You might think 20/40 is a reference to visual acuity or perhaps an exam mark.
In fact, it's the name of a new writing prize initiated by publisher Julian Davies, who runs independent non-profit Finlay Lloyd, which is based in Braidwood.
20/40 refers to a word count of between 20,000 and 40,000, the minimum and maximum for entries.
Davies said it "came from the idea that we love short-form fiction that's long enough to develop an idea ... but not so long that it becomes bombastic".
The shortlist was announced on Friday and winners will be announced on October 28.
Davies put out a call for submissions in fiction and non-fiction categories in January.
By the mid-March deadline Davies received 36 works which he and a panel of judges - Katia Ariel, Christine Balint, John Clanchy and Stefanie Markidis - read and discussed before selecting the shortlist of six, from which two winners were chosen.
The works were judged blind.
"It was a wonderful collaborative process," Davies said.
Most of the submissions tended to be on the longer rather than the shorter side.
"The quality was pretty good," Davies said.
The vast majority of the submissions were fiction rather than non-fiction, Lloyd said, and as the quality level of the former category was high they decided to have two fiction winners this year, which will be announced later this month.
Five women and one man had books shortlisted in the fiction category and they ranged from first-time writers to more experienced practitioners.
"They're quite varied," Davies said of both the authors and their works.
The shortlist contains: Jane Skelton's Breathing Water; Roger Averill's Slippage; Rebecca Burton's Ravenous Girls; Rachel Flynn's New Moon Rising; Olivia De Zilva's Hold on Tight; and Kim Kelly's Ladies' Rest and Writing Room.
They range widely in subject matter and setting, from a story about an anorexic woman in the 1980s told from the viewpoint of the character's younger sister to one set in a dystopian parallel world and another that depicts the intersecting of two women's lives - one a department store employee, the other a customer - in the 1920s.
Finlay Lloyd was established in 2005 by Davies working with three other people.
Davies is the only one left with Finlay Lloyd, which was named after a Canberra art teacher, Peter Finlay, and Davies' father Lloyd.
His daughters Haddie, who's the designer, and Jay, who manages social media, work with him.
Finlay Lloyd, Davies said, "is dedicated to encouraging imaginative and challenging writing, subtly innovative design and celebrating the pleasures of print on paper in an electronic age.
"Without the commercial imperative of most publishers, we are able to champion ideas and authors for their intrinsic interest and quality."
The books are printed in Australia and are sold through their online shop as well as through independent bookstores including Paperchain in Manuka.
The press was established in 2005 and has its base in Braidwood.
So far it has published about 30 books, with print runs of a few hundred for each title.
Some have been reprinted a few times including Rooftops, a graphic novel by Melbourne author Mandy Ord, and Lost Art, Two essays on cultural dysfunction by Davies and Phil Day.
Now that the 20/40 Prize was firmly established, Davies hoped there would be more entries next time.
"As awareness of 20/40 grows, we look forward to more non-fiction entries of a quality that demands a place as winning books," he said.
The winners of the 20/40 Prize will be announced on Saturday, October 28. See: finlaylloyd.com
