Community Learning Hub

Join a supportive community of storytellers

Develop writing craft, receive critique on your work from peers and kid readers, pitch your manuscript to agents, and learn from and network with industry experts through monthly workshops, webinars, and chats. Most importantly, foster life-long friendships with fellow writers.

Become a member of WriteMentor’s community learning Hub, an online platform for children’s writers at any stage of their writing and publishing journey.

“The WriteMentor Hub feels like a library of knowledge and a year-round party rolled into one“

Tracy Curran, author and Hub member

Level one membership

For only £15 a month, access…

Online modules on every aspect of craft and each stage of the writing journey, from idea to post-publication

From that very first spark of an idea, to building up a career and a living as a published writer, we have dynamic and interactive modules that cover a broad range of writing craft and publishing insights – and we continue to add resources to this clear, continuous pathway for your writing development. These resources include content from top published authors including: Alex Sheppard, Aisha Bushby, Catherine Emmett, Clare Helen Welsh, Emma Read, Lauren James, Lindsay Galvin, Liz Flanagan, Marisa Noelle, Maz Evans, Melinda Salisbury, Simon James Green and agent/author Chloe Seager. All the modules are on this website and are accessible when logged in with a Level 1 or 2 membership.

Monthly online critique groups from Picture Book to Young Adult

These will follow the WriteMentor guidelines, which will be distributed and applied at all critique group meetings. You will be split into a critique group channel on Slack where you can post extracts, return feedback and arrange meeting times to host the Zoom feedback session (once a month).

Open Surgery

Pick the brains of a published author –

PitchHero

A quarterly pitch contest for Hub members only. Judged by a top literary agent, who is on the lookout for new, exciting stories. Previous agents include…

Writer’s toolkit

Live video workshops covering topics to expand a writer’s toolkit, such as How to Use Canva.

Monthly Q&As with industry experts

Ask industry professionals about life behind-the-scenes in the publishing world. Guests have included editors, agents, publishers, illustrators, booksellers, publicists, and more.

3 x weekly writing sprints

Three times a week, author Melissa Welliver, our Community Manager, hosts a fun and accessible writing sprint, with word count accountability as an option (though not compulsory).

Monthly community catch-up

Author Melissa Welliver, our Community Manager, hosts monthly Zoom sessions where you can pop in and have a chat about how things are going with your writing, or anything else you’d like to chat about. As a published author, and with much experience of the writing journey, she will be able to offer you a shoulder to cry, or motivate you to keep going, or answer any questions or worries you have, as well as just being there to listen to you all and how your writing week has gone.

Community beta reading

Find a beta reader among fellow Hub members who can give feedback on your writing.

Weekend writing conferences

Members-only weekend conferences focused on children’s writing, for example, 2022 Picture Book and Novel weekends, where guest authors and industry professionals lead talks, workshops, and panels.

Face-to-face meet-ups

Join online groups organised by regions to help facilitate real-life meet-ups with fellow writers in your area.

Support channels

Join Hub groups to gain support, encouragement and advice in various areas of children’s writing and publishing:

Advice: Ask for general advice about writing and publishing.
Traditional publishing: Get advice and support on the publishing process, particularly for already agented or traditionally published authors needing help with the next steps.
Self publishing: Find out more about the process of self publishing your book.
Celebrations: Celebrate your writing successes and those of fellow Hub members, big or small.
Competitions and opportunities: Discover the latest competitions and opportunities in the children’s writing world.
Goal setting: Set yourself monthly goals to keep yourself accountable.line groups organised by regions to help facilitate real-life meet-ups with fellow writers in your area.

Level two membership

For only £25 a month, access all of the above, plus…

Kid beta readers

We will give members the opportunity to have an age-matched kid reading either 3 x full PB text or first 3 chapters (up to a max of 10,000 words) of your novel. The kids will be given a framework to deliver feedback to try to make it meaningful for you, as well as being allowed to give their undiluted child thoughts. Due to increased interest, we will, understandably, limit this to one submission package a year, and don’t worry, all the kid readers will be getting rewarded with book tokens for doing this! They get to read great stories for free and get tokens to buy even more books, and read even more – what a result! Florianne will arrange this for you, so simply send her an email or message when you would like to do it.

Monthly webinars from Writers-in-Residence Karl Newson and Eloise Williams

For Picture Books, Karl Newson delivers a monthly recorded webinar on Picture Book craft or other related aspects. For Novelists, Eloise Williams delivers a monthly recorded webinar on novel writing craft or other related aspects. The webinars include three exercises from Karl and Eloise for you to try while you watch. You will have access to both Karl and Eloise’s Webinars/Workshops, regardless of whether you are a Picture Book or novel writer, so for those of you who crossover, this really is a double win.

Monthly workshops from Writers-in-Residence Karl Newson and Eloise Williams

For Picture Books, Karl Newson does a live analysis workshop on specific craft aspects, giving feedback on Picture Book extracts submitted by our Hub members. For Novelists, Eloise Williams does a live analysis workshop on specific craft aspects, giving feedback on novel extracts submitted by our Hub members. Karl and Eloise highlight key strengths and areas for development to give you an insight into the minds of top authors as they edit work. The workshops are live on Zoom and a recording is available after the live session for those who could not make the scheduled date.

2023 Event Programme

Every day is a writing day on the Hub. As a member, take part in daily initiatives to interact with and learn from fellow writers, plus explore the world of children’s writing and publishing via our programme of monthly events. Sign up to the Hub today to access our entire video archive of event recordings.

Calendar

January: Theatre Techniques in Storytelling

February: Introduction to Social Media

March: Preparing for a debut

April: Starting a writing business

May: Public speaking techniques

June: Money management skills

July: Creating an author brand

August: Handling rejections

September: Capturing voice in your story

October: Debut guide

November: Developing good habits and balancing writing with life

December: How to design promotional material on Canva

Calendar

January: Holly Bourne, Times bestselling young adult author

April: L.D. Lapinski, middle grade author of The Strangeworlds Travel Agency series

May: Catherine Doyle, author of award-winning and bestselling middle grade Storm Keeper trilogy

August: Hannah Gold, author of The Last Bear – winner of the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize & the Blue Peter Book Awards 2022

Calendar

February: Aisha Bushby, author of A Pocketful of Stars

June: Rachael Davis, author of I am NOT a Prince.

August: TBC

November: TBC

Calendar

January guest agent: Charlotte Colwill of Colwill & Peddle

April guest agent: TBC

July guest agent: TBC

October guest agent: TBC

Calendar

March: BookTok with Rosie Talbot, whose debut Young Adult novel Sixteen Souls became popular on TikTok (generating more than 250,000 views) and garnered the attention of publisher Yasmin Morrissey at Scholastic, securing her a two-book deal.

July: Screen adaptations of books with Holly Race, an author used to work in TV and film script development, for companies like Red Planet Pictures, Aardman Animations and Working Title.

September: The role of a publisher with Kirsty Stansfield, Publishing Director of multi‑award‑winning, independent children’s publishing company, Nosy Crow. Kirsty has worked in children’s books for over 20 years. Her first job was at a literary agency before she moved to Scholastic Children’s Books, doing every editorial job there was before becoming Editorial Director. After a stint heading up Orchard’s fiction department at Hachette, she joined Nosy Crow in 2010 to create and develop its fiction list.

December: TBC

Calendar

February: Traditional Publishing Weekend. Find out more.

April: Self-Publishing Weekend

June: Novel Weekend

August: WOWCON, WriteMentor’s annual conference for children’s writers

November: Picture Book Weekend

Meet our 2023 Writers-in-Residence

<strong>Karl Newson</strong>, <strong>Picture Book Writer-in-Residence</strong>

Karl Newson, Picture Book Writer-in-Residence

Author of the multi-award winning picture book I Am a Tiger, the best-selling I Really Really Need a Wee and The Same But Different Too, the chapter book The Hat Full of Secrets, the board book Little Owl’s Bedtime, and most recently the picture books I’ll Be There and The World at Your Feet, plus many more! Karl’s stories have been translated in 29 languages around the world.

Karl grew up in Norwich, England, and was inspired to write his first story when his children were small… he’s been writing stories ever since. When Karl isn’t writing he enjoys a walk in the woods, listening to music and reading other biscuits. He lives in London.
Karl’s stories have been shortlisted for the Booktrust Storytime Prize (twice, for I Really Really Need a Wee and I Am a Tiger), the Sainsbury’s Children’s Book Award (The Same But Different Too), the Alligator’s Mouth Award (The Hat Full of Secrets) and Oscar’s Book Prize (I Am a Tiger), and he is a winner of the Georgia Children’s Book Award, the South Dakota Children’s Book Award, the Leicester ‘Our Best Picture Book’ Award and the West Sussex Picture Book Award for I Am a Tiger, and a ‘BookstaGrammie’ for The Hat Full of Secrets.
Karl is represented by Jodie Hodges at United Agents.

Find out more

<strong>Eloise Williams</strong>, <strong>Novel Writer-in-Residence</strong>

Eloise Williams, Novel Writer-in-Residence

Eloise Williams grew up opposite a library in Llantrisant, Rhondda Cynon Taf, where she spent much of her time reading in the ruins of a castle.

Eloise’s middle grade novels have won the Wales Arts Review Young People’s Book of the Year, the Wolverhampton Children’s Book Award, the YBB Book Award, and have been shortlisted for the Tir na nOg, the NE Book Awards and Wales Book of the Year.
She has an MA in Creative Writing with distinction from Swansea University and was the inaugural Children’s Laureate Wales 2019-2021.

Eloise now lives in West Wales, very close to the sea, where she wild swims, collects sea glass and ghost stories, and walks on the beach with her cairn terrier, Watson Jones.

Find out more

Hear from our Hub writers…

“I love the Hub. It’s a great community. Supportive and inspiring. The events are great – the workshops are an incredible gift. Highly recommend being a member.”

“Finding WriteMentor has been a revelation to me. The Hub opens many doors and friendships I never had before. The Hub offers an excellent variety of courses and the monthly cost is outstanding value. I don’t know if the team at WriteMentor realise how fantastic they are. They are like fabulous fairy godmothers and fathers, sprinkling magic and making dreams come true every day.”

Michelle R.

“The Hub is a wealth of amazing resources. I’ve learned from craft webinars and had my work critiqued by Writers in Residence. My pitch was been sent to an agent who gave feedback on what worked well. Plus the regular writing sprints have encouraged progress on a new book. All this and a fantastic community of writers to share the writing journey with.”

Marie D.

“The WriteMentor Hub has become an indispensable addition to my writing toolkit. Packed with enthusiasm, knowledge, experience and wisdom, it inspires and encourages me daily.”

Ian J.

“WriteMentor offers so many incredible opportunities to writers at all stages of their journey. Support, advice, education, fun and much much more! A true virtual community.”

Tara P.

“The WriteMentor Hub is such a warm, friendly and supportive place to be, with lots of opportunities to connect and learn from each other, as well as from industry experts. There’s so much going on you feel spoilt for choice.”

Elizabeth F.

“The WriteMentor Community Hub is one of the best resources out there for writers, no matter where you are on your journey. I would be lost without the support and camaraderie of the Hub, and I’m so grateful to the team and community!”

Vicki M.

“The WriteMentor Learning Community Hub provides a wealth of craft and industry advice. I’ve also found it to be an incredibly kind community of people keen to help and support others at every stage of their writing journey.”

Alex A.

“The WriteMentor Hub has been an invaluable aid to my writing and wellbeing. Being able to connect with a community of writers and have access to learning opportunities without having to leave my house has been a life changer as a chronically ill disabled writer who is housebound much of the time. Thank you for helping me feel part of life and a wonderful community.”

Katina W.

“The Writementor hub supports writers at ever stage of their writing journey and there is something for everyone. I can dip in and out of modules as and when I need to and there is always lots of support, advice and encouragement from the whole community.”

Jenny C.

“WriteMentor is the most inspiring, exciting, useful, friendly, supportive and KIND community for writers there is – I would be lost without it!”

Claire L.

Become a member of our writing community

Level 1 Monthly

£15.00

Includes writing modules, critique groups, book club, pitch hero, industry chats and more*

JOIN

Level 2 Monthly

£25.00

Enjoy additional benefits of kid beta reads, monthly webinars and monthly workshops*

JOIN

Level 1 Annual

£150.00

Save 2 months (£24) compared to monthly by signing up to an annual membership

JOIN

Level 2 Annual

£250.00

Save 2 months (£48) compared to monthly by signing up to an annual membership

join

*There is no fixed term for the monthly membership – you can stay for 1 month or 12 (or longer, hopefully!)

Please note that the Hub will be based on Slack. If you are unsure how to use Slack, read our WriteMentor guide to using Slack.

Community Learning Hub

Level one membership

Level two membership

Meet our 2023 Writers-in-Residence

Hear from our Hub writers…

Become a member of our writing community

Share this:

Like this: