S&S's Books and the City to host submissions day

Simon & Schuster UK's online community of women's fiction, Books and the City, is to host a Digital Originals submission day on 15th July.

The Digital Originals initative, which is S&S UK's 'e-book first' publishing strand established in 2014, asks new authors to submit original works of fiction aimed at women - with the opportunity to secure a publishing deal with S&S UK. The initiative has produced Amazon top five e-book bestsellers from Andy Jones and Holly Hepburn, the publisher said.

The Digital Originals submission day, #OneDay, invites previously unpublished authors to submit their entries – consisting of the first chapter, a synopsis and a covering letter about themselves. The novels are required to be complete, ready to be shared in full on request and around 100,000 words in length.

Every entry will be seen by the Books and The City team, including editorial director for fiction Clare Hey, who has worked with "hit" authors including Santa Montefiore, Milly Johnson and Jane Costello.

Hey said: "The team at Books and the City is always looking for new talent and we are delighted to be opening our doors for authors to submit directly to us again this year. We are looking for fresh voices in the commercial women’s fiction genre and we’re looking forward to receiving manuscripts that will make us laugh, make us cry and make us think.’’

Heidi Swain, who was discovered during a previous Digital Originals #OneDay submission day, has now sold well over 50,000 ebooks of The Cherry Tree Café and garnered over 450 reviews on Amazon, the publisher has said. Her second title, Summer at Skylark Farm, was published in June 2016.