Curtis Brown courses

[AislingsMittens]

Has anyone done a Curtis Brown course?

I was reading about their students' success rates, and am feeling cynical. The longer novel courses are 'selective' and require writing samples to apply. Do you think they are cherry-picking students who submit samples that are clearly the most likely to be shaped into something publishable? It looks like many of the students who went on to get book deals are represented by Curtis Brown agents. Is the agency using the novel course as a way to identify potential clients?

The six month course is eye-wateringly expensive. I am trying to decide if it would be worth trying for a place, or if I would be better served just making myself revise the old-fashioned way alone.

[myhouseistoocold]

I'm currently doing one of their cheaper all access courses online. It's been very interesting and I've learned a lot, but I haven't had the level of feedback from other students that I'd been hoping for.

I was considering one of their selective courses too, though I'm now leaning towards the Faber one. But that is even more eye wateringly expensive! What I like about the Faber course is that at the end you get chance to read to various agents and your work goes out to a lot of agents in an anthology. I feel like I'd have a better chance of meeting the right agent, rather than just being restricted to meeting Curtis Brown agents. But like you, I'm also wondering whether the massive outlay is worth the money.

[AislingsMittens]

myhouse, that's a good point about the anthology. I would like to see a compare/contrast between the Faber and CB longer courses, but I don't suppose many people have done both. I am a fan of one of the authors who is a tutor for the CB course, so that is why I was leaning toward CB.

I wish we could hear from an agent about how they regard these courses.

Any agents here?

[Harumphharagh]

No but ex publisher. Of course they cherry pick and of course they’re looking for clients! Why wouldn’t they be?! It’s their main business.