Success Stories – Jericho Writers
Jericho Writers
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UK: +44 (0)330 043 0150
US: +1 (646) 974 9060

Our Success Stories

We love seeing lives change, and our success rate is vastly higher than the slushpile average.

We’ve helped writers from around the world. Will you be next?

Many of the writers mentioned here joined our community as Premium Members, used our editorial services, attended our annual Festival of Writing, or enrolled on one of our tutored courses. However you arrive at our doors, we’ll do what we can to help you succeed.

The story so far…

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Philippa East

Philippa East

Self-Edit Your Novel, Festival of Writing

  • Bio

Philippa completed Debi Alper and Emma Darwin’s Self-Editing Your Novel course in 2016, and shortly afterwards attended the York Festival Of Writing, where she met her now-agent Sarah Hornsley. Her debut novel ‘Little White Lies’ sold at auction to HQ/HarperCollins and her second book, ‘Safe and Sound’, was published in February 2021.

John David Mann

John David Mann

Manuscript Assessment

  • Bio

With some thanks to Eve Seymour’s thorough assessment, John went on to secure a two-book deal with Ballantine Books. His first novel ‘Steel Fear’ was published in 2021 and had praise from many big names including Lee Child who described it as “Sensationally good – an instant classic; maybe an instant legend”. The title was also optioned for a potential TV series.

Neema Shah

Neema Shah

Premium Member, Self-Edit Your Novel, Summer Festival of Writing

  • Bio

Neema took our acclaimed Self-Edit Your Novel course, attended our Summer Festival of Writing as well as being a Jericho Writers Premium Member. Her debut novel ‘Kololo Hill’ was published by Picador in February 2021. She said “I’ve had loads to do with Jericho Writers and they’ve been a really key part of my journey.”

Steffanie Edward

Steffanie Edward

Self-Edit Your Novel

  • Bio

Steffanie was the first recipient of the bursary for our Self-Edit Your Novel course in 2018. She has since signed a two-book deal with Bookouture without the help of an agent and her debut ‘This Other Island’, came out in May 2021. Her editor Isobel Akenhead called her ‘a truly exceptional new voice in fiction’.

Paul Braddon

Paul Braddon

Manuscript Assessment, Festival of Writing, Friday Night Live shortlist

  • Bio

Paul’s confidence grew after a series of Jericho Writers Manuscript Assessments with Liz Garner. He also attended the York Festival of Writing and was shortlisted for Friday Night Live in 2013. His debut novel, ‘The Actuality’ was published by Sandstone Press in 2021 and was optioned by BBC Studios.

Claire McGlasson

Claire McGlasson

Festival of Writing, Friday Night Live finalist

  • Bio

After reading at Friday Night Live at our Festival of Writing in 2016, Claire was approached by a number of agents and received five offers of representation in 2017. Her debut, ‘The Rapture’ was published by Faber & Faber in 2019. It was a Sunday Times Book of the Year and was shortlisted for The London Magazine Prize for Debut Fiction. Claire received several offers from TV and film production companies and the option was bought by Hillbilly Films.

Amanda Berriman

Amanda Berriman

Festival of Writing, Self-Edit Your Novel

  • Bio

Mandy has been a loyal attendee of the Festival of Writing for several years and took our Self-Editing course with Debi Alper and Emma Darwin. We’re delighted that her book ‘Home’ was been published by Penguin Random House.

Felicia Yap

Felicia Yap

Festival of Writing

  • Bio

‘Friday Night Live’ shortlisted author, Felicia Yap, was snapped up by Jonny Geller at Curtis Brown soon after our 2015 Festival of Writing. Her brilliant high-concept thriller, ‘Yesterday’, was bought by Headline’s Alex Clarke for a six-figure sum. The book has since been optioned for film. Felicia attended our Festival of Writing 2015 and said, “it made a huge difference!”

Kerry Fisher

Kerry Fisher

Festival of Writing, Friday Night Live Winner

  • Bio

Kerry won the best opening chapter competition at our 2011 Festival of Writing. Now she has sold over a million copies of her titles ‘A Silent Wife’, ‘The Woman I Was Before’, ‘After The Lie’, ‘The Mother I Could Have Been’ and ‘The Secret Child’.

Eleanor Anstruther

Eleanor Anstruther

Festival of Writing, Competition Winner

  • Bio

Eleanor won the Best Opening Chapter competition and subsequently secured her literary agent, Jenny Saville of Andrew Nurnberg Associates, at our 2016 Festival of Writing. Eleanor’s debut novel, ‘A Perfect Explanation’ (2019) was published by Salt Publishing in the UK. It was longlisted for the Not the Booker Prize and the Desmond Elliott Prize, both in 2019.

Margaret Skea

Margaret Skea

Summer Festival of Writing

  • Bio

Margaret won the Beryl Bainbridge Award for Best First Time Author at the People’s Book Prize, for her historical novel, ‘Turn of the Tide’. At the time of writing, the book has an average 4.9-star rating on Amazon. Margaret attended our Summer Festival of Writing.

Claire Wade

Claire Wade

Self-Edit Your Novel

  • Bio

Claire said that our Self-Edit Your Novel course was “life-changing” and has gone on to win the Good Housekeeping First Novel competition with ‘The Choice’, a book now published with Orion. It has since been a Good Housekeeping’s book of the month and Times audiobook of the week. She won the East Anglian Book Award in 2020.

Hamish Morjaria

Hamish Morjaria

Premium Member, Agent 1-2-1s

  • Bio

Hamish’s whirlwind journey began just before joining our community. In 2023, Hamish secured a three-book deal with Pan Macmillan India and sold the film rights to ‘The Muziris Empire’.

Helen Parusel

Helen Parusel

Premium Member, Editorial Services

  • Bio

After being a Premium Member for over six years and completing our Self-Edit Your Novel Course, Helen secured a three-book deal with Boldwood books with the help of her agent Clare Coombes, who she connected with through our editorial services.

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You’re in good company…

The list of writers we’ve helped get to publication is increasing every month – faster than we can keep up!

So congratulations are now due to these writers too – all now with agents or publishers. People like Daniel Aubrey, Sara Green, Joe Bedford, Lynne Curry, Kate Slater, Liz Webb, Simon Green (represented by Jo Moult at Skylark Agency), Aliya Ali-Afzal, Kirsty Kitchen, C.A. Lupton, Lucy Beresford, Peter Papathanasiou, Charlotte Philipps, Rebecca King, Maria Cross, Dominic Brownlow, Roy Carter, Nicky Downes, Chris Vanier, Sarah Linley, Mike Taylor, Zahirra Dayal, Katherine Hetzel, Natalie Chandler, Silvia Rossi, Sean Walsh, Anam Iqbal, Roger Hardy, Lata Pattni, Tor Udall, Mark Roberts, Mark Radcliffe, Danielle Owen-Jones, Paul Ryan, Alan Chance, Nikki Logan, Suzanne Covitch, Kathy Bagley, Sally-Anne Martyn, Poppy Wellby, Helen Fisher, Cicely Havely, Gerard Macdonald, Oana Velcu-Laitinen, Ian Critchley, Jodi Taylor, Gideon Roberton, Jan Cavelle, Lexie Elliott, Geoff Gudgion, Karen Menuhin, Delia O’Callaghan, Colm O’Shea, Sumangali Morhall, Wiz Wharton, Jenny Meszaros, Helen Parusel, Michelle MacNamara, Peter Gibbons, John Taylor, Rosalind Tate, Richard Marshall, Alan Fraser, Cath Bore, Cate Green, Roy Walker, Jack Lutz, and many more.

And still more…

John Fenton

Please Don’t Make Me Go, a tough, funny and honest memoir, was published by HarperCollins.

How Jericho helped: We helped John hone his opening – then placed his work with a leading agent. That agent sold his work in a contested auction and the book spent weeks on the bestseller lists.

A.L. Berridge

‘Honour and the Sword’, A.L. Berridge’s work of historical fiction, was too long when it came to us.

How Jericho helped: After a manuscript assessment, we placed ‘Honour and the Sword’ with an agent, yielding a contested auction and a place on the bestseller lists.

Tim O’Rourke

Tim has self-published his YA series to the Amazon Kindle store, where it has been the #1 ranked bestseller in its category. It has more than a million copies sold.

How Jericho helped: We were delighted to help connect Tim with his agent, Peter Buckman at Ampersand.

Ruby Speechley

Ruby signed a two-book deal with Hera. Her psychological thriller ‘Someone Else’s Baby’ was published July 2019. Read about her path to publication here.

How Jericho helped: Ruby won our Best Opening Chapter competition in 2018.

Elisa Lodato

Elisa has received critical acclaim for her debut novel ‘An Unremarkable Body’, published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson. She was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel award.

How Jericho helped: Elisa worked on her debut with our editor Dexter Petley.

Ayesha Bragnaza

Ayesha is now represented by Philippa Milnes-Smith at The Soho Agency for her WIP – a middle grade title. She says: “Thank you – it was winning the Festival of Writing pitching competition back in 2017 (when I was in contact with Fiona Bradbury) that was a huge part of this journey.”

Eleni Kyriacou

Thanks to the lessons provided by Debi Alper and Emma Darwin in their popular Self-Editing Course, Eleni is now published with Hodder & Stoughton. Her debut title ‘She Came to Stay’ was published this March (2020) and her second novel ‘The Unspeakable Acts of Zina Pavlou’ was a BBC2 Between the Covers pick.

Gabriella Braun

After attending our Festival of Writing 2020, Gabriella now has a book deal with Piatkus. Her first book ‘All That We Are’ will challenge readers to improve their well-being and performance at work.

Mark Hill

Mark has now published his second novel with Little, Brown Book Group (UK) after we helped him with his first crime thriller, ‘His First Lie’. He signed a two-book deal with Sphere in June 2015.

Nick Stevenson

Following an Agent Submission Pack Review with one of our editors, Russel McLean, Nick’s debut ‘Nethergeist’ was published by Rising Action Publishing Co.

Tony Kirwood

As one of our Premium Members, Tony attended many of our online live events and masterclasses. Tony won the Anansi Archive summer short fiction prize and was highly commended in the To Hull and Back humorous fiction award.

Margaret Piran

Margaret was highly commended in the King Lear Chairman’s prize for her Radio Monologue ‘Nothing Personal’ out of thousands of entries.

As a Premium Member, Margaret named Holly Seddon’s masterclasses as invaluable resources when writing her Mslexia Memoir Competition longlisted entry.

Everyone wins

Success doesn’t always equal publication, of course.

We’re here because we believe in writers and writing. If we can help you express yourself better – and if you get joy and satisfaction from the book you’ve created – then we’re thrilled to have played our part.

Writing is a tough old game – and we admire everyone who writes something that they’re proud to have written. Congratulations to you!

Join us

During November, we’re offering Premium Membership at an all-time low price of £8.75 per month. Take a look at our video for a sneak peek of all the amazing resources, events and services included in Premium Membership. It really is incredible value for money and the offer is only valid throughout November so don’t hesitate!

How can we help?

If you want to find out more about Jericho Writers and what we can do to help you, then book a call with a member of the team at a time that suits you.