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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 Our aim is to find books that might otherwise not be published, building richer and more genuinely diverse lists across our publishing divisions.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.

Love at first line

 

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.

 

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