Past Events

Need a new website? Can’t get your head around Twitter? Want to create a blog? Come along to one of our one-to-one sessions and we’ll tackle your web conundrums on the spot.  We can even set you up with a blog there and then and if it’s a new website you need we’ll give you some great, impartial advice on how to get up and running.

The TLC one-to-one web sessions are led by Kristen Harrison, founder of The Curved House, which specialises in designing and producing books and building websites that suit individual book projects. Kristen has extensive publishing experience having taught production and print management in Melbourne before moving to the UK to work in Penguin’s Production and Editorial departments. Kristen was also our in-house web specialist at the TLC conference in June.

Session date:

Tuesday 19th February

*In addition to these dates, Kristen is now also offering sessions on Skype to cater for those who are unable to make the trip to London.

Session Times

Morning

Session 1 9:00 – 10:30am

Session 2 10:45 – 12:15pm

Afternoon

Session 3 1:00-2:30pm

Session 4 2:45-4:15pm

Session 5 4:30 – 6:00pm

Session ticket: £90 per 1.5 hour session.

Click here for more details about Curved House.

Email: kristen@thecurvedhouse.com

The Literary Consultancy offers for the third year running an unforgettable and intimate winter-warmer at the Free Word Centre, combining winter glow with the best of music and literature.

The Tamesis String Quartet, featuring highly acclaimed violinists Nadia Myerscough and Anna de Bruin, Matthew Quenby on viola and cellist Vicky Matthews, will perform Beethoven’s  String Quartet No. 16 in F major, op. 135, with readings by actress Edie Campbell from Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being, in which Beethoven’s question and answer “Muß es sein?” (Must it be?) / “Es muß sein!” (It must be!) recurs frequently as one of the novel’s most important concepts.

We all reject out of hand the idea that the love of our life may be something light or weightless; we presume our love is what must be, that without it our life would no longer be the same; we feel that Beethoven himself, gloomy and awe-inspiring, is playing the “Es muss sein!” to our own great love. - Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being

The second act will present Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 8 in C minor, op. 110, with readings from Testimony. Both Kundera’s novel and Testimony are set against the backdrop of the Soviet regime, and both explore the challenges to individual freedom experienced by people living behind the Iron Curtain.

Devised by Rebecca Swift of The Literary Consultancy and musicologist Owen Mortimer.

6.30pm (drinks) performance at 7pm.

Tickets: £15 / £12 OAP / £8 (concessions)

Click here to book or call Free Word at: 020 7324 2570.

For more information please email TLC at info@literaryconsultancy.co.uk.

The Literary Consultancy presents a fundraising evening on behalf of The Maya Centre, a charity providing free psychodynamic counselling and group psychotherapy for women in Islington

Novelist, journalist and campaigner Melissa Benn will host an illustrious line-up of writers who will read from their work highlighting a variety of experiences from women’s lives. The event will entertain, dazzle and help us reflect about the work of the Maya Centre and many aspects of our society. After the readings, an auction with a range of exciting items will be led by  the brilliant Simon Fanshawe

Kamila Shamsie * Gillian Slovo * Abi Morgan * Lisa Dwan *

Join us for an intimate evening at the vibrant Free Word Centre.  Enjoy a glass of wine, canapes and a sparkling raffle that will kick December off with a bang.

Tickets are £35 but we have offered various pricing options so that you can donate more if you wish. All proceeds go to the Maya Centre.

You will also have the chance to donate more on the night, and we are of course extremely grateful for anything you can manage.

Tickets: £35 £60 £85 £110

Click here to book or call Free Word at: 020 7324 2570.

For more information please email TLC at info@literaryconsultancy.co.uk.

Smaller independent publishers are enjoying a renaissance in the internet age. For writers they can offer the kind of personal attention and access to digital services that may be hard to find in the mainstream. At what point, therefore, might a writer approach small presses rather than a large publisher?  What, if any, is the role of the agent in this changing world? Can it be financially viable for a writer to be published by an indie press? And – most importantly of all – who can we trust (small press or large conglomerate) to ensure that the best quality writing finds the audience it deserves?

Join Rebecca Swift, Director of The Literary Consultancy to consider these questions with a highly qualified panel:

• Shelley Weiner whose new novel The Audacious Mendacity of Lily Green is published by the go-ahead indie, Caffeine Nights
• Darren Laws, head of Caffeine Nights
• Rachel Ogden, Director of Inpress, an organisation that seeks to ensure that small presses do not get lost in the marketplace
• Justine Solomons, whose member organisation, Byte the Book, helps inform writers about how digital publishing really works.

6.30pm – 8pm

Tickets: £10 (Glass of wine included)

Click here to book or call Free Word at: 020 7324 2570.Venue: Free Word

The Literary Consultancy is delighted to join The Literary Platform,  The Curved House and Words of Colour Productions in a full day of networking and advice for published and self-published writers, as well as for small and medium-sized publishers who are looking to find out more about digital publishing, social media and how to develop online audiences.

Attendees can pre-arrange one-to-one sessions with a range of experts covering every stage of the digital publishing life-cycle – editorial consultancy for writers, advice and ideas around ebook and digital project production, distribution, marketing, PR and developing audiences online.

Attendees without an online presence are also invited to pre-book gratis half-hour sessions to create a social media presence on the spot via Facebook, twitter, Pinterest, etc. (Limited spaces – first come, first serve basis)

Break-out sessions will introduce those interested to what is happening at the cutting edge of digital publishing innovation.

Throughout the day, writers and publishers are invited to visit our Help! table to find out who they should be speaking to in the room for specialist advice. We’ll also create space for attendees to share experiences and network.

Information about the experts who will be available at the event will be updated regularly at The Literary Platform,  along with details of how to pre-book one-to-one appointments.

11am – 5pm

Tickets: £39

Venue: Rich Mix

Click here to book.

For more information please email TLC at info@literaryconsultancy.co.uk. The Literary Consultancy will be holding ‘digi’ sessions later in the year.  Sign up to our newsletter and receive updates and news about our sessions in the near future.

Need a new website? Can’t get your head around Twitter? Want to create a blog? Come along to one of our one-to-one sessions and we’ll tackle your web conundrums on the spot.  We can even set you up with a blog there and then and if it’s a new website you need we’ll give you some great, impartial advice on how to get up and running.

The TLC one-to-one web sessions are led by Kristen Harrison, founder of The Curved House, which specialises in designing and producing books and building websites that suit individual book projects. Kristen has extensive publishing experience having taught production and print management in Melbourne before moving to the UK to work in Penguin’s Production and Editorial departments. Kristen was also our in-house web specialist at the TLC conference in June.

Session dates:

15th October

5th November

6th November

Session Times

Morning

Session 1 9:00 – 10:30am

Session 2 10:45 – 12:15pm

Afternoon

Session 3 1:00-2:30pm

Session 4 2:45-4:15pm

Session 5 4:30 – 6:00pm

Session ticket: £70 per 1.5 hour session

Click here for more details about Curved House.

Email: info@literaryconsultancy.co.uk or call 020 7324 2563 to schedule a session.

The Literary Consultancy is delighted to be taking part in an innovative addition to the literary scene, the National Academy of Writing‘s Creative Writing Fair.

The aim of the inaugural NAW Creative Writing Fair is to offer a half-day, one-stop opportunity for aspiring writers to meet leading providers of writing tuition.

As NAW’s Director Richard Beard observes, creative writing tuition has moved beyond universities, and is now available from commercial or part-funded editorial service providers, educational charities, and some publishers and agents. This is a chance to come and find out for yourself which routes might work best for you, if any, at at what stage of development, and what guiding principles underpin each of the organisations.

Between 2.00 and 7.30 the Fair will also host three open panel discussions relevant to creative writing in the UK, debating the aim of creative writing and the influence of change within the world of publishing.

So that we have an idea of the number of attendees, please reigster in advance here.

The Fair takes place at Free Word, of which TLC is a Founding Member. Do come and visit us.

Participants at the NAW Fair include:

Arvon Foundation

Faber Academy

The Guardian/ UEA Masterclasses

The Literary Consultancy

University of East Anglia Creative Writing MA

TLC will be returning to the idyllic Casa Ana in October 2012. This beautiful Spanish home is set within the mesmerizing Alpujarras mountain range in Andalucia. Click here for a map of Ferreirola, the small, peaceful village within walking distance of Casa Ana.

The tutor will be the highly gifted and skilful Jacob Ross. Jacob is a published writer and well established creative writing tutor and editor. He has taught, amongst other places, at Arvon and Goldsmiths University and currently lectures in Narrative Craft and International Literature in England and abroad. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and has been a judge of the V.S. Pritchett Memorial Prize, the Olive Cook, Scott Moncrieff and Tom-Gallon Literary Awards.

In addition to Jacob’s sessions, TLC director Rebecca Swift will be on hand to offer advice about publishing and to run a session.

The week includes dinners arranged with the group at the local Spanish or vegetarian restaurant, optional walks in the glorious mountain range led by Casa Ana host Anne Hunt, an excursion by private bus to the stunning local village Capileira for shopping, one-to-one sessions throughout the week and of course plenty of free writing time.

Click here for more information about the programme or email us at: info@literaryconsultancy.co.uk for more information about the holiday.

We hope to see you there.

TLC Director Rebecca Swift will be at this year’s Porlock Arts Festival in Somerset. This is the 10th annual Porlock Arts Festival and are some wonderful headline acts and events planned.

Rebecca Swift, poet, author and journalist, will be talking about her biography of the American poet Emily Dickinson – Dickinson, Poetic Lives. Rebecca has written for The Guardian and The Independent and is co-founder of The Literary Consultancy, the UK’s leading manuscript assessment and editorial advice service.

In addition, Tom Hodgkinson, laid back editor of The Idler magazine, will be sharing his philosophy for enjoying life, and demonstrating his love of the ukulele! He has a weekly column in the Sunday Times magazine and has written four books while idling in his rented Exmoor farmhouse! He and his partner have recently opened the Idler Academy in Notting Hill.

7.30pm

Tickets: £8.00.  Bar available.

Venue: Porlock Village Hall

Click here for tickets or for more information about the Porlock Festival Programme. The festival is a four day event, which includes:  Kate Mosse, author of Labyrinth, Tim Kevan, whose BabyBarista Blog for the Guardian newspaper has been turned into two novels - Law and Disorder, and Law and Peace and Greg Chapman, writer of Condensed History of Britain - a one-man show telling the history of Britain using comedy, music and magic.

An up-to-the-minute conference to make sense of all the possibilities facing writers today, including:

• Making and selling ebooks
• Self-publishing v Traditional?
• Emerging international markets
• How technology changes literary forms
• Social media, and other promotional tools

With leading authors and industry figures:

HARI KUNZRU, KATE MOSSE, NICOLA MORGAN, SIMON TREWIN, MARIA REJT, KAROLINA SUTTON, DAVID GODWIN, LINDA GRANT, ROBERT KROESE, TOM WILLIAMS, ARZU TAHSIN, CATHRYN SUMMERHAYES, plus many more!

Full programme and Speaker biographies

Recommended by

TLC and the Arvon Foundation are joining forces at The London Book Fair to host a key conversation for publishing today with panelists Blake Morrison, Rebecca Carter, James Bridle and Nii Parkes.

Non-traditional publishing outlets are making it quicker and easier for writers to get their work published, both online and in print. Writers are excited that they can find self-publishing avenues that don’t require the go ahead from the traditional publishing ‘gatekeepers’? However, the role of editor, performed by these gatekeepers, is threatening to get lost. What is happening to editorial values in the brave new world, why should anyone care, and is paying sufficient attention to editors good for writers and their work in the long run? Also, what different kinds of editing are there? What are the differences between line-editing, copy editing, a structural edit and proof reading? We open up the world of editing and explore what is happening to it in modern publishing, both traditional and online.

Wellington Room (1&2)

Click here for more information.

10-11.30am: Masterclass with Rebecca Swift, Nicola Morgan and Jill Dawson

We have brought together some of the best in the business to help new writers think about what it takes to get published today. Jill Dawson, author of seven novels, and founder of Gold Dust, a mentoring scheme pairing new writers with established ones, Nicola Morgan, prolific best-selling author of Write to be Published and Rebecca Swift, Director of the UK’s leading manuscript assessment service The Literary Consultancy, will pool their substantial experience. Outlining how they see the challenges that lie ahead for you, they will give you their best advice, and answer the questions you have always wanted to ask.

Union Kennedy Room, Cambridge

£12/£10

12-1.30pm: TLC Published Writers Panel

What is the role of literary consultants? Are they worth the money? Here is your opportunity to hear from four people who took their chance and sent their manuscripts to The Literary Consultancy. Jim Powell (The Breaking of Eggs), Kerry Young (Pao), Alan Clarke (Rory’s Boys) and Fiona Mountain (Isabella) are now all published novelists and here to talk about their experiences and to read from their work.

Union Kennedy Room, Cambridge

£8/£7

Click here for more information. Booking opens 2nd March.

The Literary Consultancy is delighted to invite back The Tamesis Quartet and Edie Campbell for an unforgettable evening celebrating passion and love – with a hint of danger.

The Tamesis string quartet, featuring highly acclaimed violinists Nadia Myerscough and Anna de Bruin, Matthew Quernby on viola and cellist Christopher Allan, stunned us with their performance of works by Debussy and Satie  earlier in the year. Now they will perform two exquisite works by Leoš Janáček. The String Quartet No. 1, Kreutzer Sonata,  inspired by Leo Tolstoy‘s novella The Kreutzer Sonata which was in turn inspired by Beethoven‘s Violin Sonata No. 9, known as the Kreutzer Sonata after the violinist Rodolphe Kreutzer who first performed the piece. Janáček’s powerful String Quartet No. 2, Intimate Letters, also known as the composer’s manifesto on love, was written to his muse and beloved Kamila Stösslová, the young wife of an antique dealer from Písek, who greatly influenced the composer’s last period of productivity.  Together these pieces create an inimitable atmosphere of tension, beauty and taut love.

Edie Campbell performed the sell-out performance of her one woman show Emily Dickinson and I: The Journey of a Portrayal for TLC  in March this year. Here she will read from the work of Tolstoy, Ted Hughes and Leo Janacek to help locate and heighten this unique event.

Devised by Rebecca Swift of The Literary Consultancy and Jack Lynch of LynchPin Productions.

6.30 (drinks) performance at 7pm.

Tickets: £12 / £8 (concessions)

Click here to book or call Free Word at: 020 7324 2570.

For more information please email TLC at info@literaryconsultancy.co.uk.

The Literary Consultancy presents a fundraising evening on behalf of The Maya Centre,
a charity providing free psychodynamic counselling and group psychotherapy for women in Islington

Novelist, journalist and campaigner Melissa Benn will host an illustrious line-up of writers who will read from their work highlighting a variety of experiences
from women’s lives. The event will entertain, dazzle and help us reflect about the work of the Maya Centre and many aspects of our society.

Jill Dawson * Margaret Drabble * Helen Simpson * Sarah Waters

Join us for an intimate evening at the vibrant Free Word Centre. Enjoy a glass of wine, canapes and a sparkling raffle that will kick December off with a bang.

Tickets are £25 but we have offered various pricing options so that you can donate more if you wish. All proceeds go to the Maya Centre.

You will also have the chance to donate more on the night, and we are of course extremely grateful for anything you can manage.

Tickets: £25 £50 £75 £100

Click here to book or call Free Word at: 020 7324 2570.

For more information please email TLC at info@literaryconsultancy.co.uk.

How do you find an agent for your book? Who might take it on and what happens from there?

New Writing North offers a complete overview of the current publishing scene and advice on the how you can get your work published, including insight into what makes the independent presses different from the big guys and the pros and cons of self-publishing.

TLC director Rebecca Swift will be part of the full day programme, helping writers to understand how best to present themselves to the industry.

The event takes place at the National Glass Centre in Sunderland.

Tickets: £20

Click here to book.

For more information please see New Writing North’s website or email TLC at info@literaryconsultancy.co.uk.

The Literary Consultancy Director Rebecca Swift is joined by TLC manuscript assessors Kavita Bhanot and Aisha Rahman, along with broadcaster and author Isabel Losada. Together they will discuss the ways in which new writers can begin to think about what it will take to get their work published, and how your own projects might fit in to a rapidly changing literary landscape. This is a great chance to put your questions to these first-class editors and writers, who have between them years of experience and cover most literary genres. The Literary Consultancy, founded in 1996, offers objective editorial advice to writers, and holds a strong track record of helping writers get into print.

This event is supported by The Literary Consultancy and Diversity in Publishing Network (DIPNET)

Tickets: £5 / £12 (for an all day ticket)

Click here to book or call Free Word at: 020 7324 2570.

This event is part of a series of events for the DSC South Asian Literature Festival at the Free Word Centre on Saturday 15 October. Click here to view all events on this day and purchase an all day ticket.

Are you unsure about what publishers are looking for and how to submit to agents? At this informal discussion you’ll gain insight into the publishing industry and the current options available.

Join expert speakers from the publishing industry, TLC Director Rebecca Swift, Nicola Morgan, best-selling YA author and new writers’ bible Write to be published and Rebecca McEwan, Publicity Manager for Fourth Estate books. Each will give a short talk and answer questions in an informal, but informative event.

The event starts at 7pm (mingling and drinks from 6pm).

Tickets are £8 but all proceeds from ticket sales will be donated to Cancer Research UK.

Please sign up in advance on the webiste as places will be limited. 60 tickets will be made available for this event.

The Literary Consultancy is proud to invite Leaf Fielding, a former TLC client, to celebrate the launch of his memoir, To Live Outside the Law, published by Serpent’s Tail.

‘As bold and innovative as its author, To Live Outside the Law takes the reader on a breath-taking guided tour of academic acid absorption, hitch-hiking hells, emotional whirlwinds, years in the slammer, and colossal amounts of dope’

Howard Marks

To celebrate the publication of Margaret Drabble’s volume of short stories, A Day in the Life of a Smiling Woman, the novelist will be in conversation with Helen Simpson, the UK’s leading short-story practitioner, a unique voice in contemporary fiction.

TLC Director Rebecca Swift will lead the day in developing your ideas and giving you invaluable advice about getting your work published.

Rebecca has appeared at numerous literary festivals and on many panels talking about the work of TLC and the relationship between writers and the publishing industry. She has taught poetry at West Dean College of Further Education,  life-writing for the Hackney Music Development Trust and  ‘Approaches to Publication’ for Skyros Writers’ Lab and TLC’s own Literary Adventure holiday.

In partnership with Cyprus Well.  There will be a guest speaker and a Q&A session.

£45

Click here to book.

For queries contact lwasley@plymouth.ac.uk.

What archetypal structures under lie all novels? Does your story suit the form you have chosen? Are you struggling unnecessarily to make it work? Structure can present problems for even the most professional of writers however author  and tutor Jacob Ross offers an all-day workshop which draws on his years of experience, to teach what he has learned about the novel form.  In this inspiring master class he will examine how fictional narratives are made. He also considers what makes a novel more or less marketable,  why titles matter and sets you purposeful challenges and exercises that you can take away with you.

Jacob Ross has been hailed as ‘a writer of formidable technical range and emotional depth’. His novel Pynter Bender was published in September 2008 to much critical acclaim. It was short-listed for the 2009 Commonwealth Writers Regional Prize and chosen as one of the British Authors Club’s top three Best First Novels (2009).  Jacob is also the author of acclaimed short story collections, Song for Simone and A Way to Catch the Dust.  He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and has been a judge of the V.S. Pritchett Memorial Prize, the Olive Cook, Scott Moncrieff and Tom-Gallon Literary Awards.  Jacob has taught at Arvon and Goldsmiths, and currently works as a manuscript assessor for TLC.

£75/ £45 concessions.  Includes lunch, tea and coffee.

Click here to Book.

Because I could not stop for Death –

He kindly stopped for me –

TLC’s celebration of literature continues as this time we explore Emily Dickinson’s life and Poetry, through a performance by Edie Campbell.  Emily Dickinson & I: The Journey of a Portrayal, is a self-defined “one woman play about writing, acting and getting into Emily Dickinson’s dress.”

This Literary Evening helps mark the publication of Rebecca Swift’s new biographical study of Emily Dickinson, Poetic Lives: Emily Dickinson, Hesperus Press.

Drinks available from 6.30pm – Event starts 
7.00pm.

Join us for an enjoyable evening with theatre, poetry and wine for only £10. Click here to book.

The Literary Consultancy presents the Tamesis String Quartet and author Richard Skinner in ‘Dreamscapes’  - an alchemical evening exploring impressionism and surrealism with music and words

The newly formed Tamesis string quartet featuring highly acclaimed musicians, violinists Nadia Myerscough and Anna de Bruin, Matthew Quernby on viola and cellist Christopher Allan, will perform work by two of France’s best-loved impressionist composers, Debussy and Erik Satie. Debussy’s String Quartet and Satie’s Trois Gymnopédies explore the boundaries of consciousness and sound, whilst the surrealist dream-scapes of symbolist writer Henri Michaux, and the inner life of Erik Satie explore the equivalent inner landscapes of words. In addition, selected images by surrealist artists will enhance the sense of exploration of our inner worlds. Interspersed with the music, will be readings by Richard Skinner from the work of French symbolists, Henri Michaux’s ‘Dreams Like Enigmatic Paintings’, translated by Michael Eales, as well as extracts from his own, precise and stunning book about Erik Satie, ‘The Velvet Gentleman’. ’Dreamscapes’ promises to be an enchanting experience for the senses and the mind. Do join us for an evening  brim full of wonder and beauty.

Drinks available from 6.30pm – Event starts 
7.00pm.

£15/ £10 (concessions).  Click here to book.

If you liked last year’s candle lit atmosphere at our Keats’ evening, join us for Into the Mystic: the extraordinary life and poetry of WB Yeats.

WB Yeats was Ireland’s greatest poet and one of the towering figures in world literature. ‘Into the Mystic’ includes readings of many of his finest poems along with a colourful account of his life, much of it drawn from contemporary sources.

Drinks available from 6.30pm – Event starts 
7.00pm.

Poetry, laughter and winter-warmth in the middle of the busy season for only £7.50. Click here to book.