Mentoring

Applications for the mentoring scheme are now closed. Sign up to the Writers and Publishers newsletter to be kept up to date with future opportunities.

 

 


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During 2012, the Scottish Book Trust Mentoring Scheme will support three established writers who need intensive support with a writing project. We will pair them up with a writer or industry professional for 9 months of mentoring with a writer or industry professional such as an agent, editor or producer.

Deadline for applications: 27th October
Interviews: 18th November

Mentoring will start from February 2012 and will last for 9 months

Eligibilty

This mentoring scheme is open to you if you are:

  • A writer or illustrator who has had work commercially published;
  • A playwright or screenwriter whose work has been professionally produced, but only if you wish to work on poetry, short stories or novels during the mentoring period.

If you do not have a significant professional publishing track record then you should apply to the New Writers Awards. If you apply to both and are accepted onto the mentoring programme your application to the New Writers Awards will be withdrawn.

If you wish to concentrate on a novel or short story collection you should have a substantial amount of writing on the page (even at rough draft stage) before applying in order to give a mentor material to work with. This does not apply to children’s authors who wish to work on younger fiction.

Writers must live and work in Scotland.
 

Click here for application guidelines

Thanks for the opportunity...I took it with both hands and ran with it.'

The Scottish Book Trust Mentoring Scheme supports established and emergent writers, playwrights, screenwriters and author/illustrators who have a specific project on which they would like some dedicated support. Mentoring creates an intimate, sharing environment in which the mentee grows in confidence and unlocks their potential, allowing them to move forward in their writing careers.

We match successful applicants with another writer or industry professional with appropriate experience, and we support them as they work together over an intensive period of nine months.

The Mentoring Scheme is completely free to participating writers, and Scottish Book Trust pays all associated travel and expenses for both mentors and mentees. We also offer all mentors a fee for their time and input.

‘It's been a real privilege to have such an engaged critic read over such a rough draft, asking all the tough questions that needed to be asked and giving me the confidence to make it much, much better. I've learnt far more than any creative writing course could teach.'


Some previous successes

  • One novelist has won an international screenwriting award and has been commissioned by the BBC
  • One novelist is now writing award-winning plays
  • One illustrator is now a published children’s author
  • One new writer has now published five novels
  • One writer has had a series aired on BBC Alba
  • One Gaelic writer has published a novel, short story collection and a collection of poetry

Past mentors include Bernard MacLaverty, Alan Bissett, Tom Leonard, Professor Douglas Gifford, Kathryn Ross of literary agents Fraser Ross Associates, David Ian Neville of BBC Radio Scotland, established screenwriter Adrian Mead, Philip Howard (former Artistic Director of Traverse Theatre) and many more. 

‘Please use my example as another success story that you have allowed to be created - the mentoring went a long way to helping me get to where I am now.  I wanted to give you credit for that.'

WE WILL NOT RETURN SUBMITTED MATERIAL

All applications will be held for 6 months and then destroyed. Your details will be held on our database unless you ask for them to be removed. We will not use this information for any purposes other than monitoring, and it will not be given out to third parties

If you have any general questions please contact Caitrin Armstrong, Writer Development Manager
0131 524 0177
caitrin.armstrong@scottishbooktrust.com  

If you would like to suggest changes to the application guidelines/process please send an email marked ‘Mentoring application process’ to caitrin.armstrong@scottishbooktrust.com. All suggestions will be considered before the next awards application period begins.

 

If you have any complaints about the process, please follow our complaints procedure.