2017 Manuscript Assessments

Manuscript Assessments

Time:

Saturday 9.45 am – 5.00pm hourly sessions

Sunday 9.00 am – 3.50 pm hourly sessions

Venue:

LEVEL 7, ROOMS AMDC706 & AMDC707

AMDC Building
Swinburne University of Technology
Hawthorn Campus

Manuscript Assessments with Alison Arnold

ROOM AMDC706

Freelance editor, Alison Arnold is offering manuscript assessments during the 2017 HNSA conference. These are 60 minute one-on-one sessions in which Alison will provide detailed feedback on the first 1,500 words of your manuscript.

The opening of your novel is what hooks readers, so it’s important to get it right. An assessment of the first 1500 words of your manuscript will help identify any opportunities to improve and refine that opening to give your manuscript a better chance of being read by publishers.

The session will cover an assessment of your writing style, genre, characterisation, voice, narrative flow, and where your manuscript sits in the Australian marketplace, as well as answering any queries you may have. After this session, you will have a clearer idea of where to go next with your manuscript.

Please email the following marked ‘HNSA Manuscript Assessment’ to alison.c.arnold@gmail.com by Midnight 7 September 2017 AEST*:

  • Cover sheet with your name, book title and genre of the work together with Booking IDs for your conference and manuscript assessment tickets
  • First 1,500 words of your manuscript
  • 50-word bio
  • 50-word synopsis

For further details, please email Alison at alison.c.arnold@gmail.com

Cost: $180

Limit: 10 persons

Purchase of a weekend conference or day ticket is a precondition to booking a super session.

*HNSA reserves the right to refund your money and allocate your place to the next person in the waiting list if the deadline is not met.

Book Session

Alison Arnold is an editor and writer, who spent many years inhouse before going freelance. She has edited many bestsellers and award-winners in her seventeen-year career, including Carole Wilkinson’s Dragonkeeper, Raimond Gaita’s After Romulus, and Graeme Simsion’s The Rosie Project. With Cath Crowley, she runs writing workshops for adults. She has taught creative writing at RMIT and Federation University. She also occasionally writes for the Saturday Paper. For more information about Alison and her portfolio visit www.alisonarnold.com.au/

Manuscript Assessments with Irina Dunn

ROOM AMDC707

Director of the Australian Writers’ Network Irina Dunn is offering manuscript assessments during the 2017 HNSA conference. These are 60 minute one-on-one sessions in which Irina will provide detailed feedback on the first 1,500 words of your manuscript.

It is important you provide the first 1,500 words of your manuscript because this is what publishers read to get an idea of how you “hook” the reader in to your manuscript. There is no point burying your best writing in chapter 12 if you can’t engage the reader from the first sentence, the first paragraph, the first page.

The session will cover an assessment of your writing style, genre, characterisation, tone, narrative flow, ways to improve your opening page, the marketability of your manuscript, and suggestions for targeting the right Australian publishers, as well as answering any queries you may have. After this session, you will know exactly how to move forward with your manuscript.

Please email the following marked ‘HNSA Manuscript Assessment’ to idunn1703@gmail.com by Midnight Thursday 7 September 2017 AEST*:

  • Cover sheet with your name, book title and genre of the work together with Booking IDs for your conference and manuscript assessment tickets
  • First 1,500 words of your manuscript
  • 50-word bio
  • 50-word synopsis

For further details, please email Irina at idunn1703@gmail.com.

Cost: $180

Limit: 10 persons

Purchase of a weekend conference or day ticket is a precondition to booking a super session.

*HNSA reserves the right to refund your money and allocate your place to the next person in the waiting list if the deadline is not met.

Book Session

Irina Dunn has thirty years of experience working in the Australian writing and publishing industry. She has guided innumerable manuscripts from rough draft to final polished work and on to publication.

She is a well-known manuscript assessor, editor and agent, and has found publishers for many of her clients.

Previously she was Director of the NSW Writers’ Centre for 15 years, as well as Manager of the Australian Writers’ Guild Authorship Collecting Society and Managing Editor at Booktopia.

She wrote The Writer’s Guide: a companion to writing for pleasure or publication, (Allen & Unwin), which was shortlisted for the Australian Publishers’ Association National Education Awards.

Testimonials

Irina Dunn provided me with a perceptive and exacting assessment of the first draft of my manuscript ‘Troppo’. It was critical, there was no fluff, and after a first read of the assessment I was gutted. I remember downing three gin and tonics in quick succession, alone, in a dirty bar in Jakarta. Then I read it again. Let it sit. And a month later I got back to work. I went through the assessment line by line, incorporating almost all of Irina’s changes. It was a top to bottom rewrite and the outcome was a much more powerful manuscript, with better characters, more believable plot twists and no inconsistencies in the narrative. The amended manuscript won the TAG Hungerford award in March 2015 and was published by Fremantle Press in 2016. Irina’s assessment was absolutely invaluable in its success. When my next manuscript is ready, I’ll be contacting Irina first!

Madeleine Dickie, Troppo (Fremantle Press 2016)

Latest news & interviews

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER

Join the HNSA Community

Our foundation partner

Our partner

Historical Novel Society

Our Sponsors

HNSA Newsletter Updates

Subscribe to our newsletter for interviews, reviews, news and more!