Mentorship approach

Applicants will apply to their genre and must have a finished manuscript.

Applications require a query letter (350-450 words), a 1-2 page synopsis (not more than 1000 words), and the first thirty pages of a manuscript. Mentors strongly considering an application will request a full if desired (though might not necessarily).

The application will ask direct questions about racial bias, ableism, and other discriminatory beliefs.

Mentees will be placed by roundtable decision, similar to “The Match” in medicine. Mentors will rank their choices, and mentees will be placed according to overall fit.

Those who do not find their place in the program will be given access to peer Discord servers to maintain community.

Across the year-long term of the program, mentors pledge to meet with mentees over their chosen communication preference at least one time per quarter.

Together, the mentor-mentee teams will work rigorously to revise their manuscripts, with the goal to make a manuscript ready for querying or self-publishing.

Mentees will meet in their genre cohorts with their mentors four times (once each quarter) to exchange ideas and learn from each other. We hope this will foster beta reading and critique partner groups for the future, beyond the term of the mentorship.

At the end of the year, a “no strings attached,” no industry professional pitch party will take place on Twitter and Instagram, showcasing mentee work across the program.

It is our hope mentees leave Round Table Mentor with a sense of community and purpose, strengthening their writing and developing their own trailblazing careers.

Please note: we will not consider any submissions for which any content has been created and/or modified by AI learning or natural language processing system, such as Chat-GPT.


Quarter One

  • Applicants apply to program; roundtable placement of mentees

  • First meeting with mentor over zoom

  • First collaborative genre meeting

Quarter Two

  • First revision round due

  • New revision work assigned

  • Second meeting with mentor over zoom

  • Second collaborative genre meeting

  • Roundtable full program meeting

Quarter Three

  • Second revision round due

  • Tightening/finalizing work assigned

  • Querying & Self-Publishing workshops

  • Third collaborative genre meeting

Quarter Four

  • Query/synopsis/back matter/publishing packages due

  • Final meeting with mentor over zoom

  • Final collaborative genre meeting

  • Pitch party

Across the program

  • Guest speaker seminars

  • Intra-genre programming

Quarterly expectations

Initial Mentor Timeline for 2024-25 Cycle

1 October 2024 - Mentor applications open

15 October 2024 - Mentor applications close

1 November 2024 - Mentors announced

29 January 2025 - Internal mentee selection deadline

1 February 2025 - Mentors notify applicants of decision

5-28 February 2025 - First revision meetings held

Initial Mentee Timeline for 2024-25 Cycle

28 October 2024 - RTM year 1 pitch party/showcase on Twitter

1 December 2024 - Mentee applications open

15 December 2024 - Mentee applications close

1 February 2025 - Mentees notified of decision

1-28 February 2025 - First revision meetings held

27 October 2025 - RTM year 2 pitch party/showcase on Twitter