Mentee Success! Secrets of the Snakestone by Piu DasGupta

I thought it would be awesome to open my sparkly new website with some excellent news from one of my past mentees.

Secrets of The Snakestone will be out with Nosy Crow in March 2024.

Click to preorder!

I mentored Piu DasGupta 2020 - 2021 through the Write Mentor programme. She had already competed the Curtis Brown course with the superlative Catherine Johnson (I’m a huge fan). We started with her sending 5000 words to me on a monthly programme, and asking some editorial questions she’d been wondering about. As Piu already had agent interest, I quickly turned around the next 10,000 words before she sent off to interested agents. I also shared my recommended list of agents for Middle Grade authors (based on information I’ve collected through the UK children’s literature community and personal experience - available to my mentees).

Piu then had a flurry of interested agents and full manuscript requests, only a week later she had a number of offers from excellent agents! Plenty happened in the following months, and I was glad to share my experience of the industry as the cogs of publishing turned in the unpredictable way they always do. Piu landed with brilliant agent Kate Shaw who also represents some of my favourite author friends.

I worked with Piu on some planning for her new book, and another project before she decided to leave mentoring. I leave my door open for everyone I’ve mentored, and aftre we’ve worked together I am happy to give further publishing advice outside of an official paid mentoring capacity. I’m genuinely desperate to know to see where stories I’ve worked on land and share what I’ve learned.

I was delighted to be one of the first to hear the news that Secrets of the Snakestone had been sold in a two book deal to Nosy Crow. And yet again delighted that Piu and her publicist asked me to reveal her strikingly gorgeous cover on my socials.

Thank you for all your trust Piu, and for sharing your wonderful words, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed joining you on some of your journey, and am incredibly proud of you!