Dear Friends of TLC,
 

15 TICKETS REMAINING + TLC Pen Factor Prize pot announced

We only have 15 tickets left available for our 2019 Writers' Day, and a £1,000 prize pot for the TLC Pen Factor Writing Competition has been revealed! Don't miss out and book now.

All Writers’ Day 2019 ticket-holders are eligible to enter their unpublished writing into the TLC Pen Factor Writing Competition. Previous winners and shortlisted writers have gone on to be shortlisted for the Costa Prize (Guinevere Glasfurd, TLC Pen Factor 2014, The Words In My Hand), longlisted for the OCM Bocas (Fawzia Kane, TLC Pen Factor 2012, Tantie Diablesse) and selected as WH Smith Fresh Pick (Piers Alexander, TLC Pen Factor 2013, The Bitter Trade).

2018 was another outstanding year for TLC Pen Factor successes, as finalist Abi Dare subsequently went on to win the 2018 Bath Novel Award, with her literary debut The Girl with the Louding Voice, which will be published by Sceptre/Hodder in 2020 after securing a significant advance. 2018 TLC Pen Factor winner, Neema Shah, who won with her novel Kololo Hill, will be published by Picador in 2021.

Your 2019 deadline for submitting to the TLC Pen Factor writing competition is 3rd June. Please follow the instructions in your box office email for the chance to pitch your work to literary agents. 

We are delighted to announce this year’s prize package, worth over £1,000, thanks to the generosity of our TLC Pen Factor partners:

Last Literary Adventure Room 8 Available 

BOOKING NOW OPEN - The Secret Life of Novels Part III

Tickets (and exclusive earlybird tickets for newsletter subscribers) are now available for the the third part of our acclaimed event series The Secret Life of Novels, where invite three authors at the top of their game to speak about their creative process, creatively. This exciting third instalment will be held at Free Word once again, and will be held on Thursday 6th June, 6.30pm-8.30pm.

The theme for our June event is playfulness and we are delighted to welcome Will Eaves, Susmita Bhattacharya, and Joseph Scapellato. Our guest novelists have all experimented with form, and are all writing highly intelligent, playful works, pushing the boundaries and challenging their readers.

BOOK NOW using code TLCSECRET19 for earlybird tickets at just £10 - limited number available until 22nd April!
(Standard tickets cost just £16/£12 concessions)

Why Writers Need a Business Mindset (At Least Some of the Time)

"One of the first things I learnt was about the concept of ‘your ideal reader’, or creating an ‘ideal customer profile’ in sales speak. When my first novel came out, if someone had asked me ‘Who’s your target audience?’ I would have said ‘anyone who wants to read it’. Now that response was complicated by others’ attempts to categorise the book. At the time (mid-noughties) the idea that a novel could be categorised as ‘lesbian fiction’ was controversial because of questions such as: is lesbian fiction really a genre? Is it too niche? Is that category based on the book or the sexuality of the writer? Am I pigeon-holing myself? Why aren’t other books branded ‘heterosexual fiction’?"

In this month's blog, writer, lecturer and tutor Louise Tondeur looks at how having a business mindset can stand writers in good stead at all stages of your writing 'career'. There is some really useful advice in there, from defining your ideal reader, to making sure you're where your readers are going to be.

You can read the full blog here

Do you have something on your mind, about books, literature and the value of literature, or publishing, that you'd like to blog about for us? We are actively seeking pitches to: aki@literaryconsultancy.co.uk

TLC Showcase: Christine Laurenson

'A Room of My Own' RSL Writers' Survey

90 years ago, Virginia Woolf said that to be a writer, a woman needed money and a room of her own. In 2019, we want to know what writers – at different stages of their careers, from different backgrounds, and from across the UK – require today in order to flourish professionally.

As writers’ incomes sharply decrease – from £18,000 in 2015 to £10,500 in 2018 in ALCS’s independent research into authors’ earnings – we want to know what you need to work: from money to mentoring, contract advice to the support of an agent, what do you need to have a career in writing? The Royal Society of Literature is leading this research in consultation with writer development organisations, funders and supporters across the UK, including: Arts Council England, Arts Council Northern Ireland, Creative Scotland, Literature Wales, Literature Works, National Centre for Writing, New Writing North, New Writing South, Scottish Book Trust, Scottish Poetry Library, Society of Authors, Spread the Word, The Literary Consultancy, Writers’ Guild of Great Britain, Writing East Midlands and Writing West Midlands.

The RSL will publish findings of this research on Dalloway Day, 19 June 2019.  This research is funded by ALCS. Writers can take the survey here: http://bit.ly/UKWritersSurvey.

Recommendations and Inspiration