Writers' Studio Full Mentoring & Editing Scheme

MONDAY 9TH MARCH is the deadline for the next round of applications to The Writers’ Studio Full Mentoring & Editing scheme, a collaboration between The Ruppin Agency and The Book Edit.

If you've made good progress with your book, fiction or non-fiction, and are now looking for that breakthrough that will make your writing stand out to agents and publishers, this is the ideal next step.

The package consists of six monthly sessions with a mentor and and a full developmental edit from  The Book Edit.

Your additional session with a literary agent will give you invaluable DOS and DON'TS specific to your book.

You can choose from our team of over 30 mentors, all published writers and experienced creative writing teachers, based across the UK, meeting up in person or via videocall.

For more information about the scheme contact: studio@ruppinagency.com.

3rd September will see publication day for debut novel, For When I’m Gone, by the hugely talented journalist Rebecca Ley.

Rebecca Ley, author of For When I’m Gone

While writing her novel, Rebecca worked with The Book Edit on a full developmental edit. With the feedback she received, she was able to rework the book and to secure an agent. Within a few months, she had sold the book to Orion. 

Speaking of her experience with The Book Edit, Rebecca said “I found it brilliant. It was invaluable to have an experienced editor look at my work before trying to find an agent. the suggestions she made were extremely perceptive and useful in the redrafting process.”

 The sale of Rebecca’s book to Orion demonstrates the value of an experienced editor in helping a writer develop their book to its best potential.

So what are you waiting for…?

Apply by 9th March. Contact studio@ruppinagency.com for more details.

Four phenomenal female authors publishing in 2020

2020 looks set to be very special for these four writers…

Deepa Anappara, published her debut novel, Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line, last month. The book has already won the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize, the Deborah Rogers Foundation Writers Award, and the Bridport/Peggy Chapman-Andrews Award for a First Novel.  It is now being translated into 17 languages.

Deepa’s short fiction has won the Dastaan Award, the Asian Writer Short Story Prize, the second prize in the Bristol Short Story awards, the third prize in the Asham awards, and has been broadcast on BBC Radio 4. She has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia, Norwich, where she is currently studying for a Creative-Critical Writing PhD on a CHASE doctoral fellowship.

Deepa Anappara’s debut novel

Harriet Tyce published her debut crime novel Blood Orange in 2019 to critical acclaim, with The Observer calling it ‘Complex and menacing…a very impressive debut.’ Blood Orange was shortlisted for the Dead Good Reader’s Award and selected for Richard and Judy’s bookclub choice in December 2019. Her second novel, Lies You Told – think Motherland meets noir – is due out in July.

Kiare Ladner will publish her debut novel, Nightshift, in July with Picador. Associate publisher Ravi Mirchandani described the novel as “an immensely exciting debut.”

Kiare’s short stories have been published in anthologies, journals, commissioned for radio and shortlisted in competitions, including the BBC National Short Story Award 2018. She won funding from David Higham towards an MA (Prose Writing) at the University of East Anglia, and then received further funding for a PhD (Creative Writing) at Aberystwyth University. She was given Curtis Brown’s HW Fisher Scholarship in 2018.

Last but not least, Hannah Begbie will publish her second novel, Blurred Lines, in June. Hannah published her debut novel, Mother, in 2018 with HarperCollins. Mother went on to win the Romantic Novelists’ Association Joan Hessayon Award for new writing and was made Book of the Month on Mumsnet and a pick for Fern Britton’s inaugural Book Club for Tesco. It has since been optioned by the BAFTA-winning Clerkenwell Films for adaptation into a television drama.

Congratulations to all four of these astonishingly talented women!

Bewitching readers

Shahrukh Husain is one of those rare breeds. A novelist and screenwriter who also happens to be a Jungian Psychoanalyst. This autumn has been busy for Shah with the ITV broadcast of her new series Beecham House, and now this: the reissue of The Virago Book of Witches, originally published in 1993. Edited by Shah, she has written a brand new preface which brilliantly highlights the relevance of the witch today: ‘resilient, edgy, awe-inspiring and potent. She never disappears from our culture for long.’ At a recent sold out Virago Speakeasy event celebrating the book, Shah was joined by award-winning writer Imogen Hermes Gowar to explore the power of the witch today. Prepare to be bewitched!

Rebecca Ley to publish debut novel with Orion Fiction

We were so thrilled to hear about this one.

Journalist and author, Rebecca Ley, has sold her debut novel, For When I’m Gone, to Orion.

Rebecca came to The Book Edit last year and was matched with one of our editors for a full developmental edit. With the feedback she received, she was able to rework the novel and to secure an agent, Sophie Lambert at Colville and Walsh. Within a few months, she had sold the book to Orion.

Publishing Director at Orion, Clare Hey, has said “Rebecca’s writing is full of hope and joy as well as sadness and loss and I am so excited to be bringing this wonderful novel to readers."

Speaking of her experience with The Book Edit, Rebecca has said “I found it brilliant. It was invaluable to have an experienced editor look at my work before trying to find an agent. the suggestions she made were extremely perceptive and useful in the redrafting process.”

A novel about love, grief and living, For When I’m Gone looks set to make everyone’s heart break next year. Congratulations, Rebecca!

Launch of Writers' Studio in association with The Ruppin Agency

We’re delighted to announce a brand new initiative between The Book Edit and The Ruppin Agency, launching today. Writers in the final stages of completing a full draft will now be able apply for a selective scheme, the Writers’ Studio Full Mentoring & Editing Package, offered in association with The Ruppin Agency. This features six monthly mentoring sessions, a one-to-one meeting with a literary agent and a detailed developmental edit of your manuscript.

This package is a step on the road to publication for writers ready to fulfil their potential.

We’ll be looking at the quality of your writing, your potential for publication (whatever you’re working on) and whether we think you’ll be able to make the most of the year-long programme.

Full details about how to apply are available on The Ruppin Agency website. If you have any questions not answered there, please contact studio@ruppinagency.com.