Deadline: June 1, 2023
Entry fee: £20
About the competition
The Times/Chicken House Children’s Fiction Competition is an annual competition organized by The Times and Chicken House, a publishing company in the UK.
The competition is open to entrants aged 18 or over. The entrant must not previously have had commercially published any whole children’s novel.
To enter, you must have written a completed full-length novel suitable for children/young adults aged somewhere between 7 and 18 years. By full-length we suggest a minimum of 30,000 words and a maximum of 80,000 words.
Entries must be written in English.
Entries must be the original work of the entrant and not previously commercially published and distributed (self-published works are allowed).
Prizes
The main prize is a worldwide publishing contract with Chicken House with a royalty advance of £10,000. The overall winner will also receive an offer of representation from a top literary agent, Davinia Andrew-Lynch.
The second prize, the Lime Pictures New Storyteller Award, is a publishing contract with a royalty advance of £7,500 plus an offer of representation by Davinia Andrew-Lynch. The prize will be awarded to a manuscript that shows great potential for film and TV development.
Competition guidelines
Enter online
- You will need to create a single Word document containing the following submission materials:
- A page-long covering letter explaining why you believe your novel would appeal to children and telling us a bit about yourself.
- A page-long synopsis of your story. Please include all the main points of your plot in your synopsis, including ‘spoilers’ – we need to know what happens at the end!
- The full manuscript.
- Please note that all materials submitted online will be read digitally on e-readers so exact formatting will not be retained.
- If you have any questions regarding entry to the competition, please see our Competition FAQs or, if you can’t find your answer, email [email protected].
- Read the whole guideline and submit your entry here.
