THIS IS AN INVITATION-ONLY EVENT, exclusively for TLC Chapter and Verse mentees and included within TLC’s mentoring programme offer, which covers 12 months of one-to-one support, a full manuscript assessment, and this all-day event.

Twice a year, TLC opens its (virtual!) doors to mentees enrolled on our Chapter and Verse programme for an intimate one-day event to help writers better understand the ins and outs of the publishing process. Mentees will have been working on their book project with their TLC mentor over several one-to-one feedback sessions, and this day offers the opportunity for them to meet with a literary agent and a publisher, and fellow mentees.

The aim of the day is to demystify some of the in-house processes around submissions, acquisitions, rights, publicity and marketing, sales and distribution, and other elements that often remain hidden from view, as well as to get first-hand insight from those working within the industry and learn from their experiences. There will also be the opportunity to pitch work for live feedback from our industry guests. TLC mentees will be invited to this event on a rolling basis, usually towards the end of the six feedback sessions with their TLC mentor. Occasionally, writers may be invited in from prizes we support, or initiatives we partner on, for example the Bridport Prize and the SI Leeds Prize.

This Industry Day will be held online via Zoom. Automatic captions are provided.

Speakers:

Hannah Chukwu

Hannah Chukwu works as Editorial Director at Dialogue Books, commissioning literary fiction, non-fiction and poetry. She was previously Editor at Hamish Hamilton, PRH, where she was an editor for Five Dials, the series editor for Black Britain: Writing Back, and Policy and Campaigns Consultant for ‘Lit in Colour’. In 2021, she won the LBF Trailblazer Award and Rising Star Award in Arts and Media at the Black British Business Awards and was named on the EMpower Ethnic Minority Future Leader list. In 2022, she won a Print Charity Rising Star Award, was nominated for a Black Talent Award and was chosen as a finalist in the BCA 40×40 future leaders list. She is also a Trustee at education equality charity The Brilliant Club.

Jonathan Ruppin

Jonathan Ruppin has worked in the UK book trade for 23 years, including 13 years at London’s most famous bookshop Foyles. He founded The Ruppin Agency in 2017, handling literary and commercial ficiton and serious non-fiction, with the aim of promoting writers from underrepresented communities. He has judged a dozen literary awards, including the Costa Novel Award, the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize and Desmond Elliott Award. He has interviewed hundreds of authors in print and on stage, and his journalism encompasses television, radio and print.