Get your applications in now if you’d like a year of 1-1 mentoring from amazing published children’s authors. The first 60 applicants will be offered a year of free writing workshops and more.
For all details and the application form, see our website: https://megaphonewrite.com/megaphone-mentoring-community-2023/ – we have mini-videos too, to help you get the best out of the year: https://megaphonewrite.com/resources-for-you/ . Can’t wait to read your writing!
We are absolutely delighted that another of our mentees has secured a great home for her books. DREAM HUNTERS, a magical middle-grade adventure set in a world where dreams and nightmares can be manipulated, was represented by Chloe Seager at the Madeleine Milburn Agency and acquired by fiction editorial director Michelle Misra, along with senior editor Arub Ahmed, at Simon and Schuster Children’s Books.
Nazima Pathan was mentored by Maisie Chan. Her writing stood out to us right from the application stage for strong, exciting concepts that were perfectly pitched for the age group, but this well-earned success also represents a LOT of Nazima’s hard work and time and intelligent self-editing over the mentoring year and beyond, to get a manuscript in the right state to catch the eye of a great agent and publisher – WELL DONE NAZIMA!
For the full story in The Bookseller:
https://www.thebookseller.com/rights/ss-childrens-pre-empts-pathans-magical-middle-grade-adventure-series
@MegaphoneWrite is launching a new mentoring scheme from 5/7/23! Unpublished people of colour writing for children or teenagers, submit 2,000 words at http://www.megaphonewrite.com Funded by @ALCS_UK @ace_midlands. Closing date 31/8/23
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We are delighted to announce that, thanks to generous funding from Arts Council England National Lottery Project Grants and the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society, we are offering 8 places on our mentoring scheme, plus free writer development support to the first 60 applicants, in 2023 – 2024. Applications are accepted via the website from 5th July 2023 till midnight on the 31st August 2023.
The scheme is for unpublished people of colour who want to become a published author for children or teenagers. You’ll need to submit 2,000 words of writing. We can’t wait to hear from you! Check the website for full details or the buttons below.
It never rains but it pours GOOD news, apparently! I’m thrilled to hear that Danielle Jawando – whose first novel was also widely celebrated – has gone on to win the Jhalak Prize Children’s and YA section with her wonderful second novel for teenagers, When Our Worlds Collided. Amazingly, last year the Jhalak Prize was also won by one of our former mentees: Maisie Chan! Both were on the very first Megaphone back in 2016 and it’s been amazing to see their careers hit the ground running and just keep going!
This feels like a great moment to shout out to our funders and core supporters who have made the Megaphone Writer Development scheme possible over the past few years: Arts Council England National Lottery Project Grants, The Publishers’ Association, Usborne Publishing, Writing West Midlands, and in 2023/4, the Authors Licencing and Collecting Society. Not to mention the individual authors, editors, agents and other who have donated either money or time to make it all happen. THANK YOU!
https://www.jhalakprize.com/childrens-ya
What an amazing sight this is for a sunny morning – How Far We’ve Come, the debut novel from the third Megaphone mentee to be published, just arrived through my letterbox! I’m so excited to read it and see how it has evolved from the first draft I read back in 2016. Joyce’s voice stood out back then and clearly nothing’s changed there – it’s still written in a powerfully distinctive first person voice, telling an original time-slip story that holds not just the past but the present up to scrutiny. Congratulations Joyce – and thanks for the shout-out in the acknowledgements!
We are delighted to be partnering with Spread the Word, RCW Literary Agency, and Dialogue Books to support a free 90 minute publishing workshop and feedback opportunity for aspiring authors of colour of adult commercial fiction or children’s and YA fiction. Megaphone will be offering membership of its Community group and all the writer development activities and opportunities available in it, to any attendees who are people of colour writing for children or teenagers. To apply, head to: https://www.rcwlitagency.com/workshops/ by 29th May, 6pm. The workshop itself is on July 5th at 1 pm.
Joanne Harris, Charlotte Vassell and Tanya Byrne are among the speakers confirmed to attend, and they will be joined by editors and agents from across commercial adult fiction and young adult fiction publishing for a panel covering a range of topics: including the submissions process, the role of agents and editors, and building an author profile.After the workshop, the authors will receive one-to-one feedback sessions with an editor or agent to discuss their manuscriptsA summary of the workshop and a series of resources will be made available online after the event. Applicants must be UK based.
So exicted to see the announcement of this news in The Bookseller! Joyce was one of our first mentees and is represented by Lydia Silver at Darley Anderson. Her YA novel, How Far We’ve Come , which explores the legacy of slavery in a truly beautiful narrative voice, has been bought by Amina Youssef at Simon and Schuster. Huge congratulations to Joyce and her team!
Happy new year! We’re delighted to start the year with the great news that ALCS, the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society, has awarded us funding to help support the next Megaphone Writer Development Scheme. We are enormously grateful for this, and we’ll post more news about the next scheme as soon as we have it!
The Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) is a not-for-profit organisation started by writers for the benefit of all types of writers. Owned by its members, ALCS collects money due for secondary uses of writers’ work. It is designed to support authors and their creativity; ensure they receive fair payment and see their rights are respected. It promotes and teaches the principles of copyright and campaigns for a fair deal. It represents over 117,000 members, and since 1977 has paid over £600million to writers.
For more information visit alcs.co.uk
We’d also like to recommend the ALCS’ recent research into author earnings, which found, among other things, a significant earnings gap for authors of colour:
https://www.alcs.co.uk/news/why-writers-are-at-a-loss-for-words .
We are absolutely delighted that another of our 2020 intake of mentees, Abimbola Fashola, has signed with Saffron Dodd at ASH literary agency to represent her writing for children. Congratulations Abimbola, we’re so happy for you!
Abimbola Fashola
“I want to say a huge thank you to both of you as without Megaphone I
would have not have got to this point! The scheme helped me so much
with my writing and also having access to agents via the scheme and
the open door session in the Community helped me to make this decision
with some prior knowledge on what to look out for in an agent. “
The most recent Book Trust Represents report has been published. This research collects statistics on the number of people of colour who are creating published children’s literature in the UK.
A few quick thoughts on the findings:
– The comments and insights given by so many writers reinforce facts we already knew, both good and bad. It’s clear that publishers are taking active steps to make sure they publish a greater diversity of voices. It’s also clear that there’s anxiety around how deep the change goes. The graph below, taken from the report, shows a sharp increase since 2016. It also shows that when my first book came out in 2008, I was one of just FOUR people of colour to have a first book for children published that year. There is really only one way: up!
– There are still very few British children’s book creators of colour. According to the report, in 2021, 11.7% of children’s book creators were people of colour. Only 4.5% were British. The Book Trust target of 13% of children’s books to be created by authors and illustrators of colour by 2022 looks a lot harder to reach if you consider only British writers.
I just don’t understand why this is the case. We have talented creators right here, who are both British and people of colour. Not choosing to publish them only reinforces the idea that, both at home and abroad, people of colour somehow can never be ‘really’ British. Yes, but… where are you really from? I would like to know if the majority of white creators of children’s books in the UK are also non-British. We need to value the voices and stories of British people of colour who create children’s literature. The fact that 34.5% of pupils of school age in England are from a minority ethnic background makes this even more imperative.
My warm thanks to everyone who contributed to this important research, especially Book Trust, Dr Melanie Ramdarshan Bold, Arts Council England and all the children’s literature creators who expressed their honest thoughts.
– Leila Rasheed
– Read the full report here: https://cdn.booktrust.org.uk/globalassets/resources/booktrust-represents/2022/research-reports/booktrust-represents-representation-of-people-of-colour-among-childrens-book-creators-in-the-uk.pdf
