In the 1950s, Overland served as the theoretical journal for the Australasian Book Society. At a time when new Australian writers struggled to interest a conservative publishing industry in their work, the ABS created an alternative literary infrastructure that, at one point, was publishing half of all novels produced in Australia in a particular year. How? The society sold its publications in normal bookshops, but it also distributed them to its members: the thousands of ordinary people who had signed up to support new progressive fiction.

Today, with literary writers facing a situation not unlike the fifties, Overland is trying something similar. We want an original full-length novel manuscript to publish as a special edition of the journal in 2009. The resulting book will be distributed in the conventional fashion to bookshops; it will also be sent directly to Overland’s subscribers.

This is not an attempt to recreate the ABS in its entirety. Rather, we intend the project as a literary experiment, designed to highlight the difficulties facing Australian novelists and to focus attention on the possibility and desirability of alternative publishing models to foster the novel in a new century.
 
Just as importantly, we hope to bring the work of a new or neglected novelist to the attention of Overland readers and the broader public.

Submissions of appropriate novel manuscripts are invited now. A decision will be announced in the first edition of Overland for 2009 and, if a suitable manuscript is found, the novel will appear by the end of that year.

Download and complete a submission form, available here. Please only send the first 10,000 words of your completed novel, along with a synopsis and a CV outlining your publication and writing experience. If we want to read more, we will contact you to request the full manuscript. We are not, however, seeking full novel drafts initially – please do not send them.

This is not a competition and there is no deadline as such. We plan to read manuscripts throughout 2008; we will, however, accept an appropriate novel whenever we find it.

Do not send manuscripts under consideration elsewhere. Do not send the only copy of your manuscript as it will not be returned.

Please include a stamped, self-addressed envelope. We will endeavour to process submissions as quickly as possible but the process is necessarily time-consuming and we ask writers for patience.

Submissions are welcomed from both established and first-time novelists, in all genres and styles of adult literary fiction.

Address submissions to:

Overland novel
OVERLAND magazine
VU-Footscray Park
PO Box 14428
MELBOURNE VIC 8001 Australia