Your Novel: What Next? | Discoveries 2024 Webinar
Thank you for entering Discoveries 2024! Our expert readers – representatives from across the publishing industry – have started reading through entries and are already captivated by the exciting ideas submitted. The longlist of 16 writers, decided by our brilliant panel of judges, will be announced in early May.
In the meantime, we're delighted to invite all entrants to attend our Your Novel: What Next? webinar. Discoveries is not just about the prize it's a development programme full of free support and practical guidance to help aspiring authors. Whether or not you make it to the longlist stage of Discoveries 2024 we want to help you put your best foot forward as you continue your writing journey!
Now that you've written at least 10,000 words of you novel and you have a working draft of a synopsis, you might be wondering 'What next?'...
Join us for this free Your Novel: What Next? webinar on Wednesday 21 February, 7.00pm-8.30pm to learn about the ins and outs of submitting to literary agents and working with publishers, as well as advice on how to keep up the writing momentum you’ve established.
This online event will be chaired by Jennifer Kerslake, Curtis Brown Creative's Head of Courses / Editor, she will be joined by a panel of expert speakers: Natasha Brown (author and Discoveries 2024 judge), Jess Molloy (Curtis Brown agent and Discoveries 2024 judge), and Serena Arthur (Editor at Trapeze Books).
We're inviting webinar attendees to submit one question to the speakers ahead of time. We'll curate the most frequently asked and interesting questions to put forward to the panel.
We’ll have capacity for 500 attendees on the night. If you miss out on a spot for the live webinar, don’t worry! You can still watch it, as we’ll be sharing a private link to a subtitled recording of the webinar hosted on our YouTube channel (Curtis Brown Creative) for everyone who registers. This will be available to all Discoveries 2024 entrants for a limited time after the event.
Please email discoveriesprize@curtisbrown.co.uk with any queries concerning the webinar.
Panel speakers
Serena Arthur
Serena Arthur is Editor at Trapeze Books, an imprint of Orion Books (a division of Hachette UK), which focuses on conversation-starting fiction and non-fiction. She is editing and publishing across the list and is drawn to books that are bold, distinctive and memorable. Outside of work, she is a writer and performer of poetry and a lover of anything artsy.
Natasha Brown
Natasha Brown is a British novelist. Her debut novel Assembly was shortlisted for awards including the Folio Prize, the Goldsmiths Prize and the Orwell Prize for Fiction. Natasha was named one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists in 2023 and one of the Observer’s Best Debut Novelists in 2021. She was also a Women’s Prize x Good Housekeeping Futures Award finalist.
Jennifer Kerslake
Jennifer is Head of Courses / Editor at Curtis Brown Creative. She was previously an editor at Weidenfeld & Nicolson, the literary imprint of the Orion Publishing Group. In her time there, she worked with authors including Costa-shortlisted Elisa Lodato, Stella Prize-winning Heather Rose, Leila Aboulela, Francesca Jakobi, Chloë Mayer, Shannon Leone Fowler and Haleh Agar. She is passionate about nurturing new voices and enjoys working closely with writers to get their work into the best possible shape to share with publishers.
Jess Molloy
Jess Molloy joined the literary department of Curtis Brown in October 2019 having previously worked in the talent and comedy department and within talent management for over eight years. She is an Agent in Cathryn Summerhayes’ office, assisting on Cathryn’s extensive and eclectic client list as well as building her own carefully curated list. She joined the team of the Discoveries Prize in its second year and signed the 2022 winner Sui Annukka after falling in love with her writing during the prize submission reading rounds.