originally posted June 2010

From the Faber website:

Faber is one of the last great independent publishers in London – a home for creativity, not just a publishing house.

I wanted to submit my short story collection to them. Their submissions page says:

We will no longer look or enter into correspondence about unsolicited works of fiction, non-fiction, plays, screenplays or children’s books.

There is no information on how your work may reach Faber. I can’t even ask them if they would like to view my work.

Presumably they accept submissions from agents. Now I’ve had over 20 stories published, been in all Ireland’s outlets for short stories etc., but none of the agents I queried wished to even view my short story collection.
state on their website: “We are unable to represent poetry, short stories.”

Faber however does feature a page advertising Faber Academy courses in writing and how to get published. There are over 20 courses held mainly in the UK, but also in major cities internationally. The current most prominent course is titled The Pitch: Selling Stories, and is tutored by two professionals with given bios below.

Judy Counihan has been a film and TV producer/executive for over twenty years ­ in that time she has won two Oscars, had two children, pitched at least five hundred projects, run the Film arm of Skillset for two years, worked with some of the UK’s top writing talent …

Eileen Horne (nee’ Quinn) is an ex-pat American and has been based in London for 25 years. Like Judy she has also worked in Film and TV for two (sadly Oscar-free) decades, primarily producing primetime network TV drama for the UK and international markets.

The 2-day course costs £350, price includes an artisan lunch.