S&S teams up with Jericho Writers on open submissions

Simon & Schuster UK is partnering with online writing club Jericho Writers to open submissions for underrepresented authors over a 24-hour period.

The opportunity aims to bypass the traditional route into publishing, enabling unagented authors to submit directly to the editorial team at S&S.

Writers are invited to submit the first three chapters of their unpublished commercial, historical, contemporary, crime, thriller, saga, literary or reading-group crossover manuscript between the hours of 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. on 6th December. It will then be considered for #DigitalOriginals, the S&S e-book-first publishing programme.

Brand development director for fiction Sara-Jade Virtue said: "We know that the route to publishing can be a daunting, confusing and at times terrifying road, but with #JerichoWritersOneDay, all of the usual rules and regulations are cast aside. As a company, we want to publish a story for everyone and I’m excited to be partnering with Jericho Writers, and opening our inboxes specifically to their underrepresented members. I’m also delighted to announce that we will be sponsoring a full bursary membership to Jericho Writers for an underrepresented author, reinforcing our commitment to working with and supporting writers, illustrators and other creative partners from all walks of life."

Sophie Flynn, head of marketing at Jericho Writers, said: "We’re delighted to partner with S&S to bring this fantastic opportunity to our underrepresented members. Alongside the S&S sponsored bursary, we’re offering a further 11 bursary memberships to ensure this opportunity can be accessed by those who need it most. Our previous bursary recipients have gone on to achieve great publishing success and we hope this opportunity will open the door for many more of our talented members.”

#JerichoWritersOneDay is the latest diversity initiative from the UK publisher. In the past six months, its fiction team has also worked with Bradford Literary Festival, Lambeth Libraries, Black Girl Writers and the Romantic Novelists’ Association on various initiatives.