bryonydoran
Bryony Doran
September 2017
The China Bird
Book Group Guide
In 2006 I starting sending my novel, The China Bird, out to various agents. The general response I got back was that they liked it but didn’t feel it was mainstream enough to get published. Two years later I entered, and won, The Hookline Novel Prize, and, in 2009, The China Bird was finally published.
The Hookline Novel competition winners are chosen by book groups across the country and I owe them all a deep debt of gratitude for their hard work and dedication. I was delighted to have had my novel chosen in such fair and democratic manner by actual readers.
I love visiting book groups so if you would like me to come to your book group please contact me.
Please click here to download the Book Group Guide
About
the
Hookline Novel Competition
At Hookline Books we let serious book groups select the novels for publication. We begin the process with the Hookline Novel Competition. This is open only to students and graduates of MA writing courses. The judges are book groups from around the UK. Writers submit the first three chapters of their work and a brief synopsis. These are bound in collections and sent to book groups, who have three months to read and review. The writers whose works come out on top are then asked to submit their complete novels. Again, these are bound and sent to book groups who rate them on plot, character development, writing style and reader satisfaction. This is the fourth year of the competition and, so far, two books have been published each year.