I was watching the Sunday Arts program yesterday, a program about... well, the Arts - anything from fiction, authors, painters, paintings, animation, exhibitions, you get the idea.
The first story was on the Emerging Writers Festival, held in Melbourne. I wish I'd known about it, I'd have been down there like a shot! One of the interesting aspects was the Speed Dating where "writers attempt to seduce publishers against the clock." The writers have five minutes to talk to publishers and sell their work, or at least garner interest. I don't think anyone succeeded this year, but one did in 2006.
Another part of the story dealt with Allen & Unwin's Friday Pitch. And what an excellent idea this is. The object of the exercise is to give emerging, unagented authors an avenue to pitch their works, but only on Friday. It sounds like other publishing houses could benefit from this approach. Who knows how many bestselling books are wasting away in the slush pile?
I knew I wanted to stay away from the computer yesterday for a reason - and not just to watch the rugby union tests!
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