Submission Guidelines

SUBMISSIONS OPEN: Our submissions department is open from Monday 6 February 2012.  For those who have submitted over the previous two months, your manuscripts will be looked at in the next few weeks.

PLEASE NOTE: Unfortunately we are unable to accept submissions from outside Australia and New Zealand.

We do not currently look at stage/screenplays, poetry, children’s picture books, short stories or translations.

For submissions, we ask that you send in only a short synopsis (maximum 2 pages), the first chapter and two other chapters. All should be printed out double spaced, on one side of an A4 page with at least 30mm margins.  Please do not staple or bind the pages - though paperclips and fold back clips are fine.

Please keep your covering letter to one page in length.  Include the total word count and title of your manuscript, as well as any pertinent biographical information, such as former publications or any special knowledge or experience that is relevant to the book.

We require you to enclose a stamped, self-addressed envelope with your submission so that we can contact you with an outcome. We will not contact you by email or phone to give you the outcome of your assessment.

In the case that you wish to have your submission returned, please include a large self-addressed envelope with sufficient postage.

If you do NOT wish to have your submission returned, please enclose a small self-addressed envelope with sufficient postage.

**If your submission is unsuccessful and you have not enclosed a large self-addressed envelope, it will be appropriately disposed of immediately after its assessment**

Submissions should be marked attention to:

THE SUBMISSIONS DEPARTMENT
Curtis Brown
PO Box 19
Paddington NSW 2021

We do not accept e-mailed or faxed submissions and no responsibility is taken for the receipt or loss of manuscripts.

We are currently taking between 6-8 weeks to assess submissions.  We do not offer specific comments on the manuscripts we reject and we do not charge a reading fee.

If we are interested in representing you we will contact you to discuss it and explain our standard agreement that sets out the author-agency relationship.  As with all reputable agencies, it is based on taking a commission on income from projects that we represent.

Please note that we are taking on very few new clients at this time.  If you need further information on submitting to agencies or publishers, you could try contacting the Australian Society of Authors in Sydney or your local State Writers’ Centre.  On the internet, www.inkspot.com or www.writerswrite.com are useful resources for new writers.