Success Stories, Readers Spotlight, and much more...
News, events, resources and opportunities
Searchlight Awards 2026 Novel Prize for YA and Children’s Fiction, and Picture Book Author Prize. Enter by 30th September 2026, 23.59pm UK time.
Spark Mentoring: whether you want to work with one of our experienced mentors on a monthly or one-off basis, we provide an affordable and flexible set of options to help you get the help you need to elevate your manuscript.
Sign up for Early Bird Tickets/more information here.
WM Awards 2026: Readers Spotlight
An often unheralded part of our awards is the early rounds reading which goes on from our experienced, trusted reading group of agented and published authors, who not only judge the best entries to progress, but provide the valuable feedback which many of your opted to receive (thanks for all your kind words on this - I was unable to reply to each of you individually - as you can imagine the number of replies from 1300+ entries was significant).
They are a super bunch of people, first and foremost, and always work hard to meet the self-imposed deadlines to keep the phases of the awards timeous.
But they are also talented authors in their own right, and I wanted to take a moment to list them all, and I hope you might consider checking out some of their books and supporting them with a purchase or library lend, or even use some of their services to help you improve your own writing.
WM Awards Readers 2026: Alexandra Page, Arden Jones, Callum Coles, Clare Helen Welsh, Donna David, Emily Randall-Jones, Emma Finlayson-Palmer, Fiona Barker, Julie Marney Leigh, Kathryn Clark, Melissa Welliver, Meredith Vigh, Polly Owen, Priscilla Mante, Sophia Payne, Steve Blackman, Sue Cunningham.
Also here’s a selection of our readers favourites that we asked them to select as part of their reading process - not all of these made the final lists but we thought it would still be nice for the authors to get that shout-out:
INK
Half-Dog Watch
Super Poo: The Rise of Super Pooper
The Pumpkin Curse
The Secret of Ravenspur
The Night Bus Riders
Henrietta Black
The Groucher
Daisy Cohen: Dance Detective
Adrian the Alien
The Cavegirl’s Guide to Pets
The Tea Doctor
Wowee! It’s a Unicorn Tree
Stop The Clocks
The Wasteland
Featured Spark Mentor
“My experience has been very bumpy, as is the norm for most authors. I have spent years in the querying trenches and I’m on my third agent so I can advise of all the pitfalls here. As a self-published and published author with indie presses and on sub with traditional publishers, I speak to this entire process. I also run ads for my self-published book on Amazon and Facebook so can give you advice here.
I’ve been around the block a few times, had my fair share of rejections and kicks in the teeth. I know how down you can feel, and I’m here to help you feel confident in your writing and be honest with you when you’re ready. Then you’re in for life and I don’t stop cheerleading! I have also done a few school visits – I just started before lockdown, so I can talk about what’s involved here and how to tackle the nerves. So, in summary, I have knowledge of every step of the process and can help a mentee navigate any stage.”
Hub Calendar (all times GMT/BST)
June
DACIW (Disabled and Chronically Ill Writers) chat Thursday 25th 11am with Katina
July
Monthly Catch-up Monday 6th 8pm with Melissa
YA Chat Tuesday 7th 7pm with Melinda
MG Chat Thursday 9th 7.30pm with Vashti
PB Chat Thursday 16th 7pm with Clare
Agent Q&A Monday 20th 7pm with Safae El-Ouahabi from RCW Literary Agency
PitchHero Friday 24th (pitch on Thursday) with Safae El-Ouahabi from RCW Literary Agency
All guest agent/author sessions are recorded and available to watch back, so don’t fret about being there ‘live’. This is just a few of the many sessions/opportunities that happen every month in the Hub and are all available on catch-up if you join now.
What is the Hub?
The WriteMentor Hub is a group chat you actually want to be in. Writing club meets social hangout, here we cheer each other on, share knowledge and advice, level up our skills, and have fun doing it.
Everyone’s invited and our doors are open all year round. From absolute beginners to multi-published authors, we all have something to share and something to learn. No gatekeeping, no cliques, no secret handshakes. Just a welcoming crew of writers who understand that success is not about perfection, pressure, or pretension. It’s about connection, collaboration, and community.
More than just a space to chat, the Hub is a creative playground of inspiration: live talks and workshops, structured courses, and an ever-growing library of resources to help you hone your craft. Join critique groups for honest, constructive feedback, take part in interactive writing sprints to boost motivation, or pitch your work to agents in our monthly contests.
Whether you’re looking for advice, accountability, or a creative spark, join the Hub today.
The Final Word
We couldn’t be happier that another one of our WriteMentor Hub members, Claire L Gordon, has signed with a literary agent. After winning both Undiscovered Voices and The Rooker Prize within days of each other, Claire attracted the attention of multiple agents, including Emily Talbot at United Agents.
Here, we chat to Claire about her writing journey, how she came to secure representation from Emily, and her experience as a Hub member.
Tell us about your writing journey to date.
When I started writing, I was teaching in a primary school. My first attempt at a picture book emerged in early 2021. When I think back, I try not to be too mortified that I ever printed it out and showed it to colleagues. By 2022, I had signed up for a six-week course run by Lou Treleaven, which was a fantastic introduction to writing picture books. At week five, I found out I was pregnant with my third child. And if morning sickness wasn’t bad enough, after eleven years of being seizure-free (I have epilepsy), pregnancy triggered several seizures. I didn’t start writing again until late 2023. This is when I had an idea for a middle-grade story.
I had never thought about writing a novel before. I didn’t even know what middle-grade meant, but I couldn’t get the idea of being a children’s author out of my head. I was told it was virtually impossible. I was told I would never earn any money. I was told the statistics were not in my favour. But with stubbornness and competitiveness on my side, I knew there must be a way. After all, authors were mortals like me once, weren’t they? I knew I had to learn the craft, so I made a commitment and signed up to The Novelry to study. For me, this turned out to be a worthwhile investment. I learnt about structure, character motivations, how to hook a reader, pace, mid-points and so much more. At first, it was overwhelming and took me the next few years of writing and experimenting to really understand what all this meant.
While working on my middle-grade, I also wrote picture and chapter books, which I entered into competitions. After longlisting in the first one I entered, I couldn’t wait to enter more. The dopamine hit was obviously amazing, but more importantly, it was the first time I had some impartial, external validation. And although competition listings are not essential, for me, they were signs I was on the right track. I entered everything I could. At some point, I stepped back from teaching and began childminding to give myself more time to write. I even picked up an extra morning of work so I could fund the competitions and some additional editorial feedback.
In 2025, in addition to listing in other competitions, I was shortlisted for two stories in the Ideal Idol competition and for the WriteMentor Awards (with the picture book idea I came up with on Lou Treleaven’s course years before). The competitions were great for testing ideas and for keeping me motivated. By the end of the year, I was ready to query. I had polished a chapter book until it was so shiny that I could see my smug smile in it. I had received positive feedback. I was told it was great. It was ready. I was SO ready. This was going to be it…
Querying can be brutal and unintentionally cruel. I knew agents’ inboxes were always flooded. I knew there were always too many great stories to be picked up, but this knowledge didn’t stop my heart from sinking as the form rejections started to trickle in. However, I quickly picked myself up. It was fine – after all, I wasn’t querying the middle grade I had now been writing for years. I still had that. By a stroke of good fortune, in January 2026, I found out I had won Undiscovered Voices (with the same chapter book I was querying). I paused sending anything else to agents, planning to query after the UV winners were publicly announced.
In the long four and a half months I waited, I felt a shift. Suddenly, something that would have taken me a month to write was now taking a week. New story ideas were coming to me and I already knew the ending. Everything that I had studied started to make sense, and I felt like I sort of, kind of, maybe a little bit knew what I was doing.
Winning two writing competitions was a pivotal moment, as they led to signing with an agent. I’m trying to pause for long enough to enjoy it before diving into what’s coming next. I’ve had some exceptionally kind and generous help over the years, and I will be forever grateful to all those brilliant writers who supported me.
Ultimately, the thing that has kept me writing over the years, especially when it has felt utterly impossible, has been my three children. I held on to the thought that if my children saw me give up on my dream, they might one day find it easier to give up on theirs.
Can you tell us about how you secured agent representation?
Days after being named one of the winners of Undiscovered Voices for my chapter book, I was also named the winner of The Rooker Prize for my brand-new middle-grade opening. The brilliant Karen, who runs The Rooker Prize, arranged for the announcement to be in The Bookseller and within a few hours, I had agents getting in touch, asking for fulls and to see what else I was working on. One of those agents was Emily Talbot from United Agents, and I couldn’t be happier that I signed with her.
What’s your favourite thing about being a Hub member?
I have logged onto WriteMentor most days since I joined, and it has become part of my routine before each writing session. Whether I was writing in silence at my kitchen table, on the bathroom floor while my kids were in the bath or in the darkness making notes on my phone while holding my youngest’s hand, I never felt alone. I love how everyone there just gets it, and there is always someone to reach out to if you need someone to lean on. However supportive and encouraging non-writing friends and family are, there’s nothing like other writers cheering you on. In the Hub, there’s no separation between new, agented and published authors - we’re all in it together.
I also have to mention how amazing it is that you have the option to pitch to an agent every month. What an amazing opportunity to see if your pitch is working and to potentially climb to the top of the ‘slush pile’.
What is your best piece of writing advice?
Be open to critique, resilient to setbacks, always know you can improve, trust your instincts, give up on housework and if you really want it – never EVER give up!
Why do you think it’s important for writers to be part of a community?
For authors, I think community is vital. There are not many pursuits where you live in so much hope and put in so much time and effort, not knowing if any of it will pay off. We all have well-meaning friends who ask – Why don’t you just [insert literally anything here], but we writers know why we don’t.
The process can be desperately isolating and building a network of other writers can help tremendously. Personally, I have found my tribe through the Hub, Instagram and fellow listees in competitions. These are the people who understand the rejection without needing it explained. These are the people who can hold you accountable. These are the people who can inspire you and show you that yes, the odds may be stacked against you, but it can be done.
Follow Claire’s writing journey on Instagram: @claire.l.gordon.writes (https://www.instagram.com/claire.l.gordon.writes/)
Join the WriteMentor Hub: https://write-mentor.com/community-learning-hub/
Writing can be lonely, but it doesn’t need to be
May the Force be with you!
Stuart, Florianne and Melissa