Writers' Bureau

[Gillan]

Keep coming across adverts for the Writers' bureau in varous mags. and newspapers and was just wondering if any of you knew anything about it. The course itself costs about £300 but if you haven't made this back through published work within one month of completing course they refund you the money. Sounds a good deal but a friend said it's almost too good to be true. I don't have the time to do this fulltime but it sounds a good way of earning a little money from a hobby. Any comments?

I'd be interested to know if anyone has done it and made money on it, but I'd be tempted to say, don't waste your money. As a journo myself, I'd imagine you?d be able to get all the same info & pointers you need for marketing yourself and your work from The Writers And Artists Yearbook, or similar. And if you feel you need a bit of guidance on style, I'd have thought a good evening class would have been as good, if not better. Also, those home-study courses do require quite a bit of self-motivation, which isn't everyone's forte. I'd imagine they rely on people's initial enthusiasm drying up before they finish the course.

I'm one who dried up Actually I think it is a good course, and probably worth the money. You get good feedback and it is pretty thorough. I didin't finish- mainly because unforseen life events intervened and priorities changed rather dramatically. However if you are very self motivivated I'd recommend it. I'm not doing a distace learning homeopathy practitioner course and I find that better as it has regualr study days that give me a bit of a boost. I'm not very self motiviated

sorry that should have read "I'm NOW doing a homeopathy... etc "

Ditto - I'm doing their creative writing course and am being incredibly slow - original bought it over 5 years ago and restarted a year ago, have since lulled again, but am determined to get back into it once life circumstances have improved.

The course is very long and the feedback is very good - I think I've done four or five assignments now and I'm only on book 3! The study materials seem very good, but I don't doubt there are books on the market that have the same information, but the feedback and structure help keep you motivated (well to a certain extent!)

I do think any home study course needs to be undertaken by someone who can organise themselves and have some measure of self-discipline - I struggle. But I don't think the course is a con - I would recommend it if a home study course is really what you're looking for.

That said, I've only had a reader's letter published so far

I was interested in this myself and would appreciate some advice from some of the writers on mumsnet.
I would love to write some childrens stories and possibly some mushy romance but I have no idea where to start. I also heard that the Writers Bureau course was good but is there any other way of doing this?
Any pointers gratefully received.