Dear friends of The Literary Consultancy,
I would like to send a message to our writing community, to send solidarity and good wishes to you all, and to let you know that the TLC team will be working from home for the foreseeable future in order to protect ours and others' health. We are continuing to accept all general enquiries, submissions for manuscript assessment, and applications for online or Skype mentoring on our Chapter and Verse mentoring programme. Please do continue to send us work in!
Regrettably, on the Events side of things, our venue partner Free Word has today declared that its forthcoming season of events has been cancelled and the building closed, which means that all TLC events scheduled for March, April and May will no longer be taking place. We will be in touch with ticket-holders to individual events with further details. All events from June onwards, including TLC Writers' Day and the TLC Literary Adventure, remain scheduled and we will be in close contact with relevant agencies to ensure that the safety and wellbeing of our audiences, staff, and freelancers is prioritised. We are also looking into the possibility of creating new digital offerings for writers, so do look out for news on those.
Our excellent freelancers who deliver these services are relying on income from jobs like these in these uncertain times, with many cancellations forecast. TLC is committed to honouring fees and payments even in the event of cancellations, and we are pleased to say that we are set up to process all of our freelancer payments on a weekly basis so as not to disrupt the cashflow of our valuable readers, mentors, and other contractors.
This is an unprecedented and evolving situation, and we will keep in touch with any further updates, and will act in accordance with government guidelines and Public Health England recommendations.
As we are working remotely for the time being, we are unfortunately unable to take postal submissions, however you can still email us (info@literaryconsultancy.co.uk) or use our handy online portal to submit your work for professional feedback directly. Payment can also be made online easily and securely. All information on how to submit, including the privacy policy for our online submissions portal, can be found here.
We will be working normal TLC hours, Monday-Friday 10am-5.30pm. Unfortunately the phone line is not currently accessible. We apologise for any inconvenience caused, but are optimistic that we are set up to minimise any disruption. We do not envisage any disruption to service turnaround times, and we are working our way through any reports due in the normal manner.
Please do remember that the current government guidance is to avoid all nonessential travel. It is also a priority to protect society's most vulnerable, and this means following the government guidelines on self-isolation if you encounter any symptoms (fever; a new or persistent cough), and ensuring that even if you remain healthy and asymptomatic, you do not risk passing the virus on to someone whose life it would impact more significantly.
We wish you all well, and do please continue to join us on social media where we'll continue to share news, tips, opportunities and interesting content for the writing community. You can find us:
On Facebook: The Literary Consultancy
On Twitter: @TLCUK
On Instagram: @theliteraryconsultancy
Wishing you all well in this challenging time. Stay safe and take care of one another. And do keep being creative, and telling stories.
With warmest wishes,
Aki Schilz
Director, The Literary Consultancy
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