SLUSH PILE CHALLENGE April 2022

 

 

We are pleased to announce the April 2022 Slush Pile Challenge, set by Chloe Davis, of  Darley Anderson Children's Book Agency. 

 

 

 

Chloe joined the Darley Anderson team in 2019 as agency assistant. She works very closely alongside agent Clare Wallace, assisting with her clients and talent spotting. She often gets a first look at submissions and shares any promising manuscripts and portfolios with Clare and agent Lydia Silver. Chloe has also recently started to build her own list at the agency. She is particularly fond of middle grade books of all genres, but she’s mostly drawn to stories with an element of mystery or adventure – think the Murder Most Unladylike series or anything by Katherine Rundell or Abi Elphinstone. She’d love to find contemporary stories with plenty of heart and warmth, as well as a strong and unique concept, that are relatable to today’s children and that bring in new perspectives. Chloe is also drawn to laugh-out-loud funny stories for younger readers. In terms of YA, she’d love to find a great commercial romance or a contemporary story with a unique hook or element of mystery.

 

Chloe would very much like to hear from authors from underrepresented backgrounds so please do include the hashtag #diversevoices in the subject line of your submission email. She previously worked in the Rights department at Pan Macmillan and as a Bookseller at Waterstones. She also has a degree in English Literature and French from the University of Edinburgh and spent a year studying in Paris.

@chloemdavis95

  

THE CHALLENGE

 

“I would love to receive the first chapter and synopsis of a young fiction title, ideally for the 5-8 age range. It would be great to see some humour and silliness in your writing, as well as some great storytelling and memorable characters. Anything with series potential is very welcome!

 

THE MANUSCRIPT SHOULD BE COMPLETED PRIOR TO SUBMITTING YOUR ENTRY.”

 

THE REWARD

 

Chloe will pick a winner. She will arrange to have a 30-minute meeting with the winner. It will be face-to-face, Zoom or a phone call.

  

CLOSING DATE: THIS COMPETITION HAS 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 FIRST CHAPTER and SYNOPSIS 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’ APRIL 2022 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!

  

PS. 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.

 

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