Is Young Writers a Scam?

Young Writers has been created to enable children from all over the country to see their creative writing in print. Although the majority of teachers and parents we work with are completely happy with the service, some parents have concerns that the Young Writers competitions are a scam.

If you would like to speak to us directly about claims that Young Writers is a scam please give us a call on 01733 890066.

We would like the opportunity to address some of these concerns...

How much does it cost?

There are no costs to the parents as a result of their child's work being included in a book. Parents have the option to buy copies of the book if they wish. As long as you give permission, your child's work will be included, even if you don't order.

All schools receive a copy of the book free of charge for their school library. This means that if you do not wish to order you and your child can still see their work in print.

If you do wish to order books are priced at £15.99. We also give you the opportunity to take advantage of our 3 for 2 offers (so you can order for family and friends at a discounted price, or even club together with other parents to get a reduced price).

The price of the book reflects the cost and time of producing the book. For more information please see 'cost of book' in the FAQs.

How is Young Writers a competition?

Prizes are awarded to individual children and to schools - prizes can include money for school resources and laptops/book tokens for children. Some of our recent competition prizes have included £1000 to the school with the best overall entries. For more information on recently awarded prizes please see the winners section of our site.

Young Writers endeavours to include as many children as possible in our publications. We believe that seeing their work in print is a fantastic achievement that encourages children to get excited about writing and reading. Each child included receives a certificate and a bookmark to celebrate their achievement, although being published is not the prize.

What are the educational benefits?

For children, seeing their work in print is a great confidence boost. It also encourages them to participate in and enjoy creative writing.

• Our competitions are carefully designed to work alongside the National Curriculum.
• We provide lesson plans for teachers to aid the teaching of poetry and story writing.
• Workshops are available to both teachers and children to help develop children's writing skills.
  
  

When will we see the books?

From entering the competition to seeing the work in print normally takes around 12 weeks.
We have to allow time for:

• Work to be read, typed and formatted
• Parents to give their permission for inclusion
• Work to be corrected on return from the child/parents
• Books to be printed
• Books to be despatched

To see full details of the process you can view our publication timeline.

If you have any further concerns please contact our customer service team who will be happy to help. You can contact us by phone on 01733 890066 or by email info@youngwriters.co.uk

Testimonials

"The children love seeing their work in print and are enormously motivated by that."
Carol Norris, Oaklands School

"I've entered for many years and will continue to do so."
Katie Brown, Wormholt Park