Deadline: May 24, 2024
Entry fee: £24
About the competition
The Peggy Chapman-Andrews First Novel Award
Your novel doesn’t have to be finished. We initially need only 5,000 to 8,000 words and a 300 word synopsis. If you’re long listed we’ll ask for a total of 15,000 words, including your original word count. Shortlisted? Then we need a total 30,000 words, again including your original entry and long listed word count. It all adds up to an incredible opportunity.
Competition guideline
The Novel Award is open to writers aged 16 and over living in Britain (including the Channel Islands and Isle of Man) and Ireland (Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland) and British and Irish writers living overseas.
For the purposes of the competition, we define “British and Irish writers” as:
- British and Irish citizens living, working or studying abroad either permanently or temporarily.
- British and Irish citizens overseas who hold dual citizenship.
- Residents of the 14 British Overseas Territories: Anguilla; Bermuda; British Antarctic Territory; British Indian Ocean Territory; Caymen Islands; Falkland Islands; Gibraltar; Montserrat; Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands; St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha; South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands; Sovereign Base areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia on Cyprus; Turks and Caicos Islands; British Virgin Islands.
Discover details of the novel results timetable here.
Entry information
- Entries should not have been published or accepted for publication elsewhere, in print or online, by a mainstream or an independent publisher.
- You must not be represented by a literary agent at the time of submission or at the long list and shortlist stages. If you receive an offer of representation while your novel is under consideration, you must inform us and withdraw.
- Entrants must not have previously published a novel or novella although self-published novels, novellas and self-published e-books are accepted. ‘Published’ means work published in print or online, that has been selected or commissioned via an independent editorial process that does not involve the author of the work in question.
- Entrants who have had other types of books traditionally published e.g. poetry, memoir or non-fiction are eligible.
- The work submitted must not have won or been placed – 1st, 2nd, or 3rd – in another competition. Commended, short listed and long listed work is eligible provided a cash prize was not awarded and a maximum of 8,000 words has been previously published online or in print.
- Partially-written or completed novels in any adult fiction genre are accepted. This includes fiction for Young Adults providing there is a genuine crossover for adult readership.
- We accept novellas providing the author would be able to submit approximately 30,000 words if selected for the shortlist stage.
- Read the whole guideline and submit an entry here.
