Alumni Submissions Guide

We’re committed to helping you submit the book you worked on with us to literary agents at Curtis Brown and C&W. This page includes everything you need to know about making a formal submission to the agents at Curtis Brown and C&W as one of our Curtis Brown Creative selective course alumni.

CBC offers submission support and guidance to all alumni of our selective courses.

This includes the offer of passing along your submission directly to the Curtis Brown and C&W agents, as well as helping you to identify who at CB and C&W would be a good potential fit for your work, based on your submission materials. If you’d like to submit your work to an agent at CB/C&W to be considered for representation, we’re very keen for you to do so, and we can get your novel manuscript or non-fiction proposal directly to your chosen agent at Curtis Brown and C&W.

When to submit

Everyone works to a different timeline, and so there’s no time limit on when you’re eligible for help with your submission to CB/C&W. Irrespective of whether you’ve just finished your course or whether it’s been a number of years since you studied with us, we’d love to hear from you.

You can reach out at any time. However, please be mindful that agents' workloads do increase at especially busy times of the year, for example around London Book Fair (usually in March/April) and Frankfurt Book Fair (October). Experience has shown that the immediate run-up to Christmas is also not the optimal time to submit work to the agents.

How to submit

If you already know which agent you’d like to submit to:

Please send the below material to submissions@curtisbrowncreative.co.uk*

Your full manuscript (Word doc)
A one-page synopsis (Word doc)
How to write a synopsis
Your pitch letter addressed to the agent (pasted into the body of your email)
How to write the perfect pitch letter

We’ll confirm receipt and pass your work directly on to the agent, flagging you as a CBC student. If you’re happy to do so, we request you allow two weeks before submitting more widely to other agencies. (However you’re under no obligation in this respect).

(If you're writing memoir or narrative non-fiction, you may prefer to send us your pitch letter and non-fiction proposal.)

How to write a non-fiction proposal

If you’re not sure who you’d like to submit to:

We can provide suggestions of who at Curtis Brown or C&W might potentially be a good fit for you. Please send us your materials, as detailed above, along with any ideas you may have as to which agents you’re interested in showing your work to. Don’t worry if you don’t yet have specific thoughts about the agents. We’ll take a look and come back to you within seven working days with some suggestions to consider. You can research the current literary agent teams at both agencies here:

Curtis Brown literary agents

C&W literary agents

*If you'd like to, you can still email your course manager or a member of the team directly, but please be sure to copy in submissions@curtisbrowncreative.co.uk. This central alumni-only inbox will help the wider courses management team monitor all submissions.

Extra guidance – please read!

We send alumni submissions to one agent at a time (across Curtis Brown and C&W), so if you have a few agents in mind, do let us know who you’d like to try first.
The agents aim to read and respond to CBC submissions within six weeks, though they may need longer during particularly busy periods. In most cases and where they're able to, they’ll respond to you directly. If you haven’t heard from them within eight weeks, please do get back in touch with us, and we’ll check in on your behalf to find out how they’re getting on.
The CB/C&W agents are keen to hear from CBC students and we strive to always get a response from them on CBC submissions, but please bear in mind that agents across the industry have intense workloads and reading piles. Agents are passionate readers, and always grateful for the opportunity to consider a submission, but it’s unusual for an agent to have the capacity to share much in the way of feedback when responding.
If you're looking for in-depth feedback on your opening 10,000 words, pitch letter and synopsis we offer Submission Reports for £385.
After submitting, please keep us posted about any updates (for example, full manuscript requests from other agents, prize shortlistings) as we can pass this information along to the agent.
If you hear from a CB/C&W agent turning down your submission, do get back in touch with us, so that we can consider sharing your submission with another agent here. It’s very likely there will be multiple agents that are a potential fit for your work – a ‘no’ from one agent is by no means a ‘no’ from all. As the agents respond directly, the CBC team may not be aware if you’ve received a pass.
We love it when our students find a home at CB or C&W and we’re keen to get your work in front of an agent here as swiftly as possible. We’re grateful if you’re prepared to allow a two-week exclusivity period for an agent here to consider your work, but this is entirely at your discretion. However we absolutely do not want you to be left waiting to hear from a CB/C&W agent – and so if you don’t hear back from the agent within two weeks, we’d encourage you to send your submission more widely. Generally, we do encourage you to submit to a number of agents, as full requests or other updates from elsewhere can help to keep a submission moving along. We recommend submitting to your top shortlist of 5-10 agents first (some writers find it helpful to keep a spreadsheet or use QueryTracker to make note of who they've sent to and when they hear back).
We are able to help you submit one book, and that’s usually the book you worked on during your CBC course. If we've already helped you submit a manuscript to CB/C&W in the past and you would like to try again with a different book, please submit directly to the agent (following the instructions on their agent profile). However, please do email submissions@curtisbrowncreative.co.uk or contact one of the team direct to let us know you're submitting a new manuscript, as we're always keen to be kept in the loop with your latest news.
Please do let us know if you gain representation here or elsewhere – and also tell us about any book deals. We are keen to support our alumni by publicising upcoming publications.

We offer alumni an exclusive 20% off these courses, discover how to redeem this here.

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Alumni Submissions Guide

When to submit

How to submit

Extra guidance – please read!

Alumni Submissions Guide

When to submit

How to submit

Extra guidance – please read!