The MWA-NY Mentor Program committee invites members, unpublished and published, to submit their work, finished or in-progress, for critique by published professionals to help hone your work!
You may be both a mentor and a mentee.
Applications to be a mentor or mentee are open now through March 31. Mentors will provide feedback by May 1.
If you wish to be a mentor, send an email to mentors@mwany.org noting the genres you feel comfortable with (e.g., cozy,
police procedural, historical) and we will send you a guideline page. You will be expected to review up to 10,000 words. You will remain anonymous unless you choose to reveal yourself.
How it works:
Submit the first 10,000 words of a manuscript or one short story up to 10,000 words (a slightly shorter or longer submission is
fine if a scene or chapter ends a few pages before or after this limit).
Pay a small fee ($25) to participate. This goes toward MWA-NY, not the mentors, so that we can put on other programs for all of you!
An Active Status member of the New York chapter will provide constructive feedback in writing!
If you’re interested, we need three things from you:
1) The mentee application –
Either fill it out online here . . .
OR you can print out the paper form here and scan it (or take a photo) and email it to Mentors@mwany.org.
2) Payment: You can pay either by check or Paypal! (which includes a fifty cent PayPal fee)
To pay by PayPal simply go to this link:
OR to pay by check, mail a check for $25 payable to MWA-NY to:
R.J. KORETO (ATTN: MWA-NY MENTOR PROGRAM)
278 CHERRY LANE
SUFFERN, NY 10901
3) Your manuscript!
This will be accepted only via email. Your submission can be up to 10,000 words of a single short story or part of a novel. A synopsis of 500 words or less (needed to help us match you to a mentor) is preferable for novels. The synopsis should describe the whole plot for completed novels and what you know of the plot so far for works in progress. If you do not have a full synopsis, then please add a paragraph at the end of your extract saying how you believe this story will end.
The work should be something that fits into the mystery criteria – crime-related, suspense, true-crime, cozy, sci-fi noir… the list of genres is long, so don’t hesitate to ask if you’re unsure!
Please submit your pages as a MS Word documents in .doc or .docx format (no .pdf or .rtf or anything else), double-spaced, in a Times New Roman or 12-point Courier font. Include your name, the title and the page number at the top of each page. The synopsis, if included, should be part of this document, and not a separate document.
Name your document with your last name as the file name.
Example: Smith.doc
Attach the MS Word document to an e-mail addressed to mentors@mwany.org. Include in the body of the e-mail:
Your full name
Title of Manuscript
Whether Novel or Short Story
Genre (to help us pair you with the best mentor)
Remember to attach your pages!
Critiques will be e-mailed to you as we receive them from the mentors, but no later than May 1, 2026. This program does not involve face-to-face discussion or an ongoing relationship between mentor and mentee, unless initiated by the mentor. (In fact, mentors will remain anonymous unless they choose to reveal themselves.) The Active Status members who serve as mentors do so without payment. Their only commitment is to critique the work in writing and help develop new authors.
If you have additional questions, please e-mail:mentors@mwany.org
The subject line of your e-mail should be “Mentor Program.”
We look forward to receiving your submission!