E.L. Norry at City Writes — and a Novel Studio deadline to note

E.L. Norry is one of those writers who just keeps delivering, and we can't wait to celebrate her latest, Outlaws, out this July.

E.L. Norry’s latest novel, Outlaws, out this July

Norry is a multi-published author of middle-grade fiction and non-fiction, including Fablehouse and Fablehouse: Heart of Fire (Bloomsbury 2023 and 2024) and Runaways (Bloomsbury 2025). She is also an alumna of both the Book Edit Story Within and the Novel Studio, and this July she takes to the City Writes virtual stage to celebrate the publication of Outlaws (Bloomsbury), her latest middle-grade novel.

Author E.L. Norry

For those who don’t know, City Writes is City St George's termly showcase of new writing talent, founded and hosted by Dr Rebekah Lattin-Rawstrone and now in its seventh year. The event takes place on Wednesday 15 July at 7pm on Zoom and you can register here.

Alongside Norry, competition winners from the City St George’s Short Writing Courses community will also read their work live. If you are a past or present City St George’s Writing Short Course student, you are eligible to enter the competition. All you need is 1000 words of fiction or creative non-fiction. There is no set theme: all genres and reading ages are welcome (apart from picture books). The deadline is midnight, 12 June. Email your submission to: rebekah.lattin-rawstrone.2@city.ac.uk stating which course you took or are taking.

And for anyone who’s inspired to follow in E.L. Norry’s footsteps, the deadline for 2026/27 Novel Studio applications is fast approaching. If you're ready to write your novel, this is the programme I'd encourage you to look at seriously. I’m co-founder and course director of the programme at City St George's, and have seen firsthand, over the past twenty years, how helpful the course has been in guiding writers on that path towards publication..

It's a year-long, intensive programme – 30 weeks, two evenings a week – available in-person in London or fully online. Over three terms you’ll develop your novel from concept to completed submission package, workshopping in progress with peers and tutors, building craft across plotting, character, voice and narrative drive, and gaining access to agents and publishers in Term Three. Your work will be included in a professionally edited anthology distributed to all UK literary agents, and one-to-one tutorials and an industry showcase are all part of the year.

Two fully funded places are available via the Captain Tasos Politis Scholarship, open to talented writers from low-income households. Applications close 31 May. To apply or find out more, get in touch here.

Hope to see some of you at City Writes in July to celebrate E.L. Norry and the competition winners, and to read some applications to the Novel Studio before the May 31 deadline!


For anything else editing, mentoring or book coaching related, do get in touch.




The Book Edit Writers' Prize: Spotlight on last year's winners

As submissions for The Book Edit Writers’ Prize are now fully under way, we wanted to highlight how previous winners have benefited from the competition.

Clare Ramsaran

Since winning the Book Edit Writers’ Prize last year, Clare went on to be shortlisted for the Unbound Firsts Prize and longlisted for the Leeds Literary Prize.

In Clare's own words:

"Being a winner of the Book Edit Writers Prize was a huge confidence boost to me... It gave me the opportunity to share my work with a number of agents, a mentoring session with a Commissioning Editor from Legend Press and introduced me to a cohort of talented and nurturing writers (we're still in touch). The Book Edit team could not have been more supportive. If you're thinking of applying, don't hesitate!"

Winner Pavan Amara

Winner Clare Ramsaran

Pavan Amara:

“It was an honour to win last year's Book Edit Writers' Prize. It kickstarted my career as a writer. I'd recommend that any aspiring writer of colour apply."

The prize has also contributed to a sense of community among the winners.

Stephanie Torrance:

Winner Stephanie Torrance

"The Book Edit Writer's Prize was the very first writing prize I ever entered, so winning gave me so much confidence that I can actually pursue writing as a career. The community aspect of the prize, I feel, is also invaluable. I'm still in touch with the girls who also won and we keep up to date with each other's progress and successes. Since winning the prize, I received a scholarship to the Faber Academy for one of their novel writing courses so I've spent most of this year deconstructing my novel draft while doing the course with a view to begin querying agents early next year. This time last year, my draft was really rough. It's improved a lot in the last twelve months, in no small part due to the confidence and validation from winning the prize.”

After being picked as one of the original winners for 2023 Nicola Fieldsend went on to sign with a top literary agency.  In her words,

"I was delighted to discover I was one of the original eight winners of The Book Edit Writers' Prize 2023. Shortly after the news, I stepped down to sign with Hayley Steed at Janklow & Nesbit... The Book Edit Writers' Prize has been an important part of my writing journey ever since I was longlisted in 2022. Congratulations to the winners, and if you submitted in 2023, try again in 2024! You never know what might happen!"

There's no doubt that the contest has given the winners not only an introduction to the publishing world, but also increased confidence in their writing and a sense of community.

Thinking of applying this year?

We’re thrilled that our 2024 prize judge will be acclaimed author Lara Haworth. Lara will choose eight winners from a writing competition for British and/ or UK-based unpublished novelists from backgrounds and communities currently underrepresented in UK publishing.

Legend Press’s Commissioning Editor, Lauren Wolff-Jones, will read the winners’ first chapters and provide individual advice and feedback via Zoom.

The deadline for the submissions is the 15th October 2024 and you can see the full details and rules here. It’s a competition no one can lose that’s completely free to enter! For full competition details, dates and submission guidelines follow this link or click the button below to enter straight away. 

ENTER PRIZE

Katharine Light shortlisted for the Selfies 2024

Delighted to discover that Katharine Light has been shortlisted for the 2024 Selfies Book Awards for her debut novel, Like Me.

Launched by BookBrunch in 2018 to recognise excellence in the self-publishing market, the awards are sponsored by Ingram's self-publishing platform, IngramSpark®, and are run in association with the London Book Fair and Nielsen BookData.

The winners will be announced at this year’s London Book Fair on Tuesday 12 March.

Also on the adult fiction shortlist with Katharine are Shooters by Julia Boggio, Ostler by Susan Grossey, Hidden Depths by Jason Mann, Darcy: A Pride and Prejudice Variation by Alice McVeigh, The Eagle and The Cockerel by Alan Rhode and
Artificial Wisdom by Thomas R Weaver.

To find out more about Katharine’s path to publication, read her story here.

Congratulations to Katharine and all the shortlisted writers. We look forward to hearing more next week!

Katharine Light’s Path to Publication

When I was a young girl, my dad used to make me little books of paper and I would love to write in them. In my teens these became stories I wrote for my younger sister about a girl who falls in love with the bass player of a pop group. Absolutely not based on John Taylor from Duran Duran.

Author Katharine Light, photo by Alexandra Vanotti

Later on I tried my hand at writing a Mills & Boons. At around 50,000 words it was great practice, but not quite the right genre. When my children were small, I did a year long creative writing course with the Open University. Two years later I did the advanced version. Then, working full-time and a busy family life meant I kept writing only sporadically until 2018 when I started The Novel Studio at City, University of London. It was a brilliant year with excellent tutors in Emma Claire Sweeney, Rebekah Lattin-Rawstrone and Kirstan Hawkins. Fourteen of us completed the course, meeting twice a week and sharing our lives through writing. They are a very supportive and talented bunch.

At the end of the year, I had interest from three agents, and signed with one at A M Heath. This is it, I (naively) thought, on my way to publication… Sadly, during lockdown, having worked on this first novel, Like Me, (the agent’s suggestions definitely improved it), she said she wasn’t the right person to take it forward. This was followed by a dispiriting lack of response from several agents she recommended, as well as the two who had previously shown interest.

Throughout the pandemic, the Novel Studio cohort kept in touch, via a WhatsApp group. Before covid, about half of us carried on meeting in person, and carried over onto Zoom. Fellow alumnus Laurence Kershook published The Broygus in March 2022, and fellow alumna Lara Haworth’s book Monumenta will be published by Canongate in 2024.

On publication, I bought Laurence’s book in paperback and was very impressed. It’s a high quality, professionally produced book, as well as a terrific read, and I began to think maybe I could do that too. Independent publishing seeks to emulate the traditional publishing route, with a professional book edit from the wonderfully talented Emily Pedder, Founder of The Book Edit, and a great book cover from designer Simon Avery. Caroline Goldsmith of Goldsmith Publishing Consultancy ensured the manuscript was print and eBook ready, and Philippa Makepeace created the website. My advice is to surround yourself with people who know that they’re doing!

There was one major hiccough. The book has always been on the long side, and when it was first uploaded to www.kdp.amazon.com, although author royalties sounded generous, the print costs on the paperback version were so high, they were almost entirely swallowed up. After a drastic re-think, I cut fifty pages of the book, and added those onto the beginning of book two, which has now become two books. The manuscript for book two has just gone to the editor. The hope is to publish both that and book three in 2024.

There was a point at which I began to feel that the traditional publishing route was becoming less and less likely. Now I’m in my fifties, I developed a sense of urgency, fostered by reading Harry Bingham, founder of Jericho Writers, who is enthusiastic about indy publishing. It has been wonderful to hold the actual book in my hand. We held in person launches where I live in London, and in Altrincham, the fictional Millingham of the series. Lots of kind and lovely people came. As the book is about a group of teenage friends who meet up again twenty years later in their late thirties, the events have been the perfect excuse to reconnect with old friends from the past. As we said, life is now imitating art. We’re doing the fictional reunion for real, just many years later…

Katharine’s debut novel, Like Me

Katharine Light’s debut novel, Like Me, was published in autumn 2023. For more about Katharine visit her website.

And if you would like to find out more about how we could help with your book, have a look at our range of editing services here. Or drop us an email at info@thebookedit.co.uk.