Youwriteon

YouWriteOn was launched in January 2006 as a scheme to help new writers get published, sponsored by the Arts Council of England. Each month, youwriteon's highest rated top ten budding writers receive feedback from Editors for Bloomsbury, Random House and Orion, publishers of authors such as JK Rowling, Dan Brown and Terry Pratchett. Critiques are funded for the current year, 2013, and ongoing for future years. ^[1] To participate, writers upload their opening chapters and are reviewed by fellow members by the youwriteon system randomly assigning chapters.

Katherine Webb, author of bestselling novel The Legacy, was discovered on youwriteon.com by publisher Orion after being rated as a Top Ten story on youwriteon by members. The Legacy became an Amazon bestseller and Channel 4 TV Book Club winner. ^[2]

Members of the site upload the opening chapters of their novels to be peer reviewed and rated based on a variety of criteria: character, plot, pace & structure, use of language, narrative voice, dialogue, setting, theme and ideas.

On the first day of each month the five highest rated chapters receive a free professional critique. The best are then forwarded to the London agencies Curtis Brown (literary agents) and Christopher Little (JK Rowling ’s agent). ^[3]

Due to the success of the YouWriteOn, various other organizations have set up similar sites along the same lines, most notably the publisher HarperCollins which is launching their own version – authonomy.com – in 2008. ^{[4] [5]}

Literary professionals

The literary professionals involved with the site who provide feedback for the highest rated opening chapters of youwriteon members each month include:

Mainstream Publishers

Editors for Bloomsbury, Random House and Orion, publishers of authors such as JK Rowling, Dan Brown and Terry Pratchett ^[6]

Novelists

• Phil Whittaker and
• Martyn Bedford

Editors

• Gillian Stern (Curtis Brown),
• Sara O’Keefe (Orion),
• Michael Legat (Corgi, Cassell)

Agents

• Joanna Devereux,
• Mellissa Weatherill (Pollinger Ltd, London)

Book of the Year Award

At the end of each year, YouWriteOn's literary professionals judge the best opening chapters from the previous twelve months and choose six winners: three in the adult fiction category, three in the children's fiction.

2007 award

• Overall winner: Guy Saville for The Africa Reich
• 2nd Place: Patricia Delois, The Bufflehead Sisters
• 3rd Place: Michael Alan, The Lorelei Effect

• Children’s fiction, winner: Justine Windsor for Charlie Squires goes Elsewhere
• 2nd Place: Sarah Star, Sharpshooter
• 3rd Place: Bob Burke, The Third Pig Detective Agency^[7]

2008 award

Winners

• Overall winner: Trilby Kent for Smoke Portrait^[8]
• 2nd Place: Barbara Galvin, A Penny On The Tracks
• 3rd Place: Patricia Delois, Penguins In Amsterdam

Runners Up

• A Monster in the Mirror by Nick Poole
• The Armchair Bride by Mo Fanning
• The Sorrowless Field by Perry Iles
• Spinebender by Oliver Conway
• Coombe's Wood by Lisa C Hinsley
• The Long Drop Goodbye by Jimmy Bain
• Franklin's Orb by Derek Haycock
• Somniac by Andrew Wood
• Rendail by Jo Reed

Children's fiction:

• Children’s fiction winner: Wai Ian Mo for Tiger-Mouse
• 2nd Place: David Wardale, Get Santa
• 3rd Place: Edwain Gorty, The Scream Park

Runners Up:

• The Misfits by Benjamin Twemlow
• Money Money Money by Linda Webbern
• Misericordia - The Magog Strikes Back by Steve Hartley
• Rising Fire by Lexi Revellian
• The Starstiller by Gee Askew

Successes

Book of the Year (2007) finalist Douglas Jackson won a six-figure, two-book deal for his novel The Emperor’s Elephant. It will be published by Transworld in 2008. ^[9]

Third place winner in the children’s category (2007), Bob Burke, secured a deal with The Friday Project for his book The Third Pig Detective Agency.

The Bufflehead Sisters by 2nd place runner-up (2007) Patricia Delois was the #1 recommended novel in Maine Sunday Telegram's '10 must reads for Christmas', and was described as 'the most stunning work of imagination published by a Maine author this year'. ^[10]

References

External links

• You Write On Home Page
• FeedARead Home Page
• Curtis Brown
• Christopher Little
• Africa Reich