Skip to main content




Admissions

The HarperCollins Author Academy offers free training to support writers from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds. It is headed by Ken Wilson-Max, Publisher at Kumusha Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Children’s Books, and aims to provide authors the knowledge and skills to succeed.

The Academy offers three courses; Fiction, Non-fiction, and Children’s Books running remotely for six weeks, with weekly tutorials, with access to other course materials. Additional masterclasses cover the fundamentals of publishing the business. Students are supported by a mentor throughout.

Our courses offer crucial insights across a range of industry topics on how get your work ready for publishers, including:

  • Turning an idea into a solid book proposal.
  • Working with agents, editors, and publishers.
  • Contracts, copyright, and royalties.
  • Genres and formats.
  • The craft of storytelling.
  • Author branding.

Find out what you need before you apply, and how we select candidates for the upcoming courses in 2025, writing fiction, non-fiction, and writing for children.