Write Your Book.
To professional publishing standard.
The Best Year of Your Writing Life.
Achievement, achievement, achievement with our 3-step mentored program.
A year of complete guidance and support to write your novel and fulfil your ambition to become an author. We will lead you through the creation of a sound and appealing story idea onto writing a novel, then revising and editing your first draft. You will complete and hold in your hands a manuscript to professional standard ready to pitch to literary agents. Don't leave your success to chance. Write a great story with us.
With your own bestselling author tutor to guide you and keep you on track.
Start today.
“You don't put your life into your books, you find it there.”
Alan Bennett
The Book in a Year ®
A Fully Supported Year of Writing.
Welcome to the no-fear novel. From a confident start to a happy ending. Create, write and complete a manuscript to publishing standard. Your tutor will oversee your progress to ensure you stay on track. We submit your work, when it's ready, to leading literary agents. While we offer a number of different courses (scroll down), most opt for this. The best route to becoming a published author.
Commit to your novel and save money with our bundled package and VIP support from the moment you sign up. Start today.
The Plans.
Choose your plan. Start today.
Immediate access to all the lessons to take each course at your own speed. The bundled packages include a 15% discount on individual course prices.
Enjoy 6 coaching calls while writing your novel, and 2 calls with feedback during the Big Edit. You have a year with us to enjoy the lessons and schedule mentoring to your needs. Relax!
1. The Book in a Year Plan.
PLAN. First, with the Classic course, we start work on the story (and plot) showing you The Five F's ® of big stories. You'll walk in the footsteps of the bestselling authors and create a unique and original idea.
WRITE. Then, in the Ninety Day Novel course, we hunker down on the story for the first seven days of the course, eyeballing it from every angle. You won’t start writing until you’ve had your first session with your tutor. We'll keep you on track and give you care and support, along with our writing community who will encourage you to keep going.
REVISE. We pull the story back into sight in The Big Edit course where we revise the manuscript to a standard for submission to our literary agents to secure a publishing deal.
Enjoy every phase of this magical year in the company of the Membership community and relax, we don’t leave the success of your story to chance. Save 10% on individual course prices when purchased separately. Price £1399 GBP or $1999 USD. Available in all global currencies at checkout.
2. The Novel Kickstarter
You're a writer in search of a big idea and you want to get writing. Want to create a story and complete a first draft? Includes Membership, the Classic course and our Novel course. Enjoy 6 coaching calls and a year's support while completing a first draft of your novel. Enjoy a 10% discount on the individual course prices. Price £950 or $1350. Available in all global currencies at checkout.
3. The Novel Development Plan
Got a novel in progress or an idea ready to roll? And you're serious about getting published? Prepare your novel for success with our fully mentored plan with 12 months of support. Includes 6 coaching calls while writing your novel, and 2 calls with feedback on to complete your work with the Big Edit. Enjoy a 10% discount on Membership, the Novel course and The Big Edit when purchased together as a bundle here. Price £1115 or $1550. Available in all global currencies at checkout.
Q. What's the course format?
Bestselling Author Tutors.
Choose your tutor to guide you through completing your book. You'll get the personal guidance you need customized to your novel. We are committed to your success. (And we love what we do!)
Harriet Tyce.
Author and tutor mentor.
Harriet Tyce is the internationally bestselling author of Blood Orange published in 2019 to huge critical acclaim. Blood Orange was a Richard and Judy Book Club pick. Long-listed for the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2020. Shortlisted for the Dead Good Reader Awards 2019. It has been translated into 22 languages and she has been described as 'The new Paula Hawkins'. 'Keep your eyes on Tyce' warns Booklist. Her second novel, The Lies You Told (2020) is another bestselling page-turner which has won acclaim for it's "jaw-dropping last line twist.” (Lisa Jewell.)
Katie Khan.
Author and tutor mentor.
Katie Khan’s first novel, Hold Back the Stars, was published in the UK by Penguin Random House and in the U.S. by Simon & Schuster in 2017, and has been translated into twenty-one languages around the world. Katie’s second novel, The Light Between Us, was published by Penguin Random House in 2018. A major motion movie of Hold Back the Stars is in the works at studio Lionsgate.
Emylia Hall.
Author and tutor mentor.
Emylia Hall's first novel, The Book of Summers, was published in the UK by Headline, and was one of the bestselling debuts of the year. It was a Richard and Judy Bookclub selection and went on to be voted the favourite read of the summer by readers. It was translated into eight languages.A Heart Bent Out of Shape was published in 2013 and won the Novelicious Book of the Year Award. The Sea Between Us followed in 2015 and The Thousand Lights Hotel in 2017.
Kate Riordan
Author and tutor mentor.
Kate Riordan is the author of four novels and short stories. The Girl in the Photograph was a Sunday Times bestseller, published by Penguin in 2015. It was Penguin's bestselling e-book that summer. The Shadow Hour was published in 2016. The Stranger followed in 2018 and was a Top Ten Red Magazine choice of that year. Published in September 2020, The Heatwave was a must-read Richard and Judy Book Club Thriller pick. A tense psychological thriller, set in Provence, it went to No.1 in the Apple Fiction Chart.
Polly Ho-Yen.
Author and tutor mentor.
Polly's first novel, Boy in the Tower, was published in 2014 by Random House Children's Publishers, and nominated for the Carnegie Medal and shortlisted for the Blue Peter Book Award and the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize. Her second novel Where Monsters Lie was published in 2016 and her third novel, Fly Me Home, was published in 2017. Both of these novels were also nominated for the Carnegie Medal. Her new novel, her adult debut, Dark Lullaby, explores a dystopian future.
Louise Dean.
Founder and Course Director.
Author, Louise Dean, has won The Betty Trask Prize and Le Prince Maurice Prize, been nominated for The Guardian First Book Prize, and longlisted for the Dublin International Literary Award and the Booker Prize.
Her novels have been published internationally by Penguin Randomhouse, Simon & Schuster and others and praised by fellow authors Ali Smith and the Nobel Laureate J.M. Coetzee.
How The Book in a Year Plan Works.
We welcome you to The Novelry when you sign up for The Book in a Year plan with a first Welcome Call to meet for the first time with your tutor or with the course director, Louise Dean. At that first meeting, we’ll explain what’s in store, how it works and answer any questions.
You'll kick off your year with the amazing Classic Course, a self-paced course of 45 lessons to ensure you're packing a big story idea.
You'll move onto the Novel Course to write your novel next. When you have had time to use the first lessons to assess your idea from every angle, you’ll meet with your tutor to take a look at your proposed story idea. It's a minimum 30-minute chat online via Zoom, recorded for you to keep. These are sleeves-rolled-up sessions, with your tutor at your side, a co-pilot for the journey. You’ll have been guided how to fill in a one-page outline in the course before that session, and your answers form the basis of a cogent and compelling story. Your tutor will have had a good look at it before the first session, as our platform ensures that every time you update that plan, we get sight of it. Both your tutor and the course director take a peek. (As a group of author tutors, we review our writers' plan together in advance and we pre-empt any potential pitfalls so that you can write your story with confidence that this time you’re heading in the right direction!)
At your very first session, we ask you a question - what is your ambition? What do you want? This is your brief to us, and whatever that is, whether it’s a mainstream Big Five publishing house commercial fiction contract or simply finishing the book your style, your way is fine by us. But we want to establish what you want so we can best guide you.
After that first session, you can book your tutor calls at your convenience at our booking page. We offer times suitable for writers in all time zones worldwide. You can schedule and reschedule as you wish. Some like to take the sessions upfront, at the outset, to ensure they’re on the right track. Others like to take them at regular intervals to check-in and talk about the way the story’s developing. You have a year with us in which to take them.
If you choose, at checkout, to upgrade to convert three of the six novel course calls to include feedback, you’ll have the opportunity to submit 2500 words in advance of a 45-minute meeting and your tutor will give you written feedback and talk you through it in the session. You can get feedback on your work at any stage during the year with us. Best left to the later stages, probably. You can also add extra paid feedback calls to your plan and upgrade any calls to read 5000 words or more at any time, with any tutor.
You’ll have two longer sessions with us when you come onto The Big Edit, which is the last phase of the Book in a Year Plan. This course prepares your first draft for successful submission to our literary agent partners. We are tough on the work because we want you to succeed. We will never leave you in the dark but shine a light on where and how to improve your chances of achieving your ambition. Your success is very much at the heart of what we do.
At the outset of The Big Edit, we will look again at the story and how it’s developed in the first draft and ensure it’s shipshape and ready for revision. That’s a big session, usually a minimum of 45-minutes. You can then revise, using the guidance of the course, to produce a story we are confident of having every chance of success. You'll be able to use our worldwide writers workshop to get constructive feedback from the best besta-readers - other writers!
In the final session of The Big Edit, you submit your first three chapters and synopsis - the traditional submissions package - to us and we review it with forensic care before we make a plan with you to pitch to the agents of your choice on our impressive list of literary agency partners. We submit to our agents, with whom we have close working relationships, and they respond to us in preference within two weeks. No slush pile for our graduates! Literary agents such as United Agents and Trident Media Group in the USA, have come to look forward to high-quality manuscripts from The Novelry.
What makes The Novelry so different is that we set our sights on your ambition from the outset and we’re focussed on helping you spend your time wisely. Every writer gets a customized plan of support and the best advice for their story. We fast track our writers and spare them several lost drafts with insightful advice on their story from bestselling authors. You'll never look back, and we'll keep you smiling. The Novelry is a happy place.
Our Positive Teaching Method.
At the heart of The Novelry is our positive teaching method. We offer a collaborative environment, not a competitive environment. We believe all writers, at all stages of their career, are always learning their craft. We work as comrades. It takes a working writer to have the humility and sense to practise gentle, positive care. We want the best for you and your story. Our one-to-one sessions with our writers are lively and exciting. We love what we do.
We will help you grow as a writer and build your skills and confidence. Don't take risks with your work. Come on over to The Novelry. It's a safe place, and we get far better results faster with our positive and collaborative teaching method.
Bestselling Author Sessions.
Members can join us for live sessions with world-class authors or view the sessions on our fabulous Catch-Up TV at The Novelry.
In Association with Leading Global Literary Agencies.
The Novelry pitches your work to global literary agencies. This is the fast track to getting published.
Our agency friends look forward to reading manuscripts from writers of The Novelry due to the high standard of work from our course graduates. Join us and achieve your ambition to be an author with a publishing contract.
Welcome home, writers.
The Worldwide Community for Novelists.
We are a vibrant, warm-hearted, online novelists' community open 24 hours a day worldwide, from Alaska to Adelaide, with writers in every genre, every time zone, every stage and every age.
During your time with us on The Book in a Year plan, you will enjoy support from our worldwide community of writers turning pro. Most are beginners, many are published. We have a buddy system and a vibrant and buzzing community site dedicated to keeping you encouraged and motivated.
Almost everyone continues with us as a member after they finish their first novel with us as there’s no place like home. We offer membership and continued access to the courses from just £10.99 a month as we want you to stay with us!
We have very fond and warm working relationships with our fellow writers. Take a look at our testimonials here. We have regular exciting Zoom events with bestselling authors to keep you fired up and a weekly Story Clinic - a Q&A session with one of our tutors to troubleshoot any problems you might be having. Not to mention our twice-monthly Team Chats which are warm and fun.
The Novelry offers writers a full-body immersion in the profession of a working author, and the chance to develop the skills, working practice and confidence for a lifetime of happy writing.
And yes, you can do this and hold down a family and a day job. We'll show you how. What do you need? Well, to like reading and be able to find an hour a day. See you on the sunny side, soon. You'll never look back.
The “Life-changing” Courses with Five Star Reviews.
Most serious writers take courses or apprenticeships with published authors.
Stephen King learnt from John Gould. Ian McEwan, Kazuo Ishiguro, Anne Enright, Gillian Flynn and Tracy Chevalier all took classes. The list is long. Few are the authors who didn't study their craft. Learn from an acclaimed author. Write with confidence.
Read our Blog.
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