Wednesday, October 27, 2021
On Saturday October 16, BPA invited 26 writers to a country house setting in Kintbury, Berkshire, for our long-awaited Away Day. Once the room was full, the atmosphere was buzzing with creativity and a specific brand of friendliness we’ve come to expect from the...Friday, August 6, 2021
We are delighted to announce the BPA First Novel Award 2021 Shortlist. This year’s judges, literary agent Hellie Ogden from Janklow & Nesbit and award-winning author Kiran Millwood-Hargrave (The Mercies, The Girl of Ink and Stars), found it difficult to choose...Thursday, July 29, 2021
We are excited to announce the BPA First Novel Award 2021 Longlist. This year’s judges are literary agent Hellie Ogden from Janklow & Nesbit and award-winning author Kiran Millwood-Hargrave (The Mercies, The Girl of Ink and Stars). Prizes for the winners include...Thursday, March 18, 2021
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Ella King won the BPA Pitch Prize 2019 with the first 500 words of her brilliant first novel, Bad Fruit. Since then, she has accepted representation from literary agent Hellie Ogden (after receiving seven offers) and signed a two-book deal with HarperFiction (in a...Monday, November 9, 2020
Here at BPA, we’ve been enjoying a new writing blog set up by client Jane Lomas, and we wanted to let you know about it too! Jane has been in our mentorship programme over the past year while working on a contemporary novel, and she recently took a field trip...Saturday, October 3, 2020
A significant proportion of the manuscripts that come through BPA contain fundamental issues with POV. It’s a huge part of writing a novel, but one we don’t like to think about too much because it’s not as exciting as other aspects of the craft. In...
Wednesday, September 30, 2020
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To kick off BPA’s first online writing weekend, novelist and tutor Emma Darwin shared her insights on staying motivated, silencing inner critics and listening to inner editors. She started by acknowledging that we all want more writing time but it’s not a...
Saturday, July 18, 2020
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Friday, July 17, 2020
We are delighted to announce the First Novel Award 2020 Longlist. This year’s judges are literary agents Caroline Wood and Carrie Plitt from Felicity Bryan Agency and best selling author, Anna Hope (Expectation, The Ballroom, Wake). Prizes for the winners...
Friday, May 8, 2020
Mid lockdown and following the postponement of our May retreat and workshops we were delighted to offer 14 clients and BPA subscribers the chance to “meet” our literary agent friends Eve White and Ludo Cinelli and readers Aisha Bushby and Sarah...
Monday, April 27, 2020
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] Submissions Q & A with agents and readers from Eve White Literary Agency Wednesday May 6, 2020 6 pm – 7 pm on zoom. THIS EVENT IS NOW FULLY SUBSCRIBED. PLEASE CONTACT US TO RECEIVE INFORMATION ON FUTURE EVENTS...
Sunday, December 15, 2019
Christmas has come early for eight lucky winners of our inaugural Pitch Prize. Super agent Nelle Andrew of Peters, Fraser & Dunlop has selected her winners from over 300 entries across all genres. Each of the writers will have a one on one meeting with Nelle in...
Thursday, November 28, 2019
Our inaugural Pitch Prize with Peters, Fraser + Dunlop agent Nelle Andrew attracted over 300 entries. Writers submitted their opening 500 words and synopsis for the chance to pitch their novel and receive feedback from Nelle. Up to 10 winners will have a one on one...
Friday, September 27, 2019
We are delighted to announce the winners of the First Novel Award 2019. Our judges this year were Nelle Andrew of Peters, Fraser + Dunlop and author Beth Underdown. More than 525 entries were received from around the world with all genres represented. The standard of...
Friday, August 2, 2019
Blue Pencil Agency announces the First Novel Award 2019 Shortlist. Our 2019 judges are literary agent Nelle Andrew and author of The Witchfinder’s Sister, Beth Underwood. Prizes for the winner and runner up include an introduction to Nelle as well as £1,250 in...
Friday, July 12, 2019
Blue Pencil Agency announces the First Novel Award 2019 Longlist. Our 2019 judges are literary agent Nelle Andrew and author of The Witchfinder’s Sister, Beth Underwood. Prizes for the winner and runner up include an introduction to Nelle as well as £1,250 in...
Sunday, May 19, 2019
Gill Thompson was shortlisted for the inaugural First Novel Award in 2017. Her novel The Oceans Between Us was published by Headline Press in March on the same day as The Conviction of Cora Burns by Carolyn Kirby, our 2017 winner! “I had wanted to write a novel...
Saturday, May 18, 2019
Our May retreat at Asthall Manor in Oxfordshire took place last weekend. 10 writers spent four days in glorious sunshine in an inspiring and creative environment working on their novels and getting some help and advice from our guest tutors and BPA editors Sara and...
Saturday, May 18, 2019
2018 First Novel Award runner up Mandy Robotham has signed with agent Broo Doherty of DHH Literary Agency. Sales of her first book A Woman of War have surpassed expectations – e.book and paperback sales in UK are now at 81,000, with the paperback edition titled...
Tuesday, May 7, 2019
We are thrilled to announce that BPA client Carly Reagon has signed with Cathryn Summerhayes at Curtis Brown. The news followed the announcement that Carly was also shortlisted for the Lucy Cavendish College Fiction Prize for her entry “I’ll Find...
Friday, April 12, 2019
BPA retreat client Claire Lewis gathered family and friends together for her book launch at the Bluebird Cafe last night. Set in the Caribbean, She’s Mine is a gripping psychological thriller about a stolen child that Claire started while on the Faber Academy...
Tuesday, April 2, 2019
We are delighted that author and BPA client Ruby Speechley has been signed by Hera for two psychological thrillers, the first of which will be published in July 2019. This success comes just less than a year after Ruby signed with agent Jo Bell from the Bell Lomax...
Thursday, February 14, 2019
BPA client, Damhnait Monaghan is shortlisted for the Caledonia Novel Award. We’re keeping our fingers crossed!
Thursday, February 14, 2019
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Friday, November 30, 2018
After six months of reading through hundreds of entries in all genres from around the world, our judges Literary Agent of the Year Madeleine Milburn and author of The Maid’s Room Fiona Mitchell, have picked their winners. WINNER Jules Lampshire My Poor Deluded...
Thursday, November 29, 2018
Bluepencilagency announces the First Novel Award Shortlisted authors and titles. Our 2018 judges were Literary Agent of the Year, Madeleine Milburn and author of The Maid’s Room, Fiona Mitchell. BREEDER Mandy Robotham DOLL ...
Tuesday, October 23, 2018
Nine writers joined Sara and Emma for our Autumn retreat. We returned to beautiful Asthall Manor, childhood home of the Mitford sisters, where the sun shone and it felt more like summer than Autumn. We were wonderfully looked after by our cook Fiona Cullinane. Writers...
Monday, October 1, 2018
At this year’s Winchester Writer’s Festival we ran a one day workshop to a group of 25 writers on the tricky subject of Structure! It’s a character’s desires, fears and actions that shape story. We looked at how the protagonist’s character arc can...
Friday, September 14, 2018
Bluepencilagency announces the First Novel Award Longlist. Our 2018 judges are Literary Agent of the Year, Madeleine Milburn and author of The Maid’s Room, Fiona Mitchell. Prizes for the winner and runner up include an introduction to Madeleine as well as £1,250 in...
Wednesday, June 20, 2018
Thank you to everyone who attended our workshop on structure last week at the Winchester Writers’ Festival on the importance of structure. We were joined by 24 talented and enthusiastic writers and over the course of the workshop they produced a 100-word flash fiction...
Saturday, June 16, 2018
We are thrilled to confirm our two guest tutors for the October retreat at Asthall Manor, Oxfordshire. Best selling authors Tessa Hadley and Claire Fuller will give afternoon talks and evening readings to writers attending our five night retreat from October 7 –...
Tuesday, June 12, 2018
After a wonderful five days at our Wiltshire retreat we ended with everyone giving stunning elevator pitches for their novels. Thanks for coming.
Tuesday, June 12, 2018
Kirsty gave writers at our Wiltshire retreat the inside track on publishing trends and tips for getting noticed by agents and publishers. She talked about the importance of the pitch ” Have a clear vision of your story, who your reader is and why they should buy...
Friday, June 8, 2018
On June 6 writers at our Wiltshire retreat were inspired and enthused by the very talented Claire Fuller who kindly came to talk about her journey to getting published, the inspiration behind her best selling novels Our Endless Numbered Days and Swimming Lessons and...
Monday, May 21, 2018
Client Ruby Speechley posts about her journey to landing an agent “It’s been a long journey to find the right agent, but once we connected, it was a fairly swift process. I’m delighted to have signed with Jo Bell and the team at Bell Lomax Moreton Literary...
Wednesday, May 16, 2018
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...
Wednesday, January 7, 2026
The A–Z of Publishing: An Agent and Editor’s Guide Join us for either our London-based event or a live, online event, both featuring Joanna Swainson (co-founder and literary agent at Hardman & Swainson) and Katherine Burdon (commissioning editor at Quercus Books)....
Friday, December 19, 2025
What No One Tells You About Becoming a Bestseller Live Event, 7.00-9.00 pm GMT Author Samuel Burr will share the remarkable journey behind his bestselling debut novel. The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers follows an orphan raised by Britain’s finest puzzlemakers, as the...
Thursday, December 18, 2025
Craft Meets Commerce: What Publishers Want Writers to Know Samantha Eades is an award-winning publisher, editor, and publicist with 20 years of experience shaping commercial fiction bestsellers. She has held senior roles at three of the Big Five UK publishing houses...
Saturday, December 13, 2025
The 2025 Pitch Prize Winners This year’s Pitch Prize brought together an extraordinary range of voices and stories, with recurring themes ranging from witches and ghosts to the Irish Troubles and Scottish settings. From this rich and varied field, our judge, literary...
Monday, December 8, 2025
We are excited to reveal the 2025 Pitch Prize longlist! Our judge, literary agent Liza DeBlock from the Greenstone Literary Agency, found it incredibly difficult to narrow the entries down to just twenty. She told us she was blown away by the quality of the...
Tuesday, August 19, 2025
Psychic Distance Recording Psychic Distance: the fiction writer’s secret sauce. Over the years Emma has found that learning to work with psychic distance – often called narrative distance or emotional distance – is the game-changer for her students. Sometimes you may...
Tuesday, August 19, 2025
Agent Q & A - Recording Get the inside track on submitting to agents. Recording of an exclusive live Q&A with Liza DeBlock of Greenstone Literary Agency, our 2025 Pitch Prize agent judge. Liza reveals exactly what catches an agent’s eye—and what sends a submission...
Tuesday, August 19, 2025
Pitch Perfect - Recording It’s not only agents and editors who judge a book by the first page: in an industry driven by ‘Look Inside the Book’, the opening of a novel or memoir is one of the keys which draws a reader in irresistibly – or lets them wander off. Before...
Tuesday, August 19, 2025
Memoir, Life Writing, Creative Non-fiction Thursday October 23, 6:00 – 8:00 pm GMT Writing about real lives and experiences – your own, or someone else’s – is rewarding but also daunting. What if you have too much information, or your story involves other people?...
Wednesday, August 13, 2025
Revising & Editing All writers know that the most important stage of writing is actually the re-write – and this tutorial gives you the opportunity to find out what that really means. Of course editing is about a whole lot more than tidying up the sentences – but what...
