One-To-One Mentoring
Our mentoring services have been designed to help those who want assistance with a longer project, as well as those who would like to chat to a tutor on any aspect of writing.
Mentoring for Ongoing Projects
With Esther Chilton, Phil Busby, Graeme Cumming and Mandy Pannett
Usually with mentoring you must book a fixed block of sessions which can be very expensive and demanding on your time. With our ongoing mentoring programme you are in control of the timing, cost and process.
Prose
1st Meeting: you submit an outline and a sample of prose from your project, up to 5000 words. Your mentor reads through this submission, then meets you for a one hour Zoom session to discuss the project and plan your next steps.
Subsequent Meetings: you send in 5000 words which your mentor comments on and returns to you. You then have a one hour Zoom session going through the comments and planning the next stage.
Fee: £80 per meeting
Poetry
This works a little differently to mentoring for prose. You submit up to four poems for Mandy to look at. These can be of any length. You'll then have a half-hour Zoom session to talk about them. Once you've had the session, you can work on your poems following the feedback and send them back to her. There will be another half-hour Zoom session to go over your revised poems.
Fee: £80 for both meetings.
Once your fee has been paid please send your work to: [email protected] and they will forward it on to your mentor.
Mentoring Tutors
Esther Chilton
Since joining The Writers Bureau as a student in 1999, and following their advice, Esther hasn’t looked back. As well as winning several writing competitions herself, she was head judge of Writers’ Forum magazine’s monthly short story competition. Over the years, Esther has regularly had articles and short stories published in a variety of newspapers and magazines in the UK and abroad. She has published a range of writing workbooks, children’s books and short story collections.
Esther became a tutor for The Writers Bureau in 2009 and when they closed in July 2026, she knew she wasn’t ready for it to go. Fortunately, they let her continue with the website and new courses so she can support students on their writing journey.
Phil Busby
A playwright, singer-songwriter and author, Phil works in course development for The Writers Bureau, Manchester. Originally a psychiatric nurse, he studied Theatre at Dartington College of Arts before working across Europe for ten years as a performer, writer and workshop leader. Phil is a co-founder of Budding Writers.
Graeme Cumming
Graeme Cumming is the author of the Rand Scott crime thrillers – a gritty blend of action and dark humour. His novel, Borderline, won the 2026 Bronze Noose Award for the Best Crime/Thriller novel.
A familiar face at book festivals, Graeme has given talks, appeared on panels and interviewed authors. He has a wide and varied taste in fiction, but a particular leaning towards the darker side – though he’s very pleasant when you meet him.
For more information about Graeme, you can check his website www.graemecumming.co.uk.
Chat to a Tutor
With Mandy Panett, Rob Keeley, Esther Chilton or Phil Busby
Our one-to-one Zoom sessions offer you the chance to discuss any aspect of your writing with a tutor. You may have finished a course and require some guidance on where to go next, or you might be struggling to find markets for your work. Perhaps you’re stuck on a specific part of your novel or story, or a poem isn’t quite coming together.
We have tutors who specialise in the following:
- poetry
- novels
- short stories
- non-fiction
- getting published
- writing for children
- and more.
Fee: £30 for 1/2 an hour and £50 for an hour.
Once your fee has been paid, we will get in touch with you. If you have any queries, please contact: [email protected]
Chat to a Tutor
Tutors
Rob Keeley
Rob Keeley is an award-winning author of children's novels, short stories and picture books, including the Spirits series. Other credits include the award-listed stage play Mr. Everyone, the murder mystery Death At Friar's Inn, and Chain Gang and Newsjack for BBC Radio. He holds author workshops in schools and libraries, and teaches Creative Writing to children and adults.
For more information on Rob, visit www.robkeeley.co.uk or follow him on Twitter/X @RobKeeleyAuthor.
For more information on Rob, visit www.robkeeley.co.uk or follow him on Twitter/X @RobKeeleyAuthor.
Mandy Pannett
Mandy Pannett lives in West Sussex. She taught children with special needs for many years but now works freelance as a creative writing tutor for adults.
Her poetry pamphlet 'Crossing the Hing', was published by Tears In The Fence in June 2026. Six poetry collections have been previously published: ‘The Daedalus Files’ (SPM Publications), ‘Bee Purple’ and ‘Frost Hollow’ (Oversteps Books), ‘Allotments in the Orbital’ (Searle Publishing), ‘All the Invisibles’ (SPM Publications), ‘Jongleur in the Courtyard’ (Indigo Dreams Publishing). A selection of her poems, ‘Ladders of Glass’, was issued by Integral Contemporary Literature Press with English and Romanian parallel texts.
She enjoys writing short fiction as well and two years ago won a national competition for Vignette writing. She has also judged competitions for Flash Fiction. Two novellas have been published by Independent Presses: ‘The Onion Stone’ (Pewter Rose Press) and ‘The Wulf Enigma’ (Circaidy Gregory Press).
Mandy was also poetry editor for five years for Sentinel Literary Quarterly and has edited anthologies and poetry collections for them and for Earlyworks Press. She has acted as an adjudicator for national competitions and won prizes and been placed herself in several others.
For the last eighteen months she has been collaborating with artist Polly Dutton and musicians Terry Pack and The Full Circle Quartet on ‘The South Downs Suite’, a poetry/music/art project inspired by the South Downs. The Suite is currently being performed at several venues in the area and a book of all the art work and poetry is on sale at events and in galleries and museums.
Her poetry pamphlet 'Crossing the Hing', was published by Tears In The Fence in June 2026. Six poetry collections have been previously published: ‘The Daedalus Files’ (SPM Publications), ‘Bee Purple’ and ‘Frost Hollow’ (Oversteps Books), ‘Allotments in the Orbital’ (Searle Publishing), ‘All the Invisibles’ (SPM Publications), ‘Jongleur in the Courtyard’ (Indigo Dreams Publishing). A selection of her poems, ‘Ladders of Glass’, was issued by Integral Contemporary Literature Press with English and Romanian parallel texts.
She enjoys writing short fiction as well and two years ago won a national competition for Vignette writing. She has also judged competitions for Flash Fiction. Two novellas have been published by Independent Presses: ‘The Onion Stone’ (Pewter Rose Press) and ‘The Wulf Enigma’ (Circaidy Gregory Press).
Mandy was also poetry editor for five years for Sentinel Literary Quarterly and has edited anthologies and poetry collections for them and for Earlyworks Press. She has acted as an adjudicator for national competitions and won prizes and been placed herself in several others.
For the last eighteen months she has been collaborating with artist Polly Dutton and musicians Terry Pack and The Full Circle Quartet on ‘The South Downs Suite’, a poetry/music/art project inspired by the South Downs. The Suite is currently being performed at several venues in the area and a book of all the art work and poetry is on sale at events and in galleries and museums.