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The home for Hachette UK’s creative writing programmes.
At The Future Bookshelf we believe that publishing should be open and accessible to all people, from all backgrounds, from all communities. As part of Hachette UK – one of the UK’s largest publishers – we are always on the lookout for books that surprise us, inspire us, make us laugh, make us cry or tell us something that we didn’t know about the world.
We hold up to 6 different competitions and creative writing projects each year which offer prizes, mentoring opportunities and provide skills and support to aspiring writers and designers from under-represented backgrounds. Our aim is to find books that might otherwise not be published, building richer and more genuinely diverse lists across our publishing divisions.
Click on Current Projects to find out more about our plans for this year, and sign up to our newsletter below to be the first to know about upcoming projects.
THE LOVE AT FIRST LINE WRITING COMPETITION
This summer Hodder & Stoughton, bestselling author Mike Gayle and the Romantic Novelists’ Association have joined forces to champion love stories and discover new voices in commercial fiction with a romantic theme, in association with Hachette UK’s The Future Bookshelf.
WHAT IS THE PRIZE?
We are inviting all writers from a Black, Asian or Mixed Heritage background to submit the first 5,000 words of a commercial novel with a romantic theme, as well as a synopsis of up to 500 words describing the rest of the story.
The winner of the Love at First Line competition will receive a cash prize, a virtual conversation with Mike Gayle, four mentoring sessions with an editor from Hodder & Stoughton and entry onto the Romantic Novelists’ Association New Writers Scheme.
NEWSLETTER SIGNUP
Latest News

The Love At First Line Writing Competition

JKP launches 2022 Writing Prize with the theme Stories of Resistance

The Virago 50th Furies Short Story Competition

The Space to Write Project is launched by Orion

Headline launches its 2022 Modern Stories programme

Quercus hosts the 2022 Mo Siewcharran Prize

THRIVE runs its 2022 Grow Your Story programme, in partnership with David Higham Associates

Bookouture hosts first #DVPitchBookouture event

Hachette UK Announces Future Bookshelf Cohort for 2021

Eleni Kyriacou on how the editing process improved her debut novel
