 paragraph pitch in a Word Document to competitions@britishscbwi.org by 28th April 2013. Please do not forget to include your name and email adress.

The Process

Chitra will choose 15 entries randomly and send to the agent for review.
The agent will pick a winner and also tell us why.
The winner will be put in touch with the agent, for a 30-minute phone / personal meeting.


Good Luck Everyone!

7 comments:

  1. Very exciting! Good luck everyone. Sadly my temporary stint in Oz means I'll have to watch from the sidelines. Get scribbling...

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  2. This is amazing. You only have to submit the pitch! Get cracking everyone this is an opportunity not to miss.

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  3. We have the first entry come through...

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  4. What a great idea!!! SCBWI rocks!

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  5. Sadly not in the UK any more. But might want to make it worldwide next time...soonish as such is the world we live in. Good luck, also watching on the sidelines.

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  6. A couple of questions, Chitra: are these to be pitches for books already written, or WIPs, or is it an exercise in pitch-writing? And, it looks as if the winning pitch will be published on W&P with a critique?

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  7. Hi Lesley, well if you win and Anne wants to meet with you or better still, wants to read your book, it would be better if you had a finished one. But there is no restriction - the pitch is for a MG book that's it. If you are still writing it, and if she wants to read it, just tell her it is WIP. :) It's not necessarily an exercise in pitch-writing.

    Anne will explain why she chose the winning pitch and we will publish that on the W&P. More like "what caught her attention, is it the hook or the theme or was it well written?" than "how to write a pitch".

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