COMPETITIONS Undiscovered Voices 2024
Undiscovered Voices 2024 – Competition Countdown!
Undiscovered Voices 2024 opened for submissions on the 15th of June and the UV Team have already been blown away by the magnificent entries received so far. If you have a sensational story waiting to be discovered you still have time to enter.
Submissions Close 20th July 2023
The SCBWI–BI Undiscovered Voices project runs every two years and aims to help fresh, diverse new voices in children’s literature find agents and publishers. The Undiscovered Voices anthology will include at least twelve fiction extracts – from early readers to young adult novels – from SCBWI members in the UK and EU.
The anthology will be published in January 2024 and sent free of charge to editors and agents whose focus is children’s literature. The book is produced with the financial support of Working Partners Ltd, a London-based company that creates series fiction.
Authors and illustrators from the eight previous anthologies have received publishing contracts for more than 440 books and have been nominated for or won more than 200 literary prizes, including the Carnegie Medal, Waterstone’s Children’s Book Prize, Branford Boase Award, Blue Peter Award, the SCBWI Crystal Kite Award, and more than 30 regional awards.
So, what will you need to polish up to include in your UV2024 entry? Here is a quick guide to everything you will need to submit.
UV2024 Submissions Rules and Eligibility – Who can enter?
UV2024 is FREE to enter, but only unagented and unpublished members of SCWBI living in the UK and Europe (writing in the English language) are eligible.
‘Unpublished’ means you have not had a book (including a picture book, novel, non-fiction book or collection of short stories) accepted for publication or currently published in any country.
‘Published’ means you are credited as the author on the front cover or title page of a book produced by a traditional publisher in any country. Authors who have only been published in newspapers, magazines, anthologies or non-print medium (e.g., radio, web, etc.) are eligible to submit.
Similarly, authors who have ghost-written for book packagers or have self-published may submit work (but not an extract from any self-published work).
The UV Team want to give as many new voices as possible the chance to shine in the anthology. Defining published and unpublished is always difficult – we know that journeys to publication rarely follow a straight path – there are lots of bumps and potholes! However, we aim to be as fair as we possibly can.
What You Need to Submit:
Rules to Remember
I know what you're thinking – does it really need to be a completed novel? Yes! There is nothing worse than having an interested agent but nothing to send them. When the anthology launches, editors and agents will want to see what the whole book before agreeing to take you on. If your novel is not completed, then it will make it difficult for you to benefit from being a finalist.
Deadlines for Submissions
Follow us on our shiny new Twitter @UVcompetition, for all the latest news and updates.
We are so looking forward to reading your competition entries!
Good Luck!
Authors and illustrators from the eight previous anthologies have received publishing contracts for more than 440 books and have been nominated for or won more than 200 literary prizes, including the Carnegie Medal, Waterstone’s Children’s Book Prize, Branford Boase Award, Blue Peter Award, the SCBWI Crystal Kite Award, and more than 30 regional awards.
So, what will you need to polish up to include in your UV2024 entry? Here is a quick guide to everything you will need to submit.
UV2024 Submissions Rules and Eligibility – Who can enter?
UV2024 is FREE to enter, but only unagented and unpublished members of SCWBI living in the UK and Europe (writing in the English language) are eligible.
‘Unpublished’ means you have not had a book (including a picture book, novel, non-fiction book or collection of short stories) accepted for publication or currently published in any country.
‘Published’ means you are credited as the author on the front cover or title page of a book produced by a traditional publisher in any country. Authors who have only been published in newspapers, magazines, anthologies or non-print medium (e.g., radio, web, etc.) are eligible to submit.
Similarly, authors who have ghost-written for book packagers or have self-published may submit work (but not an extract from any self-published work).
The UV Team want to give as many new voices as possible the chance to shine in the anthology. Defining published and unpublished is always difficult – we know that journeys to publication rarely follow a straight path – there are lots of bumps and potholes! However, we aim to be as fair as we possibly can.
What You Need to Submit:
- The first 2,500 words of a completed novel for children/teens. Choose a suitable place to stop your extract. We advise not ending mid-sentence!
- Picture book texts and nonfiction work are not accepted.
- A 250-word synopsis of your story. This can seem daunting but try and condense your story into the most important plot points.
- A 75-word bio, written in the third person and to include any lived experiences relevant to your entry.
- A 35-word elevator pitch for your story. Hook us in so we want to read more!
Rules to Remember
- Only one submission per member. If you have a completed YA and a MG, pick the best one!
- You may not resubmit any extract from a novel you submitted for consideration in previous Undiscovered Voices anthologies – even if it has been significantly revised. So, polish up that new thing!
- Honorary mentions from previous anthologies may submit, as long as it is from a different novel.
I know what you're thinking – does it really need to be a completed novel? Yes! There is nothing worse than having an interested agent but nothing to send them. When the anthology launches, editors and agents will want to see what the whole book before agreeing to take you on. If your novel is not completed, then it will make it difficult for you to benefit from being a finalist.
Deadlines for Submissions
Submissions Close Midnight on the 20th of July
Follow us on our shiny new Twitter @UVcompetition, for all the latest news and updates.
We are so looking forward to reading your competition entries!
Good Luck!
From all of us at Team UV 2024
*Header image: Courtesy of UV2024 Team
*
Stephanie Cotela is the Network News & Events Editor at Words & Pictures magazine.
No comments:
We love comments and really appreciate the time it takes to leave one.
Interesting and pithy reactions to a post are brilliant but we also LOVE it when people just say they've read and enjoyed.
We've made it easy to comment by losing the 'are you human?' test, which means we get a lot of spam. Fortunately, Blogger recognises these, so most, if not all, anonymous comments are deleted without reading.