The scheme costs £300, though full funding is available for participants in financial need. There are five places available on the scheme. Applications for a place are invited from 14/10/2015 until 24/12/2015 and will be awarded on merit.

It is funded by Arts Council England and The PA Children’s Book Group in association with EQUIP (Equality in Publishing). Applicants must be resident in England.

Over the course of one year, participants will write a novel for children or teenagers. They will also:

• Attend eight masterclasses in the art, craft and business of writing for children and teenagers, given by published children’s authors, agents and editors.

• Attend six, one-to-one mentoring sessions with an experienced creative writing tutor, focused on bringing their novel to a publishable standard
• Receive feedback on their completed novel from at least one top children’s editor at a major publishing house
• At the end of the year, read from their work at a showcase event in central Birmingham, to which publishers and press will be invited
• Be professionally filmed reading from their work in a short film promoting their writing, which will be distributed and promoted to the publishing industry.

For more information and to apply