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Member only guide to the Australian book industry.
MIN READ
You’ve been editing, rewriting, and polishing your manuscript or non-fiction book proposal to perfection. You may also have gotten a headstart with preparing your synopsis and other potential submission materials, like your author bio and literary CV. You’ve been waiting all year for this moment and now it’s here — the first Virtual Literary Speed Dating event of 2026 is just around the corner.
The keenly anticipated schedule of publishers and agents joining us for the July 2026 event will be announced on Tuesday 9 June at 10 am AEST. We share this schedule, and the valuable information contained within it, to give you the best chance at preparing for the booking and pitching process.
Don’t let this be a wasted opportunity by booking a pitch with an invalid or unsuitable publisher or agent. We recommend you follow our advice on how to select a wishlist of potential representatives so you’re best placed to nab the pitch spot you want when bookings open.
We know it can be challenging to define which genre or category your manuscript belongs to, but it’s vital you do this work before you choose which publishers and/or agents you want to pitch to at Virtual Literary Speed Dating.
When it is time to book, you will be asked to select the genre of your manuscript from a dropdown menu in the booking form. The available genres will match what the publishers and agents have specified they are seeking in the schedule, so make sure you have clearly defined the genre of your manuscript before priority bookings open.
If you need help determining the genre of your manuscript, you can read our free FAQs on genre classifications in the book industry, consider signing up for our four-week Pitch Perfect course, or take a trip to your local bookshop or library for inspiration.
If you book in with a publisher or agent who is NOT accepting the genre of your manuscript, your booking will be invalidated. To avoid making this mistake, we recommend you either use the ‘find’ function in your internet browser to highlight which publishers/agents are accepting your genre, or print out a copy of the schedule and manually highlight those who have your genre listed in the ‘Accepted genres’ column.
Take note of who is accepting your genre at this event and think of this as your longlist.
We gather as much information from the attending publishers and agents as we can to help you determine who will be the best fit for your particular work and individual goals. Use this information to your advantage! Read the details provided in the ‘actively seeking’ column of the schedule and, once again, take note of which descriptions align with your work. A publisher or agent may be accepting your genre, but your manuscript may not fit what they are specifically looking for within that genre, so pay attention to these finer details if you want to have the best chance at success at this event.
Take note of who on your longlist has an ‘actively seeking’ description which matches up with your manuscript, and think of this as your shortlist.
Visit the publisher/agency websites and look up what books they have recently published in your genre. If you spot anything that seems very similar to your manuscript, consider if this is because the publisher/agency often takes on books in this vein or, conversely, whether it means they may not have the space to take on yours in addition to what they’ve already got on their list.
You can also look up the individual representative to see if you can find anything about the specific books they have worked on. You may be able to find illuminating articles, interviews, or social media posts that will help you get a sense of whether this person will be interested in you and your manuscript, and whether they are someone you would be interested in working with.
If you have two representatives from the same publishing house or literary agency on your wishlist, use the research process to select your preferred one. You may not book in with two representatives from the same publishing house/agency at Virtual Literary Speed Dating. Colleagues do not like to be put in a position to compete for the same authors; it goes against industry standard practice and does not do you any favours.
Take note of who is still in contention after your deep dive, and think of this as your wishlist.
Virtual Literary Speed Dating is incredibly popular and some pitch sessions can book out very quickly. This means you want to be in a position to move swiftly, so if you have multiple publishers/agents on your wishlist, knowing your order of preference before bookings open is the best way to go about it.
You can book a maximum of two pitch appointments across the two days of the Virtual Literary Speed Dating event. This means you want to target your top two publishers/agents first, and move down your list if either or both of these book out before you can complete your booking.
That is, the name of the publishing house/literary agency, the full name of the representative, and the specific time and date of their pitch session. This will come in handy when it’s time to place your booking — we strongly advise you to double-check the details of the pitch session(s) you have selected in your booking form.
We sometimes see people, in the rush to complete their booking, accidentally selecting the wrong representative from their target publishing house/agency and thereby invalidating their booking. If you have all of the correct details noted down next to you, you will be able to confirm them against what you see on the screen before you finalise your booking.
First of all, check whether you are a current member by logging in to our website using the email address linked to your membership. If your membership has lapsed, you will be redirected to a reactivation page. If you are a current member, you should be able to successfully log in.
To ensure you can move through the booking process smoothly, log in to the ASA website before bookings open. Practice logging in now and navigate around the website – can you open the Virtual Literary Speed Dating event page and see where the ‘Book your spot’ box is located? Then, in the early morning before bookings open, check that you are logged in.
Finally, before booking, please check that you are eligible to attend and take the time to read all of the event information. Have you already pitched the same manuscript four times at prior Virtual Literary Speed Dating events? Has the manuscript you’re pitching already been self-published? If so, you are not eligible to pitch that manuscript.
Pitch Perfect priority bookings for Virtual Literary Speed Dating open on Monday 22 June 2026 at 10 am AEST, with general ASA member bookings opening the following day on Tuesday 23 June 2026 at 10 am AEST.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us on 02 9211 1004 or [email protected].
