Local Voices from Hackney, Haringey and our neighbours
One of the key reason Indie Novella was set up was to give a voice to writers whose stories previously went unheard. As such Indie Novella is looking to create a 'living novel' full of stories from the communities closest to us. Funded by the Arts Council, and through the contributions of local writers, be it experienced authors or first time writers, we are creating an anthology which will showcase the writing of the residents of Hackney, Haringey and the surrounding areas and will demonstrate the changing face of our communities and what they means to us, right now.
You can submit anything between 30 and 5,000 words - an extract of a novel, a short story, poetry, essays, opinion pieces - and it can cover any theme just as long as it is your own work.
With each submission we also want to hear about you and your story. It can be a couple of hundred words or quite a bit longer, and can be anything you want - what being a resident of Hackney, Haringey, Highbury etc means to you; how you came to live here; how you feel it has changed in your time; or just about you and anything you want to say. We want our anthology to provide an authentic representation of the wide and varied voices of our communities and showcase the creativity that stems from them.
The idea is to create a 'time capsule' especially post-pandemic of what it means to be a resident in London and what our communities are really like.
One entry will win £100 of book vouchers from Ink@84 Bookshop in Highbury and a host of others will be published in our 'living novel'.
Local Voices Submissions
Entries close 30th June
Complete form below or email info@indienovella.co.uk
Traditionally the UKs publishing community caters to a commercial mandate, seeking tried and tested content, which tends to favour writers from more privileged backgrounds who are already in the know. This is slowly changing but unconscious bias continues to make it difficult for writers from diverse backgrounds to be noticed. Without doubt a real conflict exists for many publishers who are driven by commercial imperatives and who struggle to be more inclusive. Indie offers a new exciting alternative to help give new writers a voice and an accessible platform for sharing their work.
We are a non-profit social enterprise that is not bound by the usual commercial constraints. For us inclusivity and diversity are central to our publishing philosophy and our reason for being. We fulfil this social mission through the free provision of the essential publishing support that is crucial for success.
We have walked in your shoes and understand the challenges that you face when you knock on the usual doors. We have designed our service to remove the many barriers that may face you and we have actively democratised the publishing process to put you firmly in control.
Our end-to-end service is designed to make publishing your work a simple and rewarding experience. From the outset we offer you a free writing course (worth £1500) that is packed full of essential tools, tips and techniques writers need but often do not know about that will help you refine your writing to make it as engaging as possible. As our service grows you will become part of a vibrant, creative community.
As your book progresses we will provide you with free personal mentoring, practical advice and even peer-editing. When it is ready, we can design, illustrate, and economically print your book or deliver it digitally straight into the hands of your readers via their laptop or mobile phone. We fairly and transparently share the profits from the sale of each of your books.
Why do we invest so much? Simply because we passionately believe that your creativity and unique life perspective deserves to be discovered.
Our Writing Course
How To Edit Your Novel, Writing Your Novel, Creative Writing for Beginners, there are a lot of writing schools out there, each excellent at what they do.
At Indie Novella we recognise there is a plethora of talent, either honed by writing courses or nurtured organically. We are looking for quality writing that deserves to be published.
The Indie Novella Writing Course has been designed in collaboration with authors, creative writing tutors and literary consultancies to collate all the tips, tricks and essential literary techniques in one place for both the aspiring and the experienced writer. It is also completely free.
As Indie Novella is a cooperative, we charge no fees regarding advice or consultation. We simply take good writing over the line.
Indie Novella is looking for new, exciting UK-based novelists from a wide range of backgrounds who have written something they are proud of and are ready to have it published. Through our amazing partners, we produce high quality novels available to buy through our own bookselling platform on the Indie Novella website, and on Bookshop.org, Waterstones and Amazon. We also have an exciting Digital Platform which will bring your novel to a global audience. See Publish with Indie below for more details.
We want your novel to be the best it can be. Therefore please do consider attending the Indie Novella Writing Course or joining a Writers' Group before submitting. However, if you are ready to take the next step, please follow our submission process below:
Submit Your First Chapter
We invite UK-based authors to submit their first chapter (or approx. 3,000 words):
Contact Us
Newington Green, London, N1
@indienovella | indienovella.co.uk