Success Stories

I was lucky enough for one of my poems to win the Disabled Poets Prize 2024 run by London Writers Centre and CRIPtic Arts. This led me to a TLC Editor 1-1 with Ahren Warner. Ahren’s editorial eye was sharp and inquisitive. His questions about my intentions for the work gave the poems better direction. His attention to detail and unassuming questioning was pivotal in shaping the poem. He was interested in who I was writing after and for, who I was reading at the time and his feedback spoke those things. This was hugely important in setting the tone of our session. He also recommended some books/poets whose work specifically thinks about vulnerability on the page. I still think back to this feedback because it was valuable beyond just the three poems we looked at. The insights were around my practice, positioning and desires as a writer.

It was in 2020, just as I had finished the first draft, that I was very generously offered feedback by Michael Langan as part of the LGBT+ Free Reads scheme. Michael was kind and encouraging, even at a very early stage of my novel, and helped me see that there was the kernel of something exciting there – I just had to keep digging for it. In fact, I recently went back to read Michael’s feedback and it was amazing to see how much he had teased out – specifically around certain things to do with characterisation and structure – that would go on to be something I paid attention to again and again as I redrafted.

“I’d always dreamed of being a published writer but had never managed to finish a novel I was happy with. Eight years ago, I decided it was now or never. Signing up for the TLC Manuscript Chapter and Verse Programme was a major part of that commitment to myself. I considered an MA and other writing courses but decided on TLC, not only because they’d been recommended by writers, but because the mentoring programme offers one to one, bespoke work with a published writer. TLC paired me with Jane Adams, the perfect match. The manuscript was a forerunner to The Departed. Working with Jane helped me to find my voice and was an unmissable part of my development as a writer. It also meant that when my detective, Leigh, popped into my mind, I already had the setting for the book.”

“I feel immensely lucky to have been able to work with Sarah Butler through The Literary Consultancy. Sarah was a wonderful mentor and editor, and the Chapter & Verse programme gave me the accountability, momentum and boost that I needed to complete my manuscript and send it off to agents.”

I wrote the first draft of The Ballad of Mary Kearney in 2016 and invested in a TLC report the following year with Lesley McDowell, a report I go back and read even now. Lesley really got what I was trying to do, encouraged me in what was unique about my writing but showed me ways in which I could make my novel, structurally and as regards voice, advising me also on comparative reading. I didn’t get an agent with this book, though I got some very encouraging feedback, but I did with the next one. Since then I have had five of my five historical novels published plus three novellas (under my own name and pseudonyms) and twenty short stories, but in that time I periodically revised Mary Kearney as I continued to believe in the book, and it will be published by Histria Fiction in the US in January 2025. I am now proud to work for TLC, providing feedback to other writers, as a TLC Editor.

A friend recommended I contact Stephanie Cross, writer and editor who edits for The Literary Consultancy. And what brilliant insightful editor she is, getting to the heart of the book, what’s it about, its themes, pointing out scenes that really worked, made her laugh, moved her, suggestions for pieces that need more work or could be cut. When I read her final edit it was flawless. I will be eternally grateful to Stephanie Cross and The Literary Consultancy. If you are at the beginning of your writing career or an established writer looking for expert advice on that final draft of your book, I strongly recommend you contact The Literary Consultancy.