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What does an editor do?

Alex and Jude with Guest Speaker, James Ellis

Thursday July 6th.  10.30-12.30pm at

Hall and Woodhouse, Bath.     

Sold out now but please  contact us to go on a waiting list.

Have you ever wondered what an editor actually does? Do you know what is the difference is between a structural edit and a copy edit? What suggestions might an editor make? This workshop is for anyone who writes and wants to know more about the editing process. As Ernest Hemingway said, ‘the only kind of writing is rewriting.’

If you are self-editing, you’ll get tips on the best way to approach your work in order to get it into tip-top shape before sending to an agent, or for self-publishing.  James Elli  has worked at an Oxford-based literary agency as a submissions reader, offers a portfolio of editorial services and is an author himself.  Alex and Jude will start the workshop with some simple editing exercises.  James recently ran a popular session for us on publishing his novel The Wrong Story with the innovative crowd-funding publishing house, Unbound

You don’t need to have completed a book to enjoy and learn from this workshop. And please read our terms and conditions

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Spring Writing Series

Unlock your writing at our spring series of writing sessions at  Brown’s Brasserie, Orange Grove, Bath.

To book, SOLD OUT BUT please email to see if we have any cancellations


Cost £72 for the four sessions.

Thursday mornings 10.00 am – 12.00 pm

April 27th, May 4th, May 11th and May 18th.

The group is suitable for beginning and experienced writers. Each session we have a theme and introduce several writing exercises to stimulate new writing or to get you started if you have never written before. It’s a friendly and fun group, with both regular attenders and new people each series.  Places are limited –

Contact us for any questions and check out our terms and conditions.     

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Get into Print – April and May workshops

Wednesday  April 26th, Hall and Wood House cafe, Bath

The Road to Publication

with children’s  and YA  writer, Tracy Darnton

10.30-12.30 pm.Cost £26. Sold Out



Are you an aspiring children’s writer? Do you have a manuscript ready to go, or an idea for a children’s or young adult book you want to get on to paper? Come to a talk followed by a Q & A session by debut YA author Tracy Darnton and hear explain the stages of her journey to a publishing deal. Discover what helped and what she would have done differently.

Tracy Darnton won the Stripes/The Bookseller YA short story prize and was short listed for The Times/Chicken House Children’s Fiction Competition in 2016. She recently graduated with Distinction from the Bath Spa University MA in Writing for Young People, but originally studied law and Cambridge and worked as a solicitor and law lecturer. Her debut YA novel will be published by Stripes in 2018

Prior to Tracy’s talk, which will begin after the coffee break, Jude and Alex will introduce exercises to help you focus your ideas about your YA or children’s book. What’s the essence of your plot? Which age-group is it for? Can you write a ‘book blurb’, that will hook in your readers, or an agent?

Monday 8th May, Hall and Woodhouse cafe Bath.

Meet an Agent

10.30-12.30 pm. Cost £26.

sold out. Please contact us  in case someone drops out.


Literary agent Juliet Pickering will talk about how best to prepare a manuscript before sending out to agents.  All the dos and don’ts of submitting your novels, short story collections and non-fiction works. Q & A session after talk.

Juliet Pickering worked for Waterstones as a bookseller and fiction buyer before starting at A P Watt in 2003, where she became an Associate Agent in 2007. Juliet joined Blake Friedmann in 2013, and her authors have been shortlisted for Booker, Costa, and Guardian First Book Awards, won the Whitbread and Green Carnation Prizes and, in 2015, the prestigious French literary award Prix Femina Etranger. Her interests range from literary, book club and well-written, feminist commercial fiction to crime writing. She also represents many non-fiction writers across the board, including memoir, pop culture, social history, feminist and political commentary, cookery and food writing, humour, and all sorts in-between. Juliet  is also a judge for the Bristol Short Story Prize 2017

Before Juliet arrives to begin her talk at 11.30,  Jude and Alex will introduce exercises to help you  write  a short pithy summary of your book. Come if you’ve a book ready to go or if you’ve never put pen to paper but want to find out more about the agent’s role and what they are looking for.

Read our terms and conditions here

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Get into print, February and March workshops

photo-spp

Self Publish your Book

Wednesday March 22nd, 2017,

Hall and Woodhouse cafe Bath

10.30 – 1230 pm

Cost £26: Pay via paypal or any card below

Douglas Walker, from the Self Publishing Partnership, will talk about how they work with authors and produce anything from memoirs, children’s books, cookery books, novels and collections of short stories. They have produced the  Bath Short Story Award Anthologies for the last three years –  beautifully produced books.  If you want to publish your own fiction or non fiction book in print and digital forms, come along and find out about the process.  SOLD OUT please email if you would like to be on a waiting list

Prior to the talk  Exercise on writing a good synopsis. What to do and what not to do. Useful to compile for marketing  your self-published book, or to send to traditional publishers and literary agents.

Read our terms and conditions about payment and cancellation

On Wednesday February 22nd 2017 10.30-12.30 pm at Hall and Woodhouse, Cafe, Bath. Local author, James Ellis,  talked about publishing his novel with Unbound – an award-winning crowdfunding jamespublisher, that publishes works in all genres, fiction and non-fiction. James is a graduate of Oxford University’s MSt in Creative Writing. He has had flash fiction and short stories published as well as a travelogue of his journey through Central America. His first novel The Wrong Story  is about to be  published by Unbound.

Prior to the talk,  Alex and Jude did Exercises on refining and editing that all- first page of your manuscript, and on how to write a strong cover- letter/pitch.

 

Bull’s Eye

This week’s prompt by Jude.

Write about a person who hits the bull’s eye. Be literal. Your character is playing darts in the pub. Or metaphorical. What does hitting the bull’s eye in life mean to your, perhaps, neurotically-challenged character? Make it a short short story. And if you want, enter your piece into a competition. Who knows, you might hit the bull’s eye and win a prize. The A3 Review’s monthly 150 word contest ending the last Saturday in June has the theme of  ‘Dates’. (not the fruit). Or there’s weekly, free 150 word Adhocfiction.com. Or the up to 300 words bathflashfictionaward.com, which ends this Sunday, 11th June.

Writing materials

Prompt from Alex:  The information below refers to Virgina Woolf and Vita Sackville West and  tells you a lot about their personalities.  What writing materials do you use? In not more than three hundred words, write about your own pens, paper, notebooks etc. If you always use a computer, write about that.