Atlas, a boutique Australian publishing company, is proud to launch the inaugural Atlas Award in search of an exceptional author of an unpublished fiction or nonfiction manuscript. The winner of the Atlas Award will be announced in April 2011 and will have their manuscript published by Atlas in 2012.

Atlas Productions Director, Helen Goltz, said budding authors were finding it almost impossible to get their manuscript seen by a publisher.

"Very few publishers are accepting unsolicited manuscripts and very few agents are accepting new clients," Ms Goltz said.

"Even a small firm like Atlas, gets inundated by authors both locally and from overseas requesting consideration. The Atlas Award allows us to accept submissions at least once a year to unearth some great new talent and to offer budding Australian authors the chance for publication."

Ms Goltz said she was delighted to secure two outstanding shortlisting judges for the inaugural award, Ms Catharine Retter and Mr Chris Adams.

Ms Catharine Retter is chairman of the Australian Book Group, the publisher of Citrus Press and the principal of the digital publishing company, Apptitude. Catharine is a current member of the Australian Society of Authors, and the Australian Society of Editors, and an official delegate to the Australian Publishers Association. She is a celebrated author with seven published books in Australia and overseas.

Mr Chris Adams is a seasoned journalist and story hunter with more than 30 years experience in broadcast current affairs, including work as a journalist and producer for Channel Seven’s Today Tonight, and working as a War Correspondent in 1991 for the Persian Gulf War and the Somalia Civil War in 1993. He is credited with over 40 television documentaries and co-created Brownies Coastwatch, the forerunner of infotainment programming. Chris returned to radio as a News and Program Director in early 2000.

Fiction and non-fiction books including memoirs, all fiction genres and YA books (suitable for aged 12 readers upward) are acceptable. Not eligible are short stories, junior children's books, screenplays and poetry. The shortlisted finalists will be announced on the Atlas website early in February 2011 and the winner will be advised by telephone, email and publicly announced on Monday 4 April 2011.

The competition is now open and manuscripts ideally should be between 55,000 and 85,000 words. The deadline for receipt of entries is Tuesday, December 14, 2010 and entries should be postmarked on or before this date. A $20 entry fee applies.

For an entry form and terms and conditions, please visit the website or email Atlas.