Submitting your manuscript
We welcome submissions from any writer, and have no prerequisites for work we receive. What we want and hope to find are fresh, exciting new voices and work that demonstrates a commitment to the craft. Whether you have published before or are a first time novelist, if you have a story to tell, we’d love to read it.
When you submit your manuscript to Curtis Brown, it is considered by our team of agents. We personally read everything that is submitted through the process outlined below. While we have found exciting new talent through the unsolicited submissions and are keen to continue doing so, we also review successfully self-published and established authors. Please note, we are unable to consider a work that is already published or is under contract.
Due to the high volume of submissions we receive, in order to give proper consideration to every writer, Curtis Brown welcomes submissions during the months of March and August only. Submissions will open on the 1st of the month and will close on the last day of the month, and manuscripts received outside this window will be deleted without consideration or reply.
Below are some guidelines for submitting your work to us.
Please read How We Work and our FAQ page before submitting your manuscript.
Guidelines
Please do not submit manuscripts if you are not a resident of Australia or New Zealand
We are currently unable to consider the following genres: fantasy, sci-fi, stage/screenplay, poetry, self-help, children’s picture books, early reader books, middle-grade fiction, comics, short stories, cookbooks, educational, corporate, translated or comedy
If your manuscript is incomplete, please do not send sample chapters through
Please do not send hard copy submissions, your manuscript will not be considered nor will it be returned
Please format your manuscript and synopsis using double-spaced 12pt Times New Roman with 30mm margins
Please only send Word or pdf files as we can not open other file types
We will only accept one submission per writer during each open period; all subsequent submissions over this limit will be deleted without consideration
Any submissions that do not follow these guidelines will be deleted without reply
How to Submit
To submit to us please email submission@curtisbrown.com.au (note submission is singular) and follow the below:
In the subject line of your email please put:
YOUR NAME – MANUSCRIPT TITLE – FICTION/NONFICTION – GENRE
e.g. JRR TOLKIEN – THE LORD OF THE RINGS – FICTION – FANTASY
You are welcome to address your email to The Submissions Department
Please include a short cover letter in the body of your email (maximum 300 words). In this cover letter, please include:
total word count of your manuscript
relevant biographical information - including previous writing experience & publishing history
your address & phone number
Please attach a short synopsis (maximum of 2 pages) and the first 3 chapters (or first 50 pages) of your manuscript formatted as per the guideline above.
What Happens Now?
We are currently taking up to 10 weeks to assess submissions (if your email sends successfully, please assume we have received it). We do not offer specific comments on the manuscripts we reject and we will never charge a reading fee. If you don’t hear back from us within 10 weeks of sending your submission, please email us at submission@curtisbrown.com.au If other agencies or publishing houses have requested to read the full manuscript or have made you an offer of representation, please do let us know.
If we are interested in representing you we will contact you directly to discuss it and explain our standard agreement that sets out the author-agency relationship. As with all reputable agencies, our agreement is based on taking a commission on income from projects that we represent.
Please note that to best care for our existing clients, we are taking on very few new authors at this time.
Useful Resources
For helpful advice on writing, editing and publishing, use our list of useful resources as a starting point.