We have anticipated a few questions that you might have about The Frontlist, but if you can't find the question or answer you are looking for please get in touch.
Yes and no. We ran a version of The Frontlist back in 2006 (partnering with A.M Heath and The Friday Project), which was then eclipsed by Harper Collins' Authonomy. Both of these initiatives were on the right track (and discovered great new writers) but took a flawed approach. This new approach has learnt the lessons (and crowdsourcing is now much better understood).
We know that businesses that attempt to make money from discovering new writers are dubious. Our process is free from start to finish. We have an optional service, where writers can see the detailed reviews on their submissions which we charge a small fee for. We don't have large running or development costs and, from our last go, we are certain that this is both a fair and viable model for us.
We are glad you asked. This is where we have worked very hard. Our entire process is built around the review. We believe good writers are good reviewers. We have developed a review-assessment process that will ensure all reviewers meet a high threshold. Following this process a writer will either be accepted as a 'deep' reviewer, a 'sift' reviewer or not at all. We also have a team of 'super' reviewers who will arbitrate and step in to review material when needed. We will continually refine our process to get it right; every writer on The Frontlist deserves a fair review.
We hope so. But it is not for everyone. The Frontlist is designed to discover marketable writing. Though marketable writing has to be well-written, well-written writing may not be marketable. The reviews process is influenced by commercial potential; for some the process may simply feel too reductive. We will say that if you are unsure, it is worth having a go; the process will probably provide you with useful feedback and it is free.
We do not pass any content through any AI-based systems or algorithms; we are uncomfortable with original content feeding further model development. We do inject AI generated content into the review process to test whether reviewers can spot it; this is both to test review quality and to assess how well humans can spot algorithmic prose.
We will be reaching out to agents soon to allocate genres. We anticipate that we'll be able to accept literary fiction as well as a wide range of genre fiction: Historical, Crime, Thriller, Family Saga, Childrens, Young Adult, Speculative, SFF, Horror, Romance. We are concentrating on fiction and we will not be able to accept illustrated books, poetry or screenplays in our first outing. We will be guided by both the wants of our partner agents and the appetite of writers, so please get in touch to make a case for your genre.