SLUSH PILE CHALLENGE October 2021


We are pleased to announce the October 2021 Slush Pile Challenge, set by Angharad Kowal Stannus of Kowal Stannus Agency.

 

Angharad Kowal Stannus set up KSA in order to be able to spend more time with Authors and Illustrators on the development and execution of their work. As an American based in the UK, Angharad prides herself on having in-depth knowledge of the British, American and International markets as well as a background not only in Agenting, but in Publishing and Licensing too.
 
Angharad spent the first ten years of her career at Simon & Schuster in NY as Rights Director, selling International, Film & Television, and Merchandise Rights. In 2008, she set up and headed the London office of a major NYC Literary Agency, working across a wide range of Fiction, Nonfiction, YA, and Children’s titles.

Founded by Angharad Kowal Stannus in 2017, KSA is a UK-based full-service Literary and Illustration Agency dedicated to serving the needs of its clients across books, licensing and entertainment. Representing Authors and Illustrators of Fiction and Nonfiction for the Adult and Children’s markets, its focus is on maximizing its Clients’ sales potential across multiple income streams and working together to support creative, inventive and dynamic work.

THE CHALLENGE
 
“I would like an excerpt and a one-sentence synopsis for any novel age 5-8, 8-12, 10+ or Young Adult pertaining to the subject of love. It can be in relation to any kind of love: romantic love; love of your country or homeland; friendship; the love between a child and parent; the love between a child and their dog (or cat, or elephant); love of nature, etc. The excerpt can be any part of the novel as long as it convinces me of the underlying emotion or relationship and ideally makes me feel something. The excerpt can be as short as a few paragraphs but no longer than a chapter please.
 
YOUR NOVEL MUST BE COMPLETE.
 
Please submit a short synopsis of the novel in one sentence along with your excerpt.”
 
THE REWARD
 
Angharad will pick a winner. She will arrange to have a 30-minute meeting with the winner. It will be via Zoom 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 can enter any other Slush Pile Challenges but not with the same manuscript.

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 TITLE and ONE SENTENCE SYNOPSIS and EXCERPT FROM YOUR NOVEL that 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' October 2021 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 &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 by Zoom 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 seven 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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