Writers Advice Centre

Events

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Empathy Day 2020

Empathy Day 2020

May 12, 2020

This year’s Empathy Day is on 9th June. Empathy is a learnable skill and Empathy Day was founded to help us all understand and experience its transformational power. From The Empathy Lab, “We have now announced our plans, designed to have a huge impact in...

Hay Festival for Schools

Hay Festival for Schools

May 12, 2020

Hay have announced their free Digital Programme for Schools which runs from 18–22 May and replaces their cancelled Hay Festival 2020 Programme for Schools which was due to take place on Thursday 21 and Friday 22 May. Specially curated schools days, blending...

Meet Jon Agee

Meet Jon Agee

Oct 3, 2019

Don’t miss this rare opportunity to meet the one and only Jon Agee on Monday, October 7th, 7-9pm, for an evening of chat, drinks and maybe a signed book or two. Agee has been creating picture books for the better part of three and a half decades, from 1982 Santa tale...

Picture Book Day

Picture Book Day

Oct 1, 2019

SCBWI Pulse is presenting a Picture Book Day on Saturday 5th October, 9.30am – 4pm. The day takes place at the fabulous CLPE headquarters in Webber Street near Waterloo Station and is for both writers and illustrators. A great range of guest speakers will cover...

The Bookseller Children’s Conference 2019

The Bookseller Children’s Conference 2019

Aug 15, 2019

The Bookseller Children’s Conference is coming up on Monday, 23rd September. The theme this year is ‘The Big Tent: Publishing for Everyone in Today’s Divided World’. In today’s divided world how can we ensure that all children have access...

The Power of Pictures

The Power of Pictures

May 29, 2019

Join CLPE to be one of the first people to hear outcomes of their recent research about the value of picture books and illustration in developing children’s literacy skills. Featuring a great line-up of speakers including Waterstones UK Laureate, Lauren Child...

Undiscovered Voices

Undiscovered Voices

May 15, 2019

Are you a children’s book writer waiting to be discovered? Undiscovered Voices could be the opportunity for you. This is a competition for unpublished, unagented children’s fiction writers living in the UK and EU. Undiscovered Voices (from SCBWI) are searching for the...

The Empathy Conversation

The Empathy Conversation

Apr 29, 2019

The Empathy Lab are holding a discussion forum with a leading psychologist, children’s author, and poet. Join them at Waterstones Piccadilly, to hear Malorie Blackman, Joseph Coelho and Professor Robin Banerjee exploring how literature builds children’s empathy...

Success Stories

Over the past 20 years we have been instrumental in helping writers find their place with publishers, whether directly or indirectly. The following is just a handful of our success stories…

Bradley’s Dragons
The Mystery of the Never-ending Universe
Little Elephant’s Big Year!
The Scavyngers
A T-wit for a T-woo
Philomena
The Adventures of the Owl and the Pussycat
Mustafa’s Jumper
Double Felix
My Dad Will Do
The Secret Lake
My Mum’s a Bug-eyed Monster
The Spy Who Loved School Dinners
Harvey and the Moon Bus
Lost in a Snowstorm
Mr Scribbley
Baby Aliens Got My Teacher
Barking Mad
Shadow Jumper
Ferdinand Fox’s Big Sleep
The Diary Of A Penguin Napper
The Great Farty Slob Beast
Odd Job Frog
The Brother In Burmeon
Mutiny In Space
My Mum Is There

"Thank you for turning this around so quickly for me. The feedback is invaluable and will allow me to make a number of really worthwhile amends before approaching publishers. As I go through the report in more detail I may have the odd question, so thank you for being open to further assistance."

R Myles (Manuscript Appraisal Service)

"I’d like to thank you for your words of encouragement. My wife said to my children after the phone call, ‘That’ll be it now, you won’t see your dad for months as he’ll be busy writing.’ How true!"

Neil Swinney (Telephone Appraisal Service)

"Sharing our book with Louise Jordan at the Writers’ Advice Centre was one of our most important steps on the road to publication of our book My Mum’s a Bug-Eyed Monster. Without Louise’s advice about story pacing and which publishers to target, our monster mum may still be languishing in the slush swamp!"

Andy Rigden & Jim Landen (Face to Face Meeting)

"I am finding this writing course very enjoyable and feel inspired by the assignments. I find your feedback particularly motivating and believe that signing up to this course has not only developed my writing confidence, but is one of the best things I did for my writing career"

Kim White (Home Study Course)

"Thank you for facilitating such an excellent workshop yesterday. I would strongly recommend it to anyone wishing to write for children. Experienced writers would definitely benefit from it as well. Pure gold!"

A Chisambo (Writing Workshop)