Blue Pencil Agency offers editorial reports to writers who want their manuscript to be in the best shape possible before they approach a literary agent or self-publish. Our editors are bestselling authors and industry experts with shrewd eyes and a passion for supporting upcoming writers. We asked Sara Sarre, Oliver James, J. David Simons, Saskia…
SO, WHAT IS A SYNOPSIS? A synopsis is a functional document summarising the story of your novel. It usually fits on a single side of A4, but always check the agency/competition website for specific requirements. Third-person, present tense, reasonable font size… NAILING YOUR STRUCTURE We all love a good rhetorical question in a juicy…
Mandy Robotham is the author of “Breeder”, the story that was awarded the runner-up prize in the BPA First Novel Award Competition 2018. After completing a masters in creative writing at Oxford Brookes University, Mandy has won several prizes for her short stories. Our judges particularly enjoyed the tension and structure of Mandy’s writing and so we…
Jules Lampshire is the winner of the Blue Pencil Agency First Novel Award 2018 for her novel My Poor Deluded Girl which she wrote while attending the six month Faber Academy Writing a Novel programme in 2017. Our judges praised her work as being “one of those real moments in fiction where a reader can put themselves…
Beth Underdown, our author judge and lecturer in creative writing at Manchester University gives writers some tips to get their entries noticed. What will you be looking for in the competition line up? Somebody who really wants to tell me a story. If it’s a story unlike any I’ve read before, even better. Any advice…
We spoke to Nelle Andrews about what she’s looking for in this year’s BPA first novel award and this is what she had to say… When reading submissions, what is it that makes you want to read on? Strong narrative hook; good writing; plausible characterisation; clever opening What do you look for in that first…
Congratulations to our competition judge Madeleine Milburn for winning 2018 Agent of the Year at the prestigious British Book Awards on May 14. Madeleine is on somewhat of a roll having discovered this year’s leading new literary talent Elizabeth Macneal while reading for the Caledonia Award earlier this year. She recently oversaw a hotly contested…