New authors in the young adult sector can get feedback from readers and professionals at this year’s online WriteOnCon writers’ conference, including the chance to have their work assessed by a panel of literary agents and win cash prizes.
TheReadingRoom is running its Aspiring Writers Competition for the third year as part of WriteOnCon. Hundreds of entries were read and assessed last year by an expert panel of editors and agents, who picked a short list of five. This year, the short list will be featured on TheReadingRoom.com and members can read and vote for their favourite entry.
“This is a fantastic opportunity for first-time authors who are often terrified at the thought of others reading their work,” said Kim Anderson, CEO of TheReadingRoom.com. “The quality of the writing in past years has made it difficult to choose the short list and member voting has been close. This year, we are very excited about being able to provide larger readership and greater exposure for these new writers.”
The winner will get a cash prize of $1,000 and the opportunity to meet with and have work assessed by literary agent Catherine Drayton at Inkwell Management. There will also be a second place prize of $500 and a third of $250.
WriteOnCon was set up by seven writers and is designed to give attendees many of the features of a live writers’ conference but online and without a fee. Critique forums allow writers to get feedback and exposure for their work.
TheReadingRoom.com is an independent online portal for readers to discover new books. It combines social networking with carefully curated content, recommendations and featured selections and readers can to buy ebooks and print titles in the US, followed soon by other parts of the world.