It is common at the World Horror Convention to have Pitch Sessions, usually involving two or three editors or agents. In keeping with our avowed intent to run a groundbreaking professional event, World Horror Convention 2010 in Brighton is doing things a bit differently.
Welcome to PITCH BLACK.
For the first time at such an event, authors and anthology editors will have the opportunity to come together with the international publishing industry and literary agents to sell and buy genre book rights in both the English language and translation. If you have a sure-fire project that you believe could be a commercial success, then you will be able to bring it to PITCH BLACK, Europe's first-ever Genre Rights Fair, where you will be able to pitch new ideas or sell English and foreign-language rights, as well as audio and e-book rights for existing works. Imagine a mini-Frankfurt or London International Book Fair dedicated to horror publishing (and not just horror—because the literature of the fantastic covers fantasy, science fiction and dark crime as well).
Among those publishers and agents participating in the event are:
• Abbadon Books/Solaris Books (Jennifer Anne Hill, UK)
• Ash-Tree Press (Barbara and Christopher Roden, Canada)
• Atomic Fez Publishing (Ian Alexander Martin, Canada)
• Vasilis Babouris (Greece)
• ChiZine Publications (Sandra Kasturi and Brett Alexander Savory, Canada)
• Corsair (James Gurbutt, UK)
• Dorian Literary Agency (Dorothy Lumley, UK)
• Gollancz/Orion (Jo Fletcher, UK)
• Jemma Press (Lefteris Stavrianos, Greece)
• Little, Brown (Donna Condon, UK)
• Night Shade Books (Jeremy Lassen, USA)
• PS Publishing (Peter and Nicky Crowther, UK)
• Sheil Land Associates (Ian Drury, UK)
• Snowbooks (Emma Barnes, UK)
• Titan Books (Jo Boylett and Cath Trechman, UK)
• Zeno Agency Ltd. (John Berlyne and John Parker, UK)
Only registered members of World Horror Convention 2010 will be allowed into PITCH BLACK, but instead of burdening
publishers and agents with your unpublished manuscripts (unless they actually want you to!) you MUST fill out and print
the Pitch Black Cover Sheet for EACH project, which will have all your contact details, together with a synopsis of the work you are offering, and your reasons why they should publish, reprint or represent you. No appointment is necessary—you just have to wait until there is an opening at the table you wish to pitch to. You will then be able to discuss your ideas in person, and they can take your information away—to decide if they want to follow it up at a later date.
You should also consider bringing the first three chapters/100 pages of a novel, a short story from a collection, or the contents table/list of contributors for an anthology concept, in case you are asked to supply more supporting material.
PLEASE REMEMBER THAT YOU WILL NEED TO PRINT OFF MULTIPLE COPIES OF THE REGISTRATION FORM AND YOUR WORK SAMPLES IF YOU PLAN TO PITCH MORE THAN ONE PROJECT OR APPROACH MORE THAN ONE REPRESENTATIVE.
With hundreds of new and established writers from all over the world attending the convention, this is a
perfect opportunity for agents and publishers to find the next Big Genre Writer, or to exploit rights for the
next Big Genre Best-seller. A list of participating publishers and agents will be posted here.
PITCH BLACK will run from NOON UNTIL 5:00 p.m. on THURSDAY, MARCH 25 in The Royal Albion Hotel's Bar Rogue.
Throughout the event there will be a full bar, which will also sell tea, coffee and snacks, open in the immediate area. There is also a more informal area for meetings and follow-up discussions, along with an outdoor balcony area overlooking Brighton Pier and the historic beachfront.
PITCH BLACK is a unique opportunity for publishers, agents, writers and editors to get together in one place and help shape the future of the genre. If you work in the literature of the fantastic, then this is the one event you cannot afford to miss . . .