Prepublished

What I’ve always admired about Sarah is her professionalism. She writes to commission, and always has several projects on the go. I love getting to listen to the results on the radio, and I’m really …

Ruth has been called a modern Agatha Christie for her ingenious plotting. She is also one of the friendliest writers I know and is the first person I turn to if I have a question about how something …

Despite being a prolific novelist across almost all the age ranges, Adele didn’t want to be a writer when she was growing up – she wanted to be a star. She performed in the West End in the 1960s, and…

Emma was an associate lecturer at the Open University and has a PhD in creative writing. She runs popular courses and workshops, including ‘Self-editing your novel’, with Debi Alper. I had an orderly…

In season one of Prepublished, I talked mostly to writers, agents and editors in the world of children’s fiction, as that’s where I spent the first ten years of my published life. Season two will spr…

The ‘Masterminds’ name was actually suggested years ago by Christopher, who produces Prepublished. It’s a term commonly used for groups that get together to learn and share knowledge on a specialist …

Catherine Johnson is a multi-award-winning writer of twenty novels. She’s best known for her history writing for young adults, but has also written contemporary novels and screenplays, and taught cre…

Jasbinder Bilan is a debut children’s author and winner of the Times/Chicken House competition and the Costa Children’s Book Award. After a career in teaching she did an MA in Creative Writing at Bat…

Stephanie Thwaites joined Curtis Brown sixteen years ago. She represents authors including Francesca Simon and Tom Fletcher.

Sophia went to the agency’s expansive offices in Central London to talk to …

Keren David’s first YA thriller, 'When I Was Joe', was published in 2010. It started as an exercise in a creative writing course she did at City University. At one stage it had the distinction of bei…

Sara has an exceptional talent for describing the craft of writing, so when the first attempt at recording the podcast didn’t work Sophia was determined to try again. This time it went better. Sara C…

Robert happened to be writing his first children’s book at a time when Anthony Horowitz’s Alex Rider series was about to make child spies the next big thing. He didn’t know this at the time, but he d…

Annie talks to Sophia about what an editor is looking for in a great story, what it was like to work with authors like Philip Pullman and Malorie Blackman, and why chemistry with an author is importa…

Candy was born and raised in the Philippines. For years, as a pre-published writer, she was the author of the blog 'Notes From the Slushpile'. Eventually, her debut novel, 'Tall Story', won the Natio…

Sophia and Karen talk about how to hook reluctant readers with pacy plots and catch phrases, working with unpublished writers (pre-published writers) and why voice is so important. Karen also brillia…

Caroline is the writer of over 30 books for children, including the series: 'The Roman Mysteries', 'The Roman Quests', 'The Time Travel Diaries' and 'The PK Pinkerton Mysteries'.

Thanks as always to C…

Over a 20-year career, Cliff has written many fantasy, sci-fi and supernatural stories for children and young adults. The Doomspell Trilogy, his debut series, sold to 26 countries. His 2006 ghost nov…

Caroline is a bestselling crime writer of books such as 'In a Cottage in a Wood', under the name Cass Green. She teaches the short course in writing crime fiction at City University, London. As Carol…

It took Sophia ten years to get her first contract. If you’re writing your own stories, these conversations are designed to help you avoid all the mistakes she made. We look at themes such as plottin…