SLUSH PILE CHALLENGE October 2022

 

 

We are pleased to announce the October 2022 Slush Pile Challenge, set by Silvia Molteni of PFD.

 

 

Silvia Molteni

 

Silvia Molteni is the head of the children’s and YA books department at PFD. She manages her own list of clients alongside selling foreign rights in their children’s and YA titles worldwide. Silvia also handles all audio rights for the agency. The Bookseller named Silvia 2019’s Rising Star.

 

Silvia is looking for MG and YA fiction. As far as MG goes, she’d like to find strong and diverse voices, with a preference for contemporary and realistic settings and magical realism. She’d love a laugh-out-loud story, but is always keen to read fiction with endearing characters, mind-blowing adventures and stories with lots of heart. She always enjoys dark and gothic tales and generally veers towards voice and character driven narratives as well as literary fiction and gorgeous writing. Think of Holes by Louis Sachar, The Witches by Roald Dahl, Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson and Coraline by Neil Gaiman.

 

On the YA side, Silvia is looking for fiction across all genres, but again preferably literary, character-driven, incredibly voicy and beautifully written; more specifically these days, she’d love to find a great psychological thriller as well as a clever and atmospheric horror; light fantasy is of interest, while commercial fantasy that involves complicated world building, multiple books and high wordcount is not her cup of tea. Good examples of the kind of YA/crossover books that she loves are We Were Liars by E. Lockhart, Alice and the Fly by James Rice, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, Skippy Dies by Paul Murray, Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides and Lord of the Flies by William Golding.

 

Finally, Silvia is also on the hunt for original non-fiction books aimed at children and YA – from memoir to manuals, popular science and humorous books.

 

 

THE CHALLENGE

 

“One line pitch, blurb and opening chapter of a middle grade novel. I’m particularly looking for voicy/character-led manuscripts, in any genre, with an immediate and strong hook. The story doesn’t have to be completed, though this would be preferable.”

 

 

THE REWARD

 

Silvia 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.

 

COMPETITION HAS NOW CLOSED

 

 

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

 

WHO IS ELIGIBLE?

 

You need to be an un-agented, a 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 LINE PITCH, BLURB and OPENING CHAPTER OF YOUR MIDDLE GRADE 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 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 via 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 eight years and loves to write picture books, middle-grade and teen books. She lives by the sea and owns one dog.

 

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