New Australian Fiction Prize: pathways to being published
On Monday 8 November we’re announcing the winner of this year’s New Australian Fiction Prize! In preparation, we asked each of our shortlisted authors about their journey to becoming a published author.
Nardi Simpson, author of Song of the Crocodile
I entered the manuscript into the Black&Write Writing Fellowship for feedback and was lucky enough to win it. I worked for a year with wonderful First Nations editors who then forwarded me onto their partner organisation Hachette Australia. After another while editing with them they published Song of the Crocodile in 2020.
Find out more about the Black&Write fellowship
Adam Thompson, author of Born Into This
I was lucky enough to be a fellow of The Wheeler Centre’s The Next Chapter initiative. Through that scheme, I was mentored by Cate Kennedy (how lucky am I!!). Cate knew Aviva Tuffield of UQP very well and had recommended Aviva get hold of my manuscript. As it turned out, Aviva represented UQP at a ‘meet the literary industry’ gig that The Wheeler Centre ran for The Next Chapter participants in Melbourne. Aviva and I met, she asked to read my manuscript and I agreed to send it (reluctantly through fear of rejection). UQP wanted it and invited me into the family. The rest is history.
Find out more about The Next Chapter
Andrew Pippos, author of Lucky’s
Every author I know has suffered rejection, delay, and other forms of disappointment in their careers, and I’m no different. That said, my experience with Picador was a dream. We submitted the manuscript on a Friday afternoon and the following Wednesday I heard they wanted my novel.
Paige Clarke, author of She is Haunted
I tried everything in the book! I entered every short story contest I was eligible for, submitted to literary journals, went to local writing events and applied for mentorships and manuscript prizes. Getting shortlisted for the Peter Carey Prize opened a couple of doors for me; it was the first time anyone in the industry took notice. I also went to an Australian Society of Author’s literary speed dating event and pitched to agents and editors directly.
But, ultimately, I met my literary agent, Grace Heifetz, through writer Robert Lukins. I had known she represented him but was too shy to ask him for help earlier in the publication process. It took pushing myself to get out of my comfort zone and network to land a book deal. Anything you can do to get yourself an audience with agents and publishers is more effective than submitting facelessly (sometimes aimlessly) to opportunities online.
Learn more about the Peter Carey Short Story Award
Briohny Doyle, author of Echolalia
One of the most amazing developments of my writing career so far is having an agent, the brilliant Rach Crawford from Wolf Literary Services. She not only helped as a sounding board and first reader, but got Echolalia in the hands of editors and found me a home at Vintage.
Ella Baxter, author of New Animal
In 2018 I was a finalist in the Hardcopy Professional Development Program run through the ACT Writers Centre where I met Benjamin Stevenson who introduced me to literary agent Grace Heifetz. He passed New Animal on to her, and I signed with Left Bank Literary the following year. It was down to her hard work that New Animal was able to be sold in the US and UK as well as optioned for television. Grace has always believed in my writing and it is not lost on me how lucky that is.
