New Bloomsbury imprint - call for submissions

Great news! Bloomsbury are launching a new digital fiction imprint called Bloomsbury Spark that will be targeted to teens and crossover adult readers. The imprint is due to launch later this year, and they are holding an open call for submissions. 

The criteria for manuscript consideration is:

·         25,000-60,000 words (English language only)

·         Word document or pdf format only

·         Target age: 14+

·         Genres: All FICTION categories including but not limited to romance, mystery, thriller, paranormal, dystopian, historical, contemporary, fantasy

Submissions can be emailed to: bloomsburysparkaus@bloomsbury.com

More information can be found: www.bloomsbury.com/spark

 If they are interested in acquiring a manuscript, they will be in touch with the author. All Bloomsbury Spark books would be contracted for digital rights, with a first option for print editions.

Contributors wanted for Kids' Lit Quiz Website

Promote a love of reading, books and your work

Hi everyone 

The Kids' Lit Quiz TM is an annual literature competition for students aged 10 - 13 held in New Zealand, the UK, South Africa, Canada, Australia, Asia and the USA. It was founded in 1991 by quizmaster, Wayne Mills, as a kind of 'Olympics of Reading'. In 2013, more than 4000 children will participate, with the world finals being held in Durban in July. 

Fundraising has commenced to send the Australian team to Durban and a website is being created for readers, writers and illustrators to share their love of books. 

This is what they'd like from us. 

They are asking for posts during their May read-a-thon, which can be on anything that relates to children's literature that 10-13 year old readers might find fun and interesting. The blog will be promoted as widely as possible; to the press, sponsors and schools. 

If you would like to contribute a post and have a link to your website included on the site, please contact Linda Da Silva at readingforaustralia@gmail.com. Linda can provide more information about the website and suggestions for posts. 

A number of kids' book creators have already agreed wholeheartedly to help and Linda is amazing! It will be a great opportunity for SCBWI members to join in the promotion of a brilliant quiz and a love of reading. 

For more info about the Quiz go to: www.kidslitquiz.com 

It'd be great to see loads of SCBWI names and links on the site!

Deborah Abela  

 

Workshops for Australia West

On March 16, SCBWI Australia West held two professional development workshops: one for established members, and one for aspiring creators.

Storyteller extraordinaire Glenn Swift passed on his top presentation tips to an enthusiastic group of members and introduced them to the Alexander Technique to release unnecessary tension in the body. The session was relaxed, informal and entertaining and the group of mainly published authors also had the chance to share their own speaking tips and experiences. 

The "Child's Play" workshop for beginners was well received, with a mix of members and non-members in attendance. Renae Gibson led the session, and talked participants through the various stages from pre-submission - researching the field, networking and learning the craft, drafting, endlessly re-drafting,  to submission - to whom? and when? and how? - and beyond.

Thank you to the State Library of WA for providing the venue.​