FLOOD MANUSCRIPTS
about
Flood Manuscripts
Flood Manuscripts began out of the belief that writers are not served as well as they might be through some of the assessment (appraisal) services; the myth of objectivity rarely outweighs the presence of subjectivity. Writers, an isolated workforce, respond with animation when they are allowed out of the arms’ length environment fostered by many services and institutions and are treated as adults able to make their own choices in the industry.
From many years of engaging both closely and at arms’ length with writers and their work, we firmly believe a writer's work develops best when writer and editor or assessor get together, talk it through and rub sensibilities to stir the humanity in each other; when private meets public in a relationship that can refine or transform the author’s vision and help direct their work toward its destined market. An assessment (appraisal) service thrives on the quality of its assessors and the track record of its authors. At Flood Manuscripts we offer excellence in all aspects.
Tom Flood
Tom Flood is the administrator and an assessor at Flood Manuscripts. He has been a writer, editor, copyeditor and proofreader for many years and has experience in many areas of writing. He has been a highly regarded assessor at Driftwood Manuscripts and at Manuscripts Online. He was Chief Fiction Judge for NSW Premiers Awards 2003 (and also judged in 1993) and has judged and been on selection panels for NSW Premiers Writers Fellowship, Sydney University Fiction Award, Harper Collins Manuscript Award, Varuna, A Writers House and the Short and Sweet Theatre Festival 2007. He has edited and proofread for McPhee Gribble and Penguin, launched books for Allen&Unwin, Angus&Robertson and many other publishers, and has read, taught, lectured and spoken on creative writing from Perth to Paris.
As a writer, Tom’s work has won The Miles Franklin Award, the Victorian Premiers Award, the Australian/Vogel Award and the Orange Banjo Paterson Short Story Award. His writing has been commissioned in collections, journals and newspapers in Australia, UK and USA, for screen, stage and radio, and is also exhibited in the National Museum of Australia. He is also a working musician in the trio BluesAngels.
'Flood is bringing Australian fiction to a place where it might take ten or twenty years for most other writers to catch up.' Prof. Nicholas Birns, American Assoc. of Australian Lit. Studies, in Review of Contemporary Fiction, Vol. XXVII|Fall 2007, Dalkey Archive, University of Illinois, Ann Arbor, Ill.
As an award-winning author, a literary judge, a teacher, editor and assessor, Tom has a knowledge and love of the craft of writing and brings exacting standards and, through his family, a lifetime of experience to the work before him, matching helpful criticism with empathy and respect for the work and its author.
For Tom Flood's website, click here.
Trevor Shearston
Trevor Shearston is the author of seven published novels. His most recent is Dead Birds in 2007 and he currently has a number of new manuscripts with Cameron's. He has judged and been on assessment panels for Harper Collins Manuscript Award and Varuna - A Writers House, taught creative writing at Sydney University and University of Western Sydney, and is an assessor with a long history in manuscript appraisal, including with the Australian Society of Authors.
As an assessor, Trevor's depth of knowledge and instinct on how a book should work is invaluable to new and experienced writers alike. As a working author he has empathy for any writer who has created and completed a manuscript; as an assessor he has an unerring eye for the issues that often go unnoticed by writers at the coalface and offers his years of experience from both sides of the industry to help improve their work.
To apply for manuscript assessment, click here