A closer look: community partners for WFTS

GoodLeads

1. 

   ( 0.1 )

   the brief: finding writers

   WFTS was getting ready for its next phase: finding writers. The brief was to scout book clubs, writing societies and independent communities that could bring in high-quality writers in culture, fashion and lifestyle, and that a writing competition could be pitched to.

2. 

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   the lead sheet

   I set up the community partners lead sheet in the team drive and took India, then went further, scouting clubs and organisations across five more countries.

   • 21 organisations and clubs
   • 6 countries
   • 16 writer leads
   • 200 to 3.5M community sizes

3. 

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   the criteria every lead met

   Every lead was scored against the WFTS criteria:

   • not performative
   • local takes and writing
   • women-led or non-white
   • leaves some social impact
   • a community to pitch to
   • independent, less academic themes
   • visually aligned with WFTS

4. 

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   what the sheet tracked

   • qualification: community size, engagement level, activity type, access to talent, and why they fit WFTS
   • contacts: the right person, their role, and whether the route in is warm or cold
   • outreach: status, first contact, last follow-up, and what they said
   • offer and collab: the offer type, their interest, and a specific collaboration idea for each one
5. Partners^●

6. 

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   a few partners, and the idea for each

   • Terribly Tiny Tales (Mumbai, India, collective, 3.5M): a writing prompts series, and talent from their Young Writers Program
   • Brown History (Mumbai, India, independent, 74K): a cross-published series on South Asian fashion and identity
   • South Asia Speaks (New Delhi, India, non-profit mentorship): a talent pipeline from its fellows and alumni
   • Sing Lit Station (Singapore, literary charity): commissions for Singapore-based women writers
   • Buku Jalanan (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, grassroots reading movement): a co-hosted writing workshop on culture and identity
   • The Penlogue (Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, youth writing platform): talent from its Camp Lumina alumni
   • UP Writers Club (Manila, Philippines, university club): a campus feature on emerging women writers
   • Roomforlit (Jakarta, Indonesia, youth-led collective): co-created writing for young Indonesian women

7. 

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   the outreach

   I filled the sheet with writing clubs, literary non-profits, campus societies and independent publications, each with a specific collaboration idea, drafted and sent outreach across CGG and Threads, and sourced a separate list of independent women writers for the network.

   Every lead was matched to one or more offers: content series, talent pipeline, writing commission, campus feature, event collab. Contact details and the writer list stay private.

SixCountries