Increase your chances of publication with the Epic Children’s Author Course

Perhaps you’ve got a story that you know children love, because you’ve shared it with many face-to-face and they excitedly adore it – but for some reason, editors and agents aren’t interested.

Perhaps you’ve had feedback from editors and agents saying that they love your story/characters/voice, but you need to work on your characters/voice/story.

Or perhaps you love the idea of writing children’s books, but want some advice and/or confidence to give you the best possible start.

For all these perhapses, this is the course for you.

Benefit from Our Years of Success

The course is designed by Chip Colquhoun, a prolific children’s author who has been sharing stories for young audiences professionally since 2007.

Not only is he an Oxford Owl storyteller, a regular face at Glastonbury Festival, the storyteller-of-choice for Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity, writer of European Lifelong Learning’s guidance on using storytelling in classrooms, and author of over a dozen books illustrated by the incredible Korky Paul, but he’s a keen researcher of the science behind what makes stories work.

Because of this, you’ll find this course helps you to…

R

know the neurological hooks that will keep children reading your story from start to finish…

R
develop a writing voice that is as unique to you as it is engaging…
R

identify the best route to publication for your story, including the agents, magazines, and editors looking for writing like yours…

R

…and much, much more.

A Course Offer Like No Other
And yes, this is a course run by a publishing company. So if your work during the course impresses us, you may even receive an offer of publication, with an advance worth at least twice the cost of the course.

Course Structure

The course is delivered online, and is a live assessed course. Because of this, we currently only run it three times a year, places are limited, and you must work to set deadlines.

However, if you miss a live session, a recording will be available for you to watch later.

Each course includes six weeks of live sessions following this programme:

  • Week 1 – Masterclass: Why Stories Work
  • Assignment 1: Fix the Synopses
  • Week 4 – Masterclass: Invitations to Discover
  • Assignment 4: First Draft
  • Week 2 – Masterclass: Sowing & Growing
  • Assignment 2: Find Your Tale
  • Week 5 – Masterclass: Writing is Sharing
  • Assignment 5: First Edit
  • Week 3 – Mentoring Session 1
  • Assignment 3: First Lines
  • Week 6 – Mentoring Session 2
  • Assignment 6: Final Submission

In addition to the above, there are six video lessons for you to enjoy at any time, on the topics of:

  • Attracting Imaginative Investment
  • Bigging It Up (Writing Accessibly)
  • Impactful Characters
  • Patterns & Play
  • “Show Don’t Tell”?
  • “Don’t Let the Dragon Tell Jokes” (Writing Villains)

You will enjoy a year’s access to this video library, including the recordings of your masterclasses and mentoring sessions.

Before your first session, you will receive a free copy of the most recent Fables & Fairy Tales title, to help you get a sense for some of the techniques and tricks Chip will cover.

After your Final Submission, you will receive something much more valuable: your personal Writer’s Roadmap, containing Chip’s assessment of your final submission along with recommendations of who you should show it to.

How To Book

The course opens three terms a year. Each term, we run afternoon, and evening sessions on three days of the week: Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. There are also morning sessions on Saturdays.

Note: We have a limited number of discounted spaces for writers on Universal Credit. If you select one of these options, you will be asked to provide your latest payment statement as proof of claim. Failure to provide this proof within 7 days will result in you losing your place with no refund – this is because the place will be held for you during those 7 days, which may prevent others accessing the course.

Standard spaces are refundable up to 30 days prior to the start of the course.

You can only book for the next term. Add your selected timeslot and price to your shopping cart. If we have sold out of slots for when you’re available, note the start date of that course in your diary – then check this webpage again on that date to see the availability for the following term.

Start Dates

Our terms for 2024 will be…

12 Mar – 20 Apr (Roadmaps by 4 May)
4 Jun – 13 Jul (Roadmaps by 27 Jul)
17 Sep – 26 Oct (Roadmaps by 9 Nov)

Our next course begins on 12 March.