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The Ruppin Agency has launched a nationwide writer development scheme offering a variety of editing and mentoring services and one free place for a writer of limited means.
The literary agency, which was founded by former bookseller Jonathan Ruppin in 2017, is launching The Ruppin Agency Writers’ Studio, offering mentoring and editing packages to writers of fiction, non-fiction and young adult.
Fees for the services vary with the full mentoring and editing package costing around £2,000 while a series of 12 one-hour monthly mentoring sessions costs £2,155. There are a limited number of full mentoring and editing packages available and success is dependent on application. The service will involve one-to-one mentoring sessions, a developmental edit provided by The Book Edit and a session of literary agent advice. One place will be offered free to a writer of limited means.
Ruppin said of the funded free place for a writer of means: “Our free place, offered in the spirit of the Agency’s aim of finding underrepresented writers, is intended as a step on the road to publication for someone who might not otherwise have the opportunity to fulfil their potential. As The Writers’ Studio grows, we intend to increase the number of free places available.”
Mentoring will be directed by author Emma Claire Sweeney, a creative writing lecturer for 15 years. These sessions, which are open to all, will be offered for fixed periods as well as one-off sessions and bespoke options. Each writer will be matched with one of a line-up of mentors from across the UK, “experienced in the relevant genre and offering both face-to-face feedback and video consultations,” the Agency said.
Sweeney said: “As an author originally from the north-west of England, I feel it’s important to make our services accessible across the country. Our mentors have the experience both to help writers take their drafts to the next level and to better understand how the industry works.”
The new venture will run in association with editing consultancy, The Book Edit, which is run by Emily Pedder, course director at City, University of London. The nationwide line-up of mentors includes writers such as Women’s Prize-shortlisted novelist Emma Henderson, Royal Society of Literature fellow Irenosen Okojie, three-time Carnegie Medal nominee Martyn Bedford and Jonathan Taylor, director of the MA in Creative Writing at the University of Leicester.