SLUSH PILE CHALLENGE January 2020


We are pleased to announce the January 2020 Slush Pile Challenge, set by Becky Bagnell of Lindsay Literary Agency.
Becky Bagnell


The Lindsay Literary Agency was founded in 2008 and has a special interest in children’s books, from picture books through middle grade and up to young adult.We represent a wide range of award-winning authors who have been translated across the world. However, our list will always be open to new authors, whether they are unpublished or mid-career. We have close contacts with all the major publishing houses and because we are very selective in the manuscripts we submit to editors we can ensure our authors get the attention and interest they deserve.

THE CHALLENGE

"The story I’d like to see for the January Slush Pile Challenge is a middle-grade adventure that has a child and animal friendship/relationship at its heart. This could be a contemporary, historical or fantasy adventure - so your animal doesn’t need to exist in the real world. For inspiration I’m looking for anything along the lines of One Dog and his Boy or The Abominables by Eva Ibbotson or something magical like His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman. 



Please send in the first 1,000 words of your story and ½ page synopsis

Manuscripts do not need to be complete. 

Good luck – I can’t wait to read them!"

THIS COMPETITION HAS CLOSED 


THE REWARD

Becky 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.



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 and 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 first 1000 words and 1/2 page synopsis of a middle grade adventure, the judge has requested. Do not include your name, address or email address in your word document or the document name. The word document should be named in the following format – 'your title' January 2020 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, a random selection is generated 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 & 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 judge requests to read more. When a 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 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 & 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 six years and loves to write picture books, middle-grade and teen books. She lives by the sea and has one dog and one cat. 

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


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