What are you writing?
What we learned about your writing this month
As we gear up for ‘Build Your Book’ month, this newsletter looks forward to events to come, highlights the other exciting opportunities we have going and reminds you of where you could submit your writing right now. We also take a look at the results of the recent member survey to see what our audience are writing and what their obstacles are.
TUTORED COURSES: Creative Non-Fiction starts 7 October (Discounts for members)
Only ONE place left! Nurture your non-fiction project on this short, flexible course. Sam Jordison has been an editor, a co-director at award-winning indie publisher Galley Beggar Press, and a writer at The Guardian – so he really knows his stuff.
This week at Jericho Writers:
MEMBER EVENTS: Platform Building (Member exclusive)
Building a platform and establishing your online presence is a crucial skill for any author right now. This week we have Facebook for Authors with Debbie Young, a succinct and accessible introduction to the many ways Facebook can enhance your success. Join us to access a full month of events to guide you through the online world as an author.
NON-MEMBERS – JOIN US TO REGISTER
OPPORTUNITY: Untitled Writing Submissions Opportunity
The lovely folks at Untitled Writing have opened submissions for their fourth issue of Voices. We were lucky enough to have them with us for a SFoW event and they do fantastic things to platform underrepresented writers. There’s no theme and they accept any form, so go wild!
MEMBER OPPORTUNITY: Submit your book directly to Simon & Schuster with #JerichoWritersOneDay
We’re thrilled to be working with our friends over at Simon & Schuster UK to bring our under-represented members the opportunity to submit directly to their Digital Original list (no agent required!) We have members of our own team on this list and are so pleased to be able to offer this as a member exclusive!
SUCCESS STORY: Christine Jordan
Congratulations to Jericho Writers member Christine Jordan who recently secured a deal with Bloodhound Books. Her thriller, ‘MisPer’, will be published 25 July 2022. A chunk of Christine’s work was edited live in Harry’s Self-Editing webinar, so it’s particularly lovely to see her flourishing now!
What we discovered from the Summer Member Survey 2021
Thank you to everyone who took the time to send us your feedback about the Jericho membership last week! We loved reading through the comments.
There were a couple of interesting findings from the survey about what members are writing and the barriers most writers are facing right now, and I wanted to share these here – not only for those who (like me) love a stat, but also so you all know that you’re not alone.
We have members writing in almost every genre!
The top genres reported were Fantasy and Sci-Fi (32%); Women’s Fiction (29%) and Commerical Fiction (26%). It was really interesting to see poetry and short stories climb in popularity though, so we’re looking into adding to our content on these.
A huge obstacle facing writers right now is lack of access to the publishing industry.
42% of members chose this as their answer, although many said that they can also get stuck with lack of time, and lack of feedback on their writing. We’re hoping that schemes such as the S&S #JerichoWritersOneDay open submission scheme will help a little with this, but it’s clear there is more the industry can be doing to be more open and inclusive to new writers.
Live member events are the most useful part of the membership.
Excellent news, as we’ve just announced an extra-special month of them in October, and that the Summer Festival of Writing will officially be 100% included in membership in 2022. We were also told that the Video Courses and AgentMatch were important, which we’re making regular updates to.
92% of members agree that their membership has helped them reach their writing goals.
This number and all the funny, friendly and helpful responses to this survey really put a smile on our faces. Thank you!
Have something else you wish we knew? You can chat to our real-life-human team anytime by email or phone on +44 (0) 345 459 9560 (+1 (646)-974-9060 if you’re in the US!) or info@jerichowriters.com.
Sarah J
Plus, don’t miss:
Don’t forget that top publisher Simon & Schuster have kindly sponsored a full Jericho Writers membership bursary for an underrepresented writer. We’re sponsoring a further eleven on top of that – so if you identify as being from an underrepresented community, get applying now.
One-to-ones – last minute sessions available
We still have sessions in the next week available with agents from Jane Rotrosen Agency; Peters, Fraser and Dunlop; Inkwell Management; Liverpool Literary and many more. Book now and your work could just be the next big discovery for one of these top agents.
Mentoring (10% discount available)
Get expert one-to-one help as you write and edit your manuscript with your choice of award-winning mentors.
Apologies for the long silence!
Based on the feedback I received last year, I’m busy writing adapting my trilogy to TV. I have just about finished the draft to submit a proposal for a TV pilot. I have enough material for three series of six episodes. I have received some encouragement from people in the industry who work on transnational European productions. Keeping my fingers crossed.
Good for you, Roger. It sounds like you work to a different program to most here. All the best.
Yes and no. As I have mentioned elsewhere, I was fascinated by the screenplay idea after watching a webinar during last year’s Summer Festival. I had a go at submitting to a competition, condensing 1600 pages to 120 of film script in five days. I did reasonably well and had positive feedback with the suggestion I tried for TV.
The experience has been very enlightening. I am still struggling with editing my trilogy. Developing the screenplay has, although totally different from a novel, nevertheless helped immensely with the editing process of the novel. Focus on precision and efficiency of words.
Good luck, Roger!