Writer Living Abroad

by Charlie Aylett
12th September 2014

I am a British ex-pat living in France. I write in English with the view of (hopefully) being published in the UK. Often I find that publishers and competitions calling for fiction subs stipulate they want UK residents only. Why is this? Is my living abroad going to be a constant block to my possible publishing success? Do publishers and/or agents accept authors from abroad?

Thanks.

Replies

Hi Khai,

I'd have thought that would be the logic, but I've come across the UK resident stip. so often that it has really made me question the situation.

The problem is, even if the story is the best story EVER in the whole of the universe, if the publisher says UK based, they won't even have the pleasure of running their eyes over its silken pages, let alone decide if it's a winner, because that is an instant no-go zone for an author living abroad.

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Charlie
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Charlie Aylett
12/09/2014

I'm in a similar predicament in that I am an Aussie ex-pat living in Japan. I asked about my "chance" of finding an agent from abroad at a writers' conference in Australia (that I attended while on holiday) and was told it wouldn't matter as long as the story was well written and could sell.

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Khai
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12/09/2014