Success stories

The bestsellers

We’re lucky enough to have had some exceptional clients whose work has graced the bestseller lists. For example ...

John Fenton’s Please Don’t Make Me Go was a misery memoir: tough, funny and honest. 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’s wonderful Honour and the Sword was too long when it came to us. After a detailed editorial interchange, we placed that MS with an agent – with the same result: a contested auction and a place on the bestseller lists.

Barbara Tate’s extraordinary memoir, West End Girls, offered us a different sort of challenge. The author was elderly, so we took on a hands on editorial role, then sold the book ourselves. Orion won the auction and the book became one of the hits of the summer.

Dania el-Kadi's Summer Blast (think Sex in the City meets John Le Carre) was a number one bestseller in Dania's native Lebanon. The book wasn't just entertaining, it was an important and influential read too.

Tim O'Rourke has self-published his Keira Hudson YA vampire series to the Amazon Kindle store, where it has been the #1 ranked bestseller in its category - and he's shifted some 20,000 books in a single month.

The Prizewinners

We've also been privileged to see clients go on to win prizes and secure their writing careers. For example:

Catherine Cooper won the inaugural £10,000 BWA Award for her Golden Acorn, and has gone on to publish three further books and hook herself a film deal.

Louise Soraya Black won the Virginia Prize - and a book deal with her lovely novel, Pomegranate Sky.

Susan Imgrund who won the EarlyWorks Prize for her Bother in Bormeon and a book deal with quality indie, Circaidy Greogry.

The Big Hitters

We've also seen some wonderful clients secure really good book deals and create a powerful foundation for a career in writing. People such as:

Mitch Feierstein, with his forthcoming (and explosive!) Planet Ponzi.

Shelley Harris, with her beautiful Jubilee.

Victoria Whitworth, who put her expert knowledge of Anglo-Saxon England to good use in The Bone-Thief.

Louisa Larkin with her tough and scary thriller, The Genesis Flaw.

Hilton Pashley, whose children's novel has been bought by Random House from agent David Headley. (Title and release date not yet determined.)

Ian Thornton whose The Death and Life of a Grim Reaper has been bought by Simon & Schuster in Toronto and is now being marketed worldwide. (Release date not yet determined.)

And congratulations to ...

But not all books are Big Publishing Deal type books. Achieving publication is one heck of an achievement and we're proud to have played our part in the success of:

Martyn Murray with his evocative and strongly argued The Storm Leopard.

Tony Bayliss and his mind-bendingly imaginative Past Continuous.

Barry Kirwan and his excellent Eden Trilogy.

Ruth Mazet and her My Horse Rears.

Patty Tashiro and her An Angel Whispered.

Jane Yeadon and her evocative It Won't Hurt a Bit.

Richard Malim and his thoughtful The Earl of Oxford and the Making of Shakespeare.

Mary Welstead and her Divorce and Separation.

Sally Nilsson and The Man who Sank Titanic.

... and so many more we can't name them all.

The newcomers

And of course these lists are hopelessly out of date. Because it can take a year or two to bring a book to publication, there's a whole generation of Writers' Workshop clients currently proceeding towards their first book deal - often in the company of a literary agent that we've helped procure.

So congratulations too are due to those WW clients now with agents or publishers: people like Lucy Beresford, Charlotte Philipps, Maria Cross, Roy Carter, Chris Vanier, Mike Taylor, Katherine Hetzel, Silvia Rossi, Sean Walsh, Beverley Jones, Roger Hardy, Lata Pattni, Mark Roberts, Mark Radcliffe, Faith Anstey, Gordon Gray, Paul Ryan, Alan Chance, Suzanne Covitch, Kathy Bagley, Alexander Mortimer-Moore, Poppy Wellby, Cicely Havely, Gerard Macdonald, Ian Critchley, Gideon Roberton, Lexie Elliott, Geoff Gudgion, Delia O'Callaghan, Sumangali Morhall, Jenny Meszaros, Michelle MacNamara, Eve Kimmerling, John Taylor ... and too many others to mention.

Everyone a winner

But we don’t count as successes only those books which achieve publication.

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 too.