Writers Advice Centre

Home Study

This is a highly individual and personalized tuition service based on Louise Jordan’s book How to Write for Children and Get Published. The course is run and tutored by Louise herself, ably assisted by senior editors when times get busy. Each student will receive a copy of Louise’s book, plus support material to help guide them through each module.

This is different to any other home study course on the market in that it is run by just two people working closely together – Louise and Alison. The ‘get published’ element of the course is particularly relevant given that Louise also runs her own children’s publishing company, Wacky Bee Books. Louise believes that the relationship between student and tutor is the most important thing and, as a result, the emphasis is on her personal feedback rather than fancy course material. For this reason the number of students that can be accepted at any one time is limited and places are given on application only.

The course consists of ten modules:

  • The Picture Book
  • Young Fiction
  • Writing Fiction for the Educational Market
  • General Fiction for 8 – 12 year-olds
  • Teenage Fiction
  • The Short Story
  • Non-Fiction
  • Poetry
  • Self-Publishing
  • Presentation and Approach

Each module consists of a set number of exercises that must be completed before a student can progress to the next module. There will also be a reading list provided for each module. By the time a student reaches Module 10, the aim is that they will have a piece, or pieces, of work that they could realistically submit to a publisher or agent.

The first module is provided as hard copy as part of the introductory pack. However the rest of the course is conducted by email correspondence.

£300

“I’d always loved, read & collected kids books. NEVER thought I could write my own until my cats bought me ‘How To Write For Children’ by Louise Jordan for my birthday a few years ago. Started writing the day after reading it & haven’t stopped since!”

Pamela Butchart talking to @funnybookchat

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…

"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)