What Australian publishers want

December 1, 2012 Publishing

I’ve just returned from a too-brief trip to Sydney where, in addition to catching up with family, a couple of old friends and a few clients, I enjoyed a number of meetings with publishers from the major trade publishing houses based there.* Would you like to know what I learned from these meetings about the state [...]

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Lily Brett on tour in Australia to promote Lola Bensky

October 7, 2012 Client book news and links

New York-based Australian author Lily Brett begins her Australian tour today to coincide with the publication of her sixth novel, Lola Bensky. A full schedule of her public events is available on her website and Facebook page. I have known Lily since the late 1990s when I was the Picador Editor at Pan Macmillan. Shortly after [...]

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Popular links for July-August

August 30, 2012 Grants for writers

On Twitter I share links for Australian writers about literary agents, getting published, editing, and grants for writers (@v11oyd). At the end of each month I collect here my most-retweeted links. Confession: some of these links stretch back to July as I took a break at the end of that month and sorta kinda forgot [...]

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Grants for Australian writers due in September 2012

August 10, 2012 Grants for writers

For some reason these three grants for Australian writers are all due on 3 September 2012. Each year the Asialink Arts Residency Program sends approximately 30 Australian writers, performers, artists and arts managers to undertake residencies in Asia. The grant of up to $12,000 for three months goes towards travel, living and project expenses, and [...]

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“Not for us at this time”: What that publishing euphemism really means

August 7, 2012 Improve your writing

Earlier this week a reader whose fiction manuscript has been rejected by a few of the main publishing houses in Australia asked for my advice. She was looking for a translation, really. She wrote: What does it mean when a publisher says: “this is good, better than a lot of other work we’ve received, but [...]

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Call for submissions: The Nature Conservancy’s Nature Writing Prize

August 2, 2012 Grants for writers

Australia’s unique landscape has inspired writers for generations. Now with the support of the McLean Foundation, the Nature Conservancy Australia has announced a generous prize for the author of an essay between 3,000 and 5,000 words about place. The Nature Writing Prize is worth $5,000 and will be judged by The Australian’s literary critic Geordie Williamson and [...]

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Gone reading

July 22, 2012 Publishing

I’ve decided to leave the blog at home while I go on a much-needed vacation until early August. Any queries that arrive during that time will languish unnoticed, as I am thoroughly tired of looking at a computer screen all day, every day. I’m taking my sunglasses and my reading glasses and a variety of [...]

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What do I look for in an unsolicited manuscript?

July 13, 2012 Publishing

The Out of Print Writing blog has just published a short series of interviews with an Australian publisher (Rebecca Starford, Affirm Press), an Australian literary agent (me) and a writer (Neil Randall) on what happens when a writer gets “a nibble” of interest in their unsolicited manuscript. In my interview I answer a range of questions [...]

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