Edit & Pitch Your Novel

Start Date

Package

Learn more about reports, tutorials and editorial services

Refund guaranteed if requested before course starts

Edit & Pitch Your Novel

Bestseller

Length

6 weeks

Location

Online

Writing Goal

Edit & pitch

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Edit & Pitch Your Novel

Learn how to edit your complete draft, polish it to a shine and pitch it with confidence to agents and publishers.

Tutor

Anna Davis

Length

6 weeks

Location

Online

Writing Goal

Edit & pitch

An exciting new edition of our original online editing course, trusted by over 2,500 budding writers.

Bestseller

Great novels are made in the rewrite.

It’s a huge achievement to write a complete draft of a novel – but what comes next? This course is chock-full of our best industry-led editorial advice on how to review and rewrite your manuscript and put together a compelling pitch package to send to literary agents and publishers.

The course succeeded for me on so many levels. I hadn’t really cracked the business of putting together a convincing pitch letter and synopsis, the course, coming from the heart of the publishing industry, really helped with.

Katie Hutton
Author of The Gypsy Bride

The first half of this course focuses on how to undertake a big picture edit and then work on a line-edit to get your manuscript into the best possible shape, utilising The Rewrite Doctor, the tried-and-trusted self-editing method from our Founder and Managing Director Anna Davis.

Then we’ll demystify what goes into the perfect pitch by showing you how to write an outstanding synopsis and query letter to an agent with exclusive video pitching advice from the leading literary agents at Curtis Brown and C&W.

Tutor

This course features pre-recorded teaching videos from the tutor (as well as featured literary agents), alongside written tasks and resources to support your learning. Please note you will receive feedback on your writing from the course editor rather than your tutor.

Anna Davis

Anna Davis is the founder and Director of the Curtis Brown Creative writing school. She is the author of five acclaimed novels which have been published in twenty languages. She has been a journalist and Guardian columnist, as well as a Curtis Brown literary agent. She taught creative writing at the University of Manchester and in many other settings before founding Curtis Brown Creative in 2011.

Editor

In the second half of the course, the course editor will provide brief written feedback on several students’ practical assignments. All students who post in the forum will receive feedback on one writing task during the course. Editors listed may change. All CBC editors are experienced authors and/or publishing professionals.

Jon Curzon

Jon Curzon is a literary agent and director at Selby Howard Literary Agency, which he founded after 10 years at Artellus Ltd. Alongside his colleague Darryl Samaraweera, he works with authors including Fiona Mozley, Kyra Wilder, June Aming, Eoghan Walls, Pascale Petit and Suzannah V. Evans. On the non-fiction side, his clients include historians Chloe Ireton and Sam Ottewill-Soulsby, and memoirists and cultural commentators Eli Davies, Alice Maddicott, Emily Wells, Lois Shearing and Francesca Bratton. In addition to his agenting work, Jon has also worked as a freelance editor for literary consultancies and creative writing courses since 2015.

Philippa Sitters

Philippa Sitters founded a literary agency in South London in 2024 having worked in bigger agencies for over a decade. She represents commercial and literary fiction as well as narrative non-fiction and is really keen to find a hilarious, epic romance. Her clients include Ashley Hickson-Lovence, Margarita Montimore, Jamie Lafferty and Rebecca Struthers.

Literary agent interviews

Sarah BallardRead bio →

Felicity BluntRead bio →

Ciara Finan, Curtis Brown literary agent

Ciara FinanRead bio →

Jonny GellerRead bio →

Viola Hayden, Curtis Brown literary agent

Viola HaydenRead bio →

Sophie LambertRead bio →

Alice Lutyens, Curtis Brown literary agent

Alice LutyensRead bio →

Cathryn SummerhayesRead bio →

Steph Thwaites, Curtis Brown literary agent

Steph ThwaitesRead bio →

Gordon WiseRead bio →

WHAT DOES THIS COURSE GIVE YOU?

Video modules: Work through six modules comprising teaching videos and substantial notes by Anna Davis. The first three modules take you through the editing process in depth – the second three show you how to write a synopsis and pitch your work to agents. The course includes exclusive video interviews with top literary agents, including CEO of The Curtis Brown Group Jonny Geller (clients include Monica Ali, Susanna Clarke, Ruth Jones and David Nicholls), Curtis Brown’s Felicity Blunt (clients include Claire Keegan, Meg Mason, Abi Daré and Bonnie Garmus), and many more.
Writing tasks: Weekly writing tasks to help you explore and understand the teaching topics, progress your edit and build your pitch package. Weekly posts to the forum from Anna will reinforce these lessons.
Resources & notes: You’ll get access to multiple resources and teaching notes, including Anna’s 'Rewrite Doctor' editing method, examples of successful synopses, and agent query letters – plus actionable tips for nailing your pitch.
Professional feedback: An expert CBC editor will give brief written feedback on the students' practical pitching assignments, with all students receiving feedback on either their synopsis or their agent letter. Students are also given the option to purchase additional end-of-course feedback from our expert editors.
Student forum: Find your writing community on our private student forums. Upload your completed writing tasks, give and receive peer-to-peer feedback, and discuss the week’s topics with your fellow students and the CBC team.

COURSE SCHEDULE & DELIVERY

Our online courses are designed for flexible learning. Allocate your own study time and take part from wherever you are in the world. Each week, we recommend spending at least four hours on the course. It’s also important to be editing your novel and working on your pitch package across the six weeks.

Week 1
The end is the beginning: Reviewing your novel
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Week 2
The Rewrite Doctor: Planning your edit
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Week 3
Revising & polishing
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Week 4
Preparing your pitch: Writing your synopsis
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Week 5
Preparing your pitch: Writing your agent letter
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Week 6
Everything you need to know about pitching
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Additional feedback

All students will be given the option to purchase feedback on their final task from a CBC editor.

CBC report: For an additional fee of £155, you can obtain a detailed 500-word report on your work (of up to 3,000 words) from one of our editors.
CBC report + tutorial: For an additional fee of £260, you can obtain a 500-word report from one of our editors and have a 30-minute video or telephone tutorial with them to discuss your work.

Do you want to know more about the contents of our end-of-course reader reports? Click the button below to download and read an example report.

View Example Report

Our How to Write Your Novel Series

This is the final course in our popular How to Write Your Novel series, designed to take you from first idea to final draft.

It follows on from Starting to Write Your Novel and Write to the End of Your Novel – you don’t need to have studied with us previously to benefit from this course. Take the courses in succession or join us for the course that aligns with your current stage in the writing process. All three courses have been updated with brand-new videos, expanded resources and revitalised teaching materials (available from September 2025).

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GIFT THIS COURSE

Encourage your writerly friend or loved one to get creative! We have £250 digital gift vouchers available, enabling you to buy any six-week online course as a present.

Buy Voucher

Start Date

Package

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Refund guaranteed if requested before course starts

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