PUBLISH YOUR BOOK
Tap Into Your Voice and
Make a Difference in Your World with Spotlight Ink
A selective program for rising high school freshmen, sophomores, and juniors ready to tap into their powerful voices and make a difference in their communities.
Spotlight Ink guides youth writers through a comprehensive novel-writing and publishing journey, from initial concept to published book and marketing campaign.
You’re looking toward college applications and your future.
Design a novel concept that showcases your one-of-a-kind voice Build problem solving and project management skills through the drafting and revision process. Choose a cause that matters to you, and make a difference by raising funds through book sales.
In the Spotlight Ink Program, youth writers work with a small group of peers, and Inklings mentors, to design, draft, revise, and publish a novel. You’ll come away with a book to hold in your hands, plus a story to tell about your creative development and community impact.
Key Program Elements:
- Creative Development: Small-group coursework focused on novel design and drafting
- Editorial Process: Editorial revision in collaboration with Inklings-trained teen editor-interns through multiple revision rounds:
- Structural full-novel revision, focusing on character arc, plot and subplot pacing, and heightening the heart of the story
- Scene-by-scene refinement, focusing on action, dialogue, and interiority
- Sentence level proof-reading, focusing on word choice, figurative language, and sentence flow
- Professional Support: Final manuscript review with Inklings pro mentor
- Publishing Journey: Full production support including formatting, cover design, and publication
- Social Impact: Student-led marketing campaign benefiting chosen nonprofit organization
Program Outcomes:
- Published novel showcasing personal voice and perspective
- Enhanced critical thinking and creative writing skills
- Real-world project management experience
- Marketing and promotional expertise
- Strong college application portfolio material
- Demonstrated community impact through nonprofit partnership
Ready to share your story?
Join a select group of emerging authors committed to crafting powerful stories and making a difference in their communities.
“I found so many opportunities to make my novel better – new scenes, changing settings, adding tension. It’s like looking for what you already did and then…fabulousing it!”
Program at a glance
Duration: 18 months
Cohort Size: up to 14 authors
Goal: Publish a book and support a meaningful cause
Grade Levels: Rising high school freshman, sophomores, and juniors
Location: Online
Day/Time: Writer Circle sessions – 4-5 pm PT /7-8 pm PT in summer terms, 4:30-5:30 pm PT /7:30-8:30 pm ET during the academic year
Tuition: $500 per term + $250 book fee in the final term
Your Journey to Publication
Term I: Summer 2025
Design your novel concept step by step in a one week camp (2 hour per day). Author, Naomi Kinsman, will help you develop characters, build a story world, and tap into themes that resonate with the heart of your own story. Whether you choose to write fantasy, dystopian, historical fiction, realistic fiction, mystery, a novel in verse, or any other genre of your choice, you’ll connect to themes that not only entertain, but that also showcase your point of view and perspective. Through the rest of the summer, join weekly drop-in Writers Circle drafting sessions to keep up your momentum and flow.
Term II: Fall 2025
Draft onward through the “messy middle” and all the way to your completed draft. Continue in the weekly company of your peers and mentor. Problem-solve plot tangles, sort out story-world problems, script dialogue that propels the novel forward, and shape the core character arc through your final chapter. You’ll complete your draft in early December, and pass off your manuscript to your editor, a teen-intern under the guidance of their Inklings mentor. Your editor will work with you through the editorial process.
Term III: Winter 2026
Authors receive their first editorial letter, which focuses on a full-novel revision. You will have about eight weeks to complete your revisions, and during this time, Writers Circle sessions continue. Your peers, Inklings mentor, and teen editor will all be there to support you as you work through revision decisions and refine the shape of your draft. You’ll turn in your revision just before the beginning of the spring term.
Term IV: Spring 2026
Authors receive a second editorial letter that focuses on scene-level revisions. Now that the shape of the novel is formed, you’ll turn your attention to making the most of your dialogue, action, and character relationships. In the continued support of your Writers Circle, you’ll ground the scenes in sensory detail, and bring out your point of view character’s interiority. Your second revision pass will be completed as you head into the summer.
Term V: Summer 2026
Your final revision pass focuses on sentence level writerly decisions, such as word choice, figurative language, and the flow of your sentences. Your Writers Circle continues, offering support as you revise using your final editorial packet from your editor. The last step is for an Inklings mentor to do a final proofread to refine the final details. You will also make decisions about book layout, fonts and styling, and choose whether to create your own cover illustration or hire a professional illustrator.
Term VI: Fall 2026
In the lead-up to your book’s publication, your Writers Circle will turn their focus to practical tools for launching a book. You’ll finalize your chosen nonprofit, reach out to let them know about your fundraising effort, develop a press release and promotional campaign, all with the support of your peers, teen editorial team, and Inklings mentors. Books will be published on a rolling basis between October and November, based on timing needs (such as early college application deadlines) and also on the delivery date of your final materials to the book production team.
Program Includes:
- 18 months of mentorship in writing and creative development
- 58 hours+ of instructional time
- 14 hours of pro-mentor editorial time
- 32 hours+ of mentor-guided teen editorial reading time
- Mentor + peer support in tuning into and refining your writerly voice
- Start-to-finish guided novel writing and publishing process
- Priceless immersive creative development experience to prepare for college applications and life beyond
- Professionally styled, published book
- Book launch and marketing training
- Equipped to identify a cause that’s close to your heart and to raise funds with book proceeds
Apply for Spotlight Ink
To apply for Spotlight Ink, you must demonstrate readiness to commit to an 18-month program. We are looking for self-motivated novelists who are thoughtful about their creative work and process, supportive of peers, excited to explore and deepen their personal voice, and passionate about making positive impact in their communities.
Interested in our corresponding teen editor-apprenticeship program? Teen editors will join the current cohort in Fall 2025.
Wondering about scholarships?
Apply for a need-based partial or full scholarship.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the Society of Young Inklings publish?
We are committed to printing and publishing stories and poems that impact the world in positive, transformational ways—works we’d be excited to share with the full age range of youth writers we serve. We do not print or publish work that promotes violence, cruelty, prejudice, reckless behavior, or any work containing sexual content.
The Spotlight Ink program has been designed to support books of 60,000 words or less. Should a writer feel strongly that their book requires more than 60,000 words, additional fees and extended editorial turn-around times will apply.
Why does the program take 18 months?
To thoughtfully design, draft, revise, and publish an well-crafted book, 18 months is an ambitious, but doable, pace for a debut author. Teens who have previously published at Society of Young Inklings also recommend being intentional about working at a steady pace rather than working in desperate sprints to meet deadlines. We recommend that writers consider Spotlight Ink one of their major extra-curricular programs, not as an add-on to an overflowing slate of other commitments.
May I work on a book I’ve already started?
We highly recommend that you begin a new book as part of Spotlight Ink. Your initial book exploration and concept design will support you not only in developing a creative idea, but in grounding that idea in your personal voice. You may choose to write in various genres beyond realistic fiction–fantasy, mystery, historical fiction, etc–but the heart of your book should be resonant with your personal perspective, questions, ideas, and life experience. If you do have a project you’ve already started that is deeply rooted in your voice, you can discuss that connection point with your mentor during Design a Novel. We’ll work with you to create a plan to integrate your current project with the group process going forward.
What is my commitment in the Spotlight Ink program?
Spotlight Ink is a community experience with limited slots. We appreciate your thoughtfulness before applying. Please ensure you are ready to make a long-term commitment to the group and to your own creative development. Each term’s tuition is charged at the start of term and is non-refundable. Should unforeseen circumstances arise, we are happy to discuss a pause and deferment of your program.
How are royalties and book rights handled?
Spotlight Ink, like all Inklings publishing opportunities, exists under a nonprofit umbrella. You will choose a nonprofit that moves you to raise funds for with book sales. We find that the external collaboration makes your project more newsworthy, widens your readership and reach, and gives you a truly meaningful way to see your creative work at work in the world. Currently, most Inklings authors raise between $100 and $1000 for their causes, which equates to about 50 – 500 sales. As we grow Spotlight Ink, we anticipate your sales reach may also expand. For publication through Spotlight Ink, you’ll contract first printing rights with the Society of Young Inklings, but retain your copyright and all future rights. You can withdraw your title from print with us at any time and utilize your work in any other way you choose in future. with appropriate notice.
What will I gain from Spotlight Ink?
Spotlight Ink invites you to explore what’s possible when you lean into a passion project and use it to make a difference in the world. You’ll gain a range of writing, creative, and personal skills, as well as build entrepreneurial know-how as you work on book marketing and fundraising. You’ll gain experience through professionally publishing a book as a teen, a rare accomplishment. In fact, the average age for publishing a first novel in the US is 36. What’s harder to see, but is equally true, is that through this experience, you’ll build a foundation of creative confidence that will serve you in any kind of problem-solving you may take on in future, be it personal, creative, academic, professional, or otherwise. And added bonus? You’ll gain a circle of creative friends who will support and cheer you on through the process, and most likely, long after your book wings its way into the world.
