Winter School – Getting Your Manuscript Ready for Submission

Details

The course is broken into two parts:

How to ensure your manuscript is ready for submission, including:

• Tips for self-editing, with a focus on first pages
• Do manuscript assessments work?
• Should I pay for a structural/copy edit?
• The value of workshopping and writers’ groups

How to prepare a submission, including:

• Tips for writing a good synopsis
• Cover letters and pitching, including writing a killer ‘hook’
• Bio writing
• Which publishers/lit agents to approach and how.

You will learn

• How to develop an editorial checklist for objectively assessing the ‘readiness’ of your manuscript
• Why it’s important to get the first page right, including tips on how to improve the impact of your opening
• The how, when and why of approaching third parties such as manuscript assessors, editors and writers’ groups for help
• What you need to have ready for a submission and how to get these documents right
• Where to go to find out key information, such as which publishers/agents are right for your project and who’s accepting submissions

About Shivaun Plozza

Shivaun Plozza is the author of ‘Frankie’ (Penguin, 2016), her first novel. Her short fiction, flash fiction, essays and poetry have appeared in anthologies and journals including ‘Where the Shoreline Used to Be’, ‘Above Water’, ‘Text’, ‘Vivid ‘and ‘The Victorian Writer’. When she’s not writing, she works as an editor and a manuscript assessor.

Read a Q&A with Shivaun Plozza on getting your manuscript ready for submission. 

Winter School

Check out the other Winter School workshops going on in July 2016:

Cancellation Policy