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New writers will be able to pitch to publishers and agents at the Bloody Scotland crime writing festival, which begins this Friday (9th September), while others will appear ahead of better known authors as "support acts".
The initatives, called Pitch Perfect and In the Spotlight, have been launched to support new and aspiring writers.
Last year, Jake Kerridge, crime fiction reviewer for The Daily Telegraph, discovered current Man Booker longlisted title His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet (Contraband) in the festival's In the Spotlight session when he visited Bloody Scotland.
Kerridge described the initiative as "such a simple and effective idea that nobody seems to have thought of before".
"I was able to get a flavour of the work of writers new to me such as Philip Miller, Margot McCuig and the now celebrated Graeme Macrae Burnet", he said. "A lot of people I spoke to enjoyed these brief bursts from unfamiliar writers before hearing from the superstars they had travelled to see."
Authors In the Spotlight this year include Les Wood, who is published by Freight, paired with Chris Brookmyre and Stuart Neville, and Orion author Eva Holland paired with Val McDermid.
Fellow In the Spotlight authors are Lesley Kelly for A Fine House in Trinity (Sandstone), Stephen Watt for Optograms (Wild Word Press), Sandra Ireland's Beneath the Skin (Polygon/Birlinn), Daniel Pembrey's The Harbour Master (No Exit Press), Shelley Day for The Confession of Stella Moon (Saraband) and Michael Grothaus's Epiphany Jones (Orenda).
Also In the Spotlight this year are Amanda Fleet for The Wrong Kind of Clouds (Matador), Jackie Baldwin for Dead Man's Prayer (Killer Reads), Tom Ogden Keenan for The Father (McNidder & Grace Crime), and Liz Mistry - Unquiet Souls (Bloodhound Books).
Unpublished authors will be able to participate in a Pitch Perfect session and present their books to leading agents and publishers.
The panel, which includes agent Jenny Brown and publishers Sam Eades from Orion, Adrian Searle from Freight, Katherine Armstrong from Zaffra Crime and Krystyna Green from Constable, will listen to a three minute presentation from each before deciding on a winner. The BBC will be filming the session for an Imagine documentary.
Pitch Perfect authors selected are Alan Martin for The Peat Dead, Alison Balsam for The Tattoo Thief, Robert Parker for The Bridge of Shadows, Susan Clegg for Northern Pines, Stuart McLean for They Shoot Corpses, Hester Ross for Blood Oranges, Forest Isaac Jones for The Whisper of the Bones, Danny Marshall for Oupost32.