We Know It When We See It

Writers thinking of submitting manuscripts to Unbound Press are entitled to ask: What are they looking for?


Here's the answer; We don't know! That's right, we just don't know... until we see it. BUT, and that's a very large 'but', as you can see, there are certain things we are most definitely NOT looking for. Here's a short list:-

1 Badly presented, poorly punctuated writing.

2 Gratuitous sex and violence, especially when explicit. It's not clever and it's certainly not funny.

3 Liberally scattered obscenities. Once again, not clever and not funny and a poor substitute for good writing.

4 The 'shock and awe' approach to story telling. We are not easily shocked and even less easily awed. Detailed descriptions of bodily functions, disembowelling (ritual or otherwise), decapitations, high impact injuries, disfigurations and the like, particularly in the first couple of paragraphs, won't tempt us to read on.

5 Overly detailed descriptions of everyday objects or actions. For example, we know what it feels like to sit in an armchair or what a burger looks like. What we don't know is why such descriptions have relevance to the story.

6 A day in the life of a teenager written in the teenager's voice. Having had our fair share of teenage contacts in the past, and having been teenagers ourselves (admittedly in the distant past), we know with a certainty that shouldn't need to be expressed that very few things are more self-indulgent and boring.

7 Imitations of past best-sellers. There can never be another Harry Potter, okay?

8 Works that insult Christianity or Islam or Judaisim or other religions, or that degrade women, or are racist, or overtly political and/or that are defammatory.

So, there is a very short list of things that won't be greeted with enthusiasm. But if you can write clearly and you have something to say, something that is 'real' and has resonance, then we'd be delighted to hear from you. Already, from the avalanche of submissions we have received in recent weeks, we have found two works that appeal to us immensely and that should see the light of day in the not too distant future. Neither are conventional but both, in our collective opinion, are very good indeed.