A Winning Submission with Marele Day

Get your work noticed by agents, publishers and competition judges.

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You have been working away at your brilliant manuscript and now feel it is ready to share with the world.  This half-day workshop with award-winning author Marele Day will give you strategies for writing a distinctive submission that will get your work noticed by agents, publishers, competition judges, and residencies such as Varuna and Byron Writers Festival Residential Mentorship. 

Through a combination of discussion, class work and feedback we will focus on: 

• developing a professional approach to submitting manuscripts
• identifying what makes your work distinctive 
• creating a great tagline
• writing a compelling synopsis
• writing an engaging cover letter

Who is it for? Suitable for writers of fiction or narrative non-fiction. Suitable for beginner, intermediate and experienced writers. 

WHERE:  Byron Writers Festival HQ, 58 Centennial Circuit Byron Bay

WHEN:   Saturday 18 April 2026 | 10am - 1pm

COST:     $150 General | $110 Festival Friend/Member 

+ booking fees

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About Marele Day

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Marele Day's four-book Claudia Valentine series won her a Ned Kelly Lifetime Achievement Award for crime writing. Her bestselling literary novel, Lambs of God, was published to acclaim in Australia and overseas, and became a multi-award winning miniseries. Other novels include Mrs Cook: The Real and Imagined Life of the Captain's Wife, and The Sea Bed. Her latest book is a memoir called Reckless.

Marele has more than twenty years' experience as a mentor and teacher of Creative Writing. She has served as judge for literary competitions including the Vogel Awards and NSW Premier's Literary Awards. She lives on Bundjalung country in northern New South Wales.

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