Mentorship Program

Build your own mentorship

Have a first draft but don’t know how to improve it? Need help with structure or character development? Looking for professional support to strengthen your manuscript? A mentor can help you achieve your creative goals.

How it works

Mentorships allow you to benefit from the support and expertise of a professional in their field, who will work with you over a period of time to hone your craft, troubleshoot problem areas, discover alternative approaches, and navigate the challenging manuscript development process. Discussion may take place via phone, video meeting, and/or email.

Who is this for?

  • Authors seeking advice on how to resolve specific problem areas of a manuscript
  • Authors requiring a fresh, professional perspective on their work and the support to progress their manuscript to the next stage
  • Authors wanting to work closely with a writing professional over a prolonged period of time

If you have any questions about our Mentorship Program, please email [email protected].

  • Is your manuscript in the final stages of development and you want to make sure it’s submission-ready?

The ASA’s Manuscript Assessment Service can help you get your manuscript to a publishable standard for the consideration of publishers and agents.

  • Are you seeking tailored advice about a particular aspect of the publishing industry?

A one-hour consultation through the ASA’s member-exclusive Publishing Consultancy Service can help guide you through key career decisions.

Book your mentorship

$625+ Member Price
$925+
Select option
Book now

How to book

  • Read the ‘Who is this for?’ box at the top of this page to make sure this is the right service for you at this stage of your project or career.

If you’re unsure, please email [email protected] for advice.

  • Identify who you would like to nominate as your preferred mentor(s).

You will be asked to list the 3 mentors you would most like to work with, in order of preference, in your booking form. You can learn more about our mentors by browsing our mentor register. 

If you need help identifying suitable mentors, please email [email protected] prior to placing your booking.

  • Choose the length of your build your own mentorship and ensure you understand the cost of your chosen length.

Before you book your mentorship, you must consider the reading time required of your mentor. Do you want your mentor to read your manuscript in full, or do you want them to focus on particular problem areas? Reading time for mentors must be included in the allotted hours for all mentorships and should help inform the chosen length of a build your own mentorship. 

View the pricing structure for our build your own mentorship program below.

If you’re not sure of the right mentorship length for you, email [email protected] for advice.

  • Prepare the required documents you will be asked to include in your booking form.

For a build your own mentorship, you will be asked to submit:

  • A 300-word synopsis
  • A 10-page sample of your work in progress typed in 12pt Times New Roman, double-spaced, with page numbers on the bottom right
  • A short literary CV (maximum 150 words)
  • A one-page statement (maximum 300 words) describing what stage your work is up to and what you are hoping to achieve through the mentorship, along with any specific concerns on which you would like the mentorship to focus on

If you are seeking a build your own mentorship for a graphic novel, you will be asked to submit:

  • A 3-4 page outline of your story arc
  • The first 10 pages of your graphic novel’s script
  • Thumbnails/roughs are optional
  • Use the 'book now' button to submit your mentorship booking.

Please note that we ask for upfront payment for all our mentorships. This is to ensure our mentors are paid promptly for their work. If this is difficult for you (especially in the case of a lengthy mentorship), please email [email protected] to discuss your options.

You should receive an automated email confirmation from [email protected], as well as an email receipt from our payment platform, Stripe. Please check your spam/junk folder if you don’t receive these emails after submitting your booking.

ASA staff will attend to your booking within 2-3 business days. We will contact your preferred mentors (in order of preference) and notify you as soon as we have a mentor confirmed or more information on their availability for your consideration. You will receive email updates about your booking from [email protected]. 

Once a mentor and time frame is confirmed for your booking, your mentor will be in direct contact to get the mentorship underway.

Build your own mentorship pricing

5-hour mentorship

Members: $625 
Non-members: $925

10-hour mentorship

Members: $1,190
Non-members: $1,760

15-hour mentorship

Members: $1,695
Non-members: $2,505

20-hour mentorship

Members: $2,140
Non-members: $3,160

25-hour mentorship

Members: $2,525
Non-members: $3,725

30-hour mentorship

Members: $3,030
Non-members: $4,470

Make sure you’ve included the time it will take a mentor to read your work in your time estimate. As a general rule, 10,000 words will take 3 hours to read, 35,000 words will take 8 hours, and 70,000 words will take 16 hours. If your manuscript is over 100,000 words, get in touch to discuss how a mentorship might work best for you.

CONTACT US

Meet our mentors

Our current list of mentors includes specialists in diverse areas from genre fiction, to journalism, to illustration and beyond. They’re all highly credentialled, with multiple publications and at least five years of professional mentoring experience.

See Mentors