Read Your Short Story to a Publisher LIVE

Join our short story salon for all fiction writers who revere storytelling in the short form. This salon is dedicated to writers in our community who want professional editorial notes on their works-in-progress.

Tom Conaghan, Publisher of Scratch Books, an outfit dedicated to the art of short stories, will be critiquing our stories in person and providing editorial feedback on the spot.

If you'd like to read, you're invited to bring an opening sample (500-1,500words) of a short story to read aloud to Tom, and the rest of the room, on the night. Your excerpt must be from an unpublished short story. I hope we will have a number of writers who want to read their story for live feedback in this exclusive session. We will spend roughly ten minutes on each reading and associated feedback from Tom. I've asked Tom to give constructive critique so each writer will come away from their reading with an element to praise (yay) as well as a piece of practical advice on how to improve.

For any writer working on short stories, take this as an opportunity to hear how your storytelling lands with an expert in the form and gain practical advice on how to better your writing skills. This isn't about writers who are ready for publishing, but all writers who love creating the shorter form and want to learn more.

If you want to read, please comment below 'I'd like to read' and I will add you to the agenda. If you intend to read, please print and bring five copies of your story for our reference.

For writers who aren't yet ready to read, but you want to attend and hear Tom's feedback on others' stories, please book your seat to be there in the round. Seats are the same price whether you are reading or not. There are guests tickets available for non-members if you'd like to bring a writing friend who isn't (yet) a member of London Writers' Cafe.

I can't wait. If you have questions, please ask below and I'll respond.

Tom Conaghan is the publisher of Scratch Books - a small press dedicated to the craft of the short story. His reviews and essays have appeared in The Observer, The TLS, The Irish Times, The LA Review of Books, amongst others. He runs the Scratch A4 competition and has been a judge of The London Magazine Short Story Prize and the Edge Hill Prize for Short Story Collection.

Date & Timing: Monday, September 22nd from 6:30pm - 9:30pm. Doors open 6:30pm for a 7:00pm start and finish by 9:30pm. There will be a short break in the middle.

Location: Williamson's Tavern, 1 Groveland Ct, London EC4M 9EH, best accessed via Bow Lane. The closest tube stations are Bank, Moorgate and Monument.

Cost: £18.00 to pay for venue hire, fees, preparation and event organising. Please follow the steps to pay via PayPal when you RSVP. Refunds or credits will only be offered if the meetup is cancelled by admin. Please change your RSVP to 'Not Going' if you can no longer attend as we often have people waiting and we'd hate for them to miss out. Download the Meetup app to manage your RSVPs more easily.

A bit about Scratch Books:

We are Scratch Books. We are named after a strange sensation - the feeling of stroking the soft fur of a cat, to discover later as you walk away, that it scratched you. Which, for us, is what a short story is like...
https://www.scratch-books.co.uk/

Tom will be bringing copies of Reverse Engineering, which contains seven of the best recent short stories, disassembled by their authors for sale on the night for £10.
It's an innovative anthology revealing the inspiration, the ideals and the work involved in a great short story. Reverse Engineering brings together contemporary classic stories with their authors’ discussions of how they were written. An essential book for everyone interested in how fiction works...with short stories and interviews from Jon McGregor, Irenosen Okojie, Jessie Greengrass, Sarah Hall, Mahreen Sohail, Chris Power and Joseph O'Neill.

‘Reverse Engineering will be of huge interest to both practitioners and fans of the short story and to anyone interested in how art gets made. An anthology to inspire and encourage anyone who reads it.’
Colin Barrett, author of Young Skins and Homesickness

‘This impressive collection reads like a celebration of the craft of story-writing itself. The triumph of Reverse Engineering is that despite accepted norms of short story craft, every author offers something different.’ The Observer