9.03.22
The Australian Society of Authors (ASA) and HQ, a publishing division of HarperCollins, are delighted to announce the shortlist for the 2022 ASA/HQ Commercial Fiction Prize for unpublished manuscripts:
The winner will receive a publishing contract with HQ, with a $10,000 advance against royalties. The runner-up will receive $500 and a year’s complimentary membership with the ASA.
The shortlist was drawn from a pool of nearly 200 entries, and was selected by a panel of judges, including two bestselling fiction authors, Pamela Hart and Victoria Purman, Publisher Rachael Donovan and Head of Publishing for HQ, Jo Mackay.
Jo Mackay, Head of Publishing for HQ said, ‘We are delighted to partner with the Australian Society of Authors to bring forward some of the best new voices in commercial fiction. There were some truly exceptional entries this year ¬ we struggled to get the shortlist down to only four. They are all impressive manuscripts.’
ASA CEO, Olivia Lanchester said, ‘We have been thrilled by the tremendous response we’ve had to the prize once again this year, and are so impressed by this exceptional shortlist. Our warm thanks to HQ for offering this publishing opportunity.’
The inaugural prize, announced in 2020, not only launched the career of winner Sally Bothroyd, whose book Brunswick Street Blues published 1 March 2022, but two of the shortlisted authors Kathy George and Stella Quinn.
Kathy’s genre-bending gothic drama Sargasso was published to incredible reviews in February 2021, and Stella’s contemporary romance The Vet from Snowy River debuted at number 4 on the local bestseller charts in June 2021.
Sally Bothroyd commented, ‘It can be hard for newcomers to know how to break into the publishing industry. Competitions like this one are a way of getting your manuscript noticed. My first novel has just published because of winning the prize and I can recommend the experience.’
The winner of the ASA/HQ Commercial Fiction Prize will be announced online on 23 March 2022.
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