About
Regarding the upcoming Voice referendum
Upswell Publishing accepts the invitation in the Uluru Statement from the Heart to walk together for a better future. Voting YES in the forthcoming referendum affirms a commitment for all Australians to address the injustice of our history for First Nations people today by making formal an overdue recognition. This solidarity is forward-directed and meaningful, as serious as our lives.
I am part of and support this literary site: https://writersforthevoice.com.au/background
Upswell operates in the city of Perth, on ancient country of the Whadjuk people of the Noongar nation who remain the spiritual and cultural custodians of this beautiful land. We acknowledge their continuing connection to country and express gratitude to elders past and present for their strength and creativity…Always was, always will be, Aboriginal land.
About Upswell
In mid-2021, I launched a small imprint, Upswell, to continue my adventures in publishing. All of my working life has been arranged around books and ideas: as a bookseller, writer, publisher and organiser of public events involving literature and writing. After 14 years of shaping a list as publisher at UWA Publishing, I am delighted to be building this new venture of Upswell.
The principles remain in how I built a list of books that spoke to each other across a set of intellectual interests. I’ll publish a small number of distinctive books each year in, broadly, the areas of narrative nonfiction, fiction and poetry. I am interested in books that elude easy categorising and work somewhat against the grain of current trends. They are books that may have trouble finding a home in the contemporary Australian publishing sector.
From my beginnings as a bookseller in my twenties, I’ve thought about books that last, in a cultural sense, for 20 to 50 years or more, whether they remain in print or not: books that have been noticed and noted for their originality. I have been delighted with the many recent shortlistings in major awards for the last books I published at UWAP, and am thrilled and hugely enthusiastic about this new venture and the opportunity to continue to make books of substance.
I have entered into an agreement with Black Inc Books for Upswell to be distributed within their list by Penguin Random House, and it is lovely to have such generous and savvy colleagues and supporters. Upswell will be a not-for-profit company. The three directors of Upswell are Dr. Carmen Lawrence, Linda Savage and myself.
Wholesale queries for retailers without an account with UBD are welcomed. Send an email to books@upswellpublishing.com Some Upswell books are only available to bookshops by direct order.
About Terri-ann White
Terri-ann White was Director and Publisher at UWA Publishing from 2006 until June
2020 and in that time published around 450 books: fiction, poetry, narrative non-fiction, scholarly, and art and natural science monographs. Prior to this, she founded and directed a cross-disciplinary research centre at UWA, taught literature and writing in universities, was a bookseller for 16 years, and organised ‘ideas’ festivals.
Terri-ann is also a writer of fiction and non-fiction, and a serious enthusiast of dance and music and visual arts, as well as literature that extends boundaries of how stories are told and language is worked.
SUBMISSIONS
NEXT PITCH FRIDAY 22 MARCH 2024
Update 26 November 2023: Greetings, writers. I am starting to get a large number of queries each day about 2024 pitch sessions so it’s time to commit a date! First thing: it’s worth reading my previous communication below. It is also really useful to have a good look at the list I am building and perhaps even read one of the books. I’ve had many of the 700-plus pitches provide comparisons to my Upswell books that are not particularly useful or accurate. Personally, I don’t gain much from that current marketing tool of comparative titles (and a comparison needs to be read before it is declared).
All of my utopian ideas about monthly, and then quarterly, pitch sessions have crashed against the rocks and I realise I can only manage this exercise once a year. I am (still) a one-person band at Upswell, my eyesight is fading and my brain overheated just thinking about this.
My single open pitch session, following all of the guidelines below will occur on Friday 22 March 2024 between 9am and 12 noon in your time zone.
You are invited to send the following: 1. a page (A4 limit) describing your manuscript and why it fits into the rationale for Upswell Publishing. I am building a fiction, poetry and narrative non-fiction list . Your work must fit my list and that is easily understood by looking at this website and all of its writings and declarations, as well as the descriptions of Upswell books. (I am not interested in genre fiction or commercial novels.) Make this page dynamic and a direct communication with me to persuade and excite my interest. 2. Tell me a bit about you and what you have written and published until now. (maximum 1 A4 page) 3. Send me a sample of 15 pages from the manuscript you are pitching. Your best pages–perhaps the start; perhaps the end, or something in the middle.
I’ll read everything that comes in on that day and respond with a simple, and polite, NO or YES.
Pitches to: books@upswellpublishing.com
With thanks, Terri-ann
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(The background, for context)
After avoiding the opening of manuscript submissions because the traffic was so heavy from day one in May, I have decided to not open for submissions to protect my mental health: it’s an overwhelming workload and the intensity of some responses to my polite rejections is a burden I no longer wish to carry.
The alternative (borrowed from numerous other publishing houses) is as follows:
A pitch session, from January 2022, on a regular basis between 9am and 12 noon in your time zone.
You are invited to send the following: 1. a page (A4 limit) describing your manuscript and why it fits into the rationale for Upswell Publishing. I am building a fiction, poetry and narrative non-fiction list . Your work must fit my list and that is easily understood by looking at this website and all of its writings and declarations, as well as the descriptions of Upswell books. (I am not interested in genre fiction or commercial novels.) Make this page dynamic and a direct communication with me to persuade and excite my interest. 2. Tell me a bit about you and what you have written and published until now. (maximum 1 A4 page) 3. Send me a sample of 15 pages from the manuscript you are pitching. Your best pages–perhaps the start; perhaps the end, or something in the middle.
I’ll read everything that comes in on that day and respond with a simple, and polite, NO or YES. Friday 21 January 2022 was the first Upswell Pitch day. Friday 18 March was the second pitch day.
UPDATE: the pressure involved in these days means that I need to adjust again the frequency. There are just too many of you! From monthly to bimonthly to QUARTERLY. And the next session is 24 June.
24 June is the last Pitch Day for 2022. With more than 300 pitches under my belt, some of which I am still working on, I need some clear space to plan my 2023 list. I anticipate the next session will be in early 2023. Thanks for all of your enthusiasm and attention.
Pitches to: books@upswellpublishing.com
