Is my piece eligible for consideration in Award Winning Australian Writing (AWAW)?

If your piece has won first place in an Australian competition in the June-to-June period of this year (so that’s up to 30 June 2012 at the latest for the 2012 edition), it is eligible for submission. 

What if my piece has already been published elsewhere?

If your piece has already been published, it is still eligible for submission. However, please note that there might be publication rights associated with the original publication — you’ll have to obtain permission from the original publishers. On our end, we will be happy to acknowledge in your author bio where your piece was initially published.

Is there a word limit?

We prefer short stories to be no more than 3000 words, but there are exceptions. (We cannot, however, consider stories over 6000 words.) 

For poetry, the number of lines depends on line length. As a guide, ideally we would like poems of no more than 200 lines.

How do I submit my story/poem?

Submit your piece via email to editor Adolfo Aranjuez (aa@melbournebooks.com.au) as a Microsoft Word document (.doc) or Rich Text Format (.rtf) file, double-spaced, with fancy fonts and formatting kept to a minimum, along with a completed AWAW Submission Form (one per submission).

Can I submit more than one piece?

Yes. Every piece that wins first place in a writing award is eligible for submission.

Do I need to submit anything else?

Yes. We’ll need you to send in a completed AWAW Submission Form (one per submission). The form includes a space for you to write a 100-word blurb about yourself, written in the third person (e.g. ‘John Smith is a Sydney-based writer’). Please email these through with your submission/s to editor Adolfo Aranjuez (aa@melbournebooks.com.au).

If my piece is selected for inclusion in AWAW, will I be paid?

Unfortunately, due to the nature of short-story and poetry publishing and the non-commercial nature of the anthology, we would not be able to afford to publish AWAW if we paid authors outright. However, we are currently waiting on decisions from a number of bodies as to whether AWAW 2012 will receive grant funding. If our applications are successful, we will be in a position to provide contributors a modest payment (exact amount TBC). Otherwise, we will provide each author one complimentary copy of the book once it is published. Success with grant funding aside, we will also be offering ongoing discounts for both authors and competition organisers when ordering the book through us.

Will I retain copyright to my work?

Yes. If your piece is selected, we will publish your work on a non-exclusive basis, meaning you are free to publish your work elsewhere if you wish. You retain all rights to your work.

When will I find out whether my piece has been selected?

We should be able to let you know whether or not your work has been selected by, at the latest, the end of August. If you have not heard from us by then, please feel free to get in contact with editor Adolfo Aranjuez (aa@melbournebooks.com.au).

If selected, will my work be edited?

Yes, but only minimally. We will edit pieces for grammar, punctuation and style (e.g. numerals, capitalisation, italicisation, etc.), mostly in line with the Macquarie or to conform to our House Style. As much as possible, we would like pieces to published in the form they were in when they won the competition. You will be consulted on any editing changes made.

Once finished, where is the anthology distributed to? Is it sold in retail shops? Who actually gets to see it (e.g. is it reviewed in the press)? 

We have a national distributor, Dennis Jones & Associates, in charge of contacting bookshops and ‘spruiking’ our books. AWAW has become an integral part of the literary market, and is available in many chain, independent and university bookshops, along with being stocked in a number of state and local libraries. It is also available on the SPUNC (Small Press collective) website in both print and eBook formats, as well as Readings bookshop’s online store and on the Melbourne Books website.

The 2010 edition was received very favourably in the media, with positive reviews and features in The Age, Adelaide’s Advertiser, the Sydney Morning Herald, The Fringe Magazine, and several community papers. Similarly, the 2011 edition garnered a lengthy feature in The Weekend Australian, along with positive reviews in The Age, Overland and The Melbourne Review.    

How is the anthology regarded in the writing and publishing community?

The anthology’s supporters include Lisa Dempster, the director of the Emerging Writers’ Festival; authors Arnold Zable and Delia Falconer; and Fellowship of Australian Writers President Philip Rainford — each of whom have written forewords for previous editions of the anthology. Prominent authors that have been featured in the anthology include Margo Lanagan, Sarah Holland-Batt, Josephine Rowe, Kevin Gillam, Amy Espeseth, Max Merckenschlager and Kirk Marshall.

The 2012 edition will proudly include a foreword by 2011 Montreal Poetry Prize winner Mark Tredinnick.

Will there be a launch?

Yes. It is attended by many of the authors, some of whom do readings and/or talk about their writing experiences. The 2008 and 2009 editions had launches that were part of the Melbourne Writers’ Festival (around August), and in 2010 and 2011 AWAW had a standalone launch at the Melbourne City Library in October.