Book Box: Meet Parul Bavishi, Co-Founder, London Writers Salon
The co-founder of London Writers Salon talks about her background in management consulting and publishing and on building a global writing community
Dear Reader,
I discovered London Writers Salon (LWS) a few years ago. I’d been struggling with writing, with getting away from the distractions of the day - the meetings, teaching assignments, social media and such like. London Writers Community with its free, daily virtual writing sessions felt like the nudge I needed.
“Writers Hour starts in 15 minutes” would arrive every weekday at noon in my inbox, summoning me to write. There were quotations too, like this writerly advice from Adam Grant “What if I’m so nervous my breathing sounds like Darth Vader? I ended up going forward when I realised the only way to overcome my fear was to walk straight through it. I started writing and speaking.”
One afternoon I logged on and found myself in the company of three screens full of writers on Zoom. Many had cameras on, and they wrote studiously, sometimes exchanging comments on how their writing projects were going. It felt like a fantastic community.
Then in February this year, at the Jaipur Lit Fest, a friend told me she had run into the co-founder of the London Writers Salon. “Her name is Parul, and she seems lovely,” my friend said. And I was immediately compelled to meet this creator of such a useful resource for writers.
Two weeks later we do meet. On a sunny winter afternoon, in my home city of Mumbai. It’s Parul’s mother’s home city too, and Parul is here to meet family and explore possible collaborations. We sit overlooking the Arabian Sea, drinking cappuccinos and talk about how growing up in different continents impacted Parul, how London’s Writers Salon began and why ChatGPT will not replace writers. Here are edited excerpts of our conversation:
Tell me about your childhood years - you moved around a lot?
My family were originally from Africa, but just before I was born my father decided to move to New Zealand, so I spent my early years there. When I turned nine my father sent my elder sister and me to a boarding school in Panchgani in India, because he thought that we didn’t know anything about being Indian. The first few days I was terrified. I had a very strong New Zealand accent, and no one understood me. Luckily, I made a friend immediately, and so that made everything smooth.
Then my parents moved to Doha, and we were sent to a British school there. I came in with an Indian accent and my hair tied back, and I had to quickly adapt to fit in - keep my hair loose, lose my accent. People watched a lot of American TV in Doha, and we all had an American twang. So, when my father’s job moved to London, I had to change accents again. Through all these years, one thing I did was read - all kinds of books like Sweet Valley High Twins and Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink.
And the cross-cultural upbringing taught me how to adapt quickly and connect with people from diverse backgrounds—skills that helped me build a global writing community.
You studied economics and philosophy at London School of Economics, you worked as a consultant at Accenture and then KPMG and then you moved to publishing. Tell us about those years?
I took the first job that was offered to me before I graduated, at a management consulting firm, thinking, I’ll figure out what I want to do later. Those years were just me finding myself, gaining independence, having some financial freedom. It was great training for the entrepreneurial work I did later.
After a few years of doing consulting, I quit, and I was going to travel the world. At the time, a friend of mine worked in a publishing house as a publicist for children’s books. She was always reading these fantastic books, saying “I have to read it for work.” And I was like, “You have to read this for work? Let me read it for you.” And I read her books, and it was amazing.
And I remember saying to my dad, “I really love this.” I interned across all the publishing houses, from Harper Collins to Faber. I did whatever they wanted. I read, I summarised, I made cups of tea, I sorted the post. And finally, I was lucky enough to get this editorial assistant position in a small company called Quercus, best known for publishing The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
You moved from Quercus to Random House and then to becoming a literary scout and freelance editor - and then founded London Writers Salon (LWS) in 2019 - how did that happen?
I had a friend who I just kept bumping into cafes. Sounds random, it’s true. This friend, Matt Trinetti, used to work for Escape the City, running a program for people who were frustrated with their life and wanted more meaning. And he found that a third of such people wanted to become a writer. And so, we had this conversation, to create something for people who loved the idea of writing; a salon where people would meet, where we would bring a speaker in, and we would have conversations on writing. On money - like do you have to take another job on the side? What is it like to work with an editor? What happens if you don’t like your agent? All the difficult questions that are happening, but I wasn’t seeing discussed in public.
I found a venue called The Library, a private member space, really beautiful, very atmospheric, and I invited a friend who was an agent. We priced the event at about 10 pounds and put it on our social media. And a crowd showed up. I remember thinking, “Oh, this seems to have worked. Okay, let’s run another one.”
And so, we continued like this, in different spaces in London. I had lots of friends in publishing, and we did a range of topics. Like once I got a picture book publisher friend to come in and do a workshop on how to write your picture book. I did a masterclass on how to query agents.
How did the Writer’s Hour evolve?
It began when Covid hit. I was locked in this one-bedroom house, borders were about to shut, and I felt scared. Matt called me on a Sunday night, and I remember I said, “What if we just wrote? We can’t save anybody, but we can give them a quiet space to write.”
We came up with a plan that night, created an invitation with a quote on Canva, sent it out to about 100 people on our mailing list. And nine people showed up. Today 800-1000 writers from around the world write together each day.
During a Writer’s Hour session, everyone logs into Zoom many with their cameras on. We begin with a short introduction and intention-setting for 2-3 minutes, then everyone mutes themselves and writes independently for 50 minutes, creating a powerful sense of accountability. We close with a brief check-in where participants can share their progress in the chat. The simple structure creates both discipline and community.
What are the different plans you offer to writers?
We have different levels of engagement - from the free version to 9 pounds, 29 pounds and 79 pounds a month, depending on what level of material you want.
Our free tier gives writers access to one Writer’s Hour session per day and our community newsletter. The £9 tier adds access to our online community forum and monthly workshops.
With the 29 pounds which is the silver level you get access to all our events, about 30 events a month. We have all sorts of events, from workshops to Q and A’s sessions on pitching and publishing.
Our premium tier at £79 includes everything plus one-on-one mentoring sessions, manuscript feedback, and priority access to special guest events with bestselling authors and industry professionals. We also have a scholarship system.
What’s your advice to writers who have a day job?
I would say find a medium that feels right for you. It may be as simple as starting in a journal. There’s a really good phrase from another writer that I admire, Tim Ferriss, he talks about “write from the scar and not the wound.”
What Tim means by this is that writing from raw, unprocessed pain (the wound) can be overwhelming and unfocused. Writing from the “scar”—after you’ve had time to process, heal, and gain perspective—often leads to more insightful and impactful writing. It’s about finding emotional distance while maintaining authenticity.
I’ve interviewed over 150 writers, including Julia Cameron, David Whyte, Seth Godin, and the one thing almost all of them say is you have to find what’s right for you.
How much of a threat do you feel AI is to writers?
Many of us forget that AI is not a perfect science. It is currently based on a limited data set. It’s more flawed than we realize, because it’s working on a very specific data set that we do not have access to. You can use ChatGPT to create a story, but if you don’t have the discernment to know which bit of that story is actually working, you won’t succeed, because everyone else is using the same base.
I do know that there is something special about us as creatives, and maybe this comes back to why we write- that we have something that’s burning inside of us, which leads us to write? And ChatGPT does not have that burning desire to express itself in the way that we do. That, I think, is going to be the differentiator.
What are your five favourite books on writing?
On Story Structure
• Into the Woods by John Yorke
•The Story Grid by Shawn Coyne
On Craft and Technique
•The Science of Storytelling by Will Storr
Story by Robert McKee
For Inspiration and Process
•On Writing by Stephen King
What are some literary journals writers can submit stories and essays to?
Ireland:Stinging Fly , Banshee , Dublin Review , The Moth
UK & Europe:Granta , The White Review , The Paris Review
USA:nplusone, Electric Literature, Forge, New South
What’s next for London Writers Salon?
We’re excited to expand our reach into new markets, particularly in Asia and Australia where we’ve seen growing interest. We’re also developing more specialized programming for different genres and career stages. The pandemic showed us that writers everywhere crave community and accountability—those are universal needs that transcend geography.
Our 24-Hour Writing Sprint happening on April 25-26th will bring together over 10,000 writers globally. It’s amazing to see how far we’ve come from that first session with just nine participants.
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For more on the writing life, here’s How to Kickstart Your Writing Life. Meet literary agent Mita Kapur. Write, Pitch, Face Rejection, Learn with author Siddhartha Deb and literary agent Kanishka Gupta. If you are writing memoirs, here’s Why We Need Memoirs Part 1 and Part 2. And Writers, it’s ok to be jealous.
Sonya Dutta Choudhury is a Mumbai-based journalist and the founder of Sonya’s Book Box, a bespoke book service. Each week, she brings you specially curated books to give you an immersive understanding of people and places. If you have any reading recommendations or suggestions, write to her at sonyasbookbox@gmail.com
The views expressed are personal
