Along with the 6 extracts we get to submit we have the opportunity to attend a mentoring day in the Big Smoke.
Apart from the industry figures that we got to meet there was the benefit of meeting up with the other mentees. Writing is essentially a lonely job. You spend a lot of your time on your own, making stuff up and then typing it out, deleting it all and starting again. The mentoring program is great in that it gives you direct response on your work from someone who has been through the publishing process. But, still, you don’t get to meet your mentor. And who can blame them? Writers are generally weirdos.
So, I got to meet with 7 or 8 other human beings who were going through or had just gone through the same scheme as I had. And they weren’t weirdos. Some of them were even friendly and chatty.
From an industry point of view we had presentations from Will Atkins, Director of Macmillan New Writing, Arzu Tahsin, Editorial Director at Orion and Carolina Sutton, Agent at Curtis Brown. They talked us through how they work, what they do, how to craft submissions, the future of the publishing industry, the etiquette of approaching agents and much more. Really great stuff.
I’ve been to conferences before, heard agents and publishers talk, but the ability to sit in a room with only 8 other people and quiz influential people in the industry was invaluable.
I stopped short of thrusting my manuscript in their faces of course.
That would be rude.
I left the day feeling positive, fired up and highly motivated.
