SLUSH PILE CHALLENGE October 2018


We are pleased to announce the October 2018 Slush Pile Challenge, set by Hannah Sheppard
of  D H H Literary Agency


Hannah Sheppard

Hannah Sheppard studied English Literature at the University of Liverpool where she set up a small poetry press in her spare time. She has since spent over fifteen years working in trade publishing: first at Macmillan Children's Books and more recently running Headline Publishing Group's YA and cross over list where she published Tanya Byrne's critically acclaimed Heart-Shaped Bruise. She joined D H H Literary Agency in 2013 because she realised that being an agent gave her more time to do what she loves most - using her editorial experience to help writers develop their ideas for commercial success. 

Hannah represents authors across children's fiction (from 9+ including teen and YA) and a small number of adult fiction authors (her main interests are thrillers and romance). Hannah does not represent picture books. 

She likes stories that push the boundaries, have a strong voice and, often, a dark edge - although she'd love to find a great contemporary romance too. 

Follow Hannah on Twitter: @YA_Books

D H H Literary are an editorially lead agency run by passionate book lovers. With a range of experience from bookselling and collecting, in house editorial, and television, their agents are commercially aware, well-connected and skilled at helping authors develop their ideas. 

Founded by David H Headley in 2008, their agency is dedicated to discovering and nurturing talented authors, whether debut or established, providing attentive, honest and personalised representation. 


THE CHALLENGE: 

I'd like to see your elevator pitch (loosely think: when A (inciting incident) happens, B (character) must do C (action) otherwise D (catastrophe) will happen - although not all books will fit this structure, you need to introduce me to the problem and what's at stake … make me care!) AND the first 750 words of your completed manuscript. I'm looking for novels for 9+ through to YA and am happy to look at any genre but I want to see diversity of character and voice. 

YOUR MANUSCRIPT MUST BE COMPLETED PRIOR TO SUBMITTING YOUR ENTRY. 

YOUR ENTRY SHOULD INCLUDE THE TITLE, AGE RANGE OF YOUR TARGET READER, YOUR ELEVATOR PITCH AND THE FIRST 750 WORDS IN A MICROSOFT WORD DOCUMENT.

THE REWARD:


Hannah will pick a winner. 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 NOW CLOSED



TERMS AND CONDITIONS

WHO IS ELIGIBLE?

You need to be an un-agented, current SCBWI  member, and resident in either the UK or Europe.

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

If between submitting your entry and the winner being announced, you gain representation from an agent, please contact us at competitions@britishscbwi.org


WHAT DO YOU NEED TO DO?

1      Check that you are a paid up member of SCBWI before submitting your entry by going to scbwi.org  Any entries received where member's details cannot be found on SCBWI records will not be included as a valid entry. 

2      Send in your entry as a single Word Document to competitions@britishscbwi.org  Submissions to the Slush Pile Challenge should not be sent direct to the agent/editor/judge.  

3       The document should only contain THE TITLE, AGE RANGE OF YOUR TARGET READER, THE ELEVATOR PITCH AND THE FIRST 750 WORDS the judge has requested. Do not include your name, address of email address in your word document or the document name. The word document should be named in the following format - your title' October 2018 Slush Pile.doc

4      Please do not insert a header or footer in your submission. 

5       
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.

6       Shortly after you have submitted your entry you will receive an email from the competitions email address stating, 'Your entry has been received.' If you do not receive this message please send an email to competitions@britishscbwi.org. However, we cannot put entries through after the closing date unless your entry is received on or before the closing date. 

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

8       Any entries received after the closing date will automatically be disqualified. 


THE PROCESS

As soon as the competition is closed, it is necessary to generate a random selection using a computer program. All valid and verified entries received will be included irrespective of whether the entry was received on the date of the launch of the competition or on the closing date, or whether the entrant has previously had their submissions seen by an agent/editor/judge. This has to be done to ensure that there is no bias or pre-judging from SCBWI BI/SCBWI BI Words and Pictures editorial team when sending the entries for judging. The terms of the competition are that the judge agrees to read a minimum of fifteen entries from the number of submissions. In many cases the agent/editor/ judge requests to read more. When an agent/editor/judge requests to read fifteen or another proportion of the total entries, those chosen as the first ones to be read by the computer will be sent to him/her. Sometimes the judge may request a further selection of valid and verified entries before making their decision. When this occurs, to avoid bias, the next group of entries from the initial computer generated random selection will be sent to the agent/editor/judge. There are times when the judge requests to read all the entries and these are then forwarded to him/her. 

The judge will pick a winner and also tell us why.  Sometimes he/she 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 judge 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 five 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. 

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