Sunday 2 February 2014

First Novel Award for the Bridport Prize 2014...

Must say a big thank you to Claudia on the Writing Magazine, Talkback Forum, for letting everyone know there were details available of this addition to the competitions on the Bridport Prize website.

This is the Peggy Chapman-Andrews Award for a first novel extract ( first chapter of a novel, minimum 5,000 words, maximum 8,000 words in total, plus a 300 word synopsis), with a £1,000 prize, expert mentoring and possible publication.

This will be a popular competition, so only the best will get through to the longlist and shortlist...

Entrants must be resident in the UK, 16 years old or over. Nor currently represented by a literary agent.

They can either have a completed, or a part-written novel. But do be aware that for the latter case, if you progress through the competition to the longlist stage, you will need to have a minimum of 15,000 words available, and for the shortlist a minimum of 30,000 words.

The longlist will only consist of 20, sifted by the Bridport Prize readers from all entries. Those 20 will go on to The Literary Consultancy and A. M. Heath Literary Agents, who will shortlist to 5.

The winner and runner-up (receives £500, plus other elements) will be chosen by them and the named judge, Alison Moore. There are qualifying criteria for the winner- not agented or previously published a novel (self-published is okay, as is being published in another genre, such as short stories, poetry, non fiction).

(Full details of entry, prizes, terms and conditions can be found via the above link.)

Bridport's entry fees are high, £20 an entry. Entries can be submitted online or by post (see the relevant links in the Entry Format section of the terms and conditions).

Closing date is 31st May 2014.

There is a lot to read on both the main page, and the one with the terms and conditions, but do read them fully.

When you have to pay a high entry fee, it's a shame to waste both your time and money by missing an essential piece of information that could result in your hard work being disqualified.

If you enter, good luck.








6 comments:

Rosemary Gemmell said...

Good luck if you enter this, Carol - although it seems an especially high fee! No wonder they can give such a prize.

Carolb said...

Thanks, Rosemary. It's not one I would enter. But they do have a good reputation, and very good judges, which can be costly beside all the admin it creates.

liz young said...

Good luck Carol, and I won't be in competition with you. This is yet another book prize I can't try for because I don't live in the UK - when will these people realise with writing world is now digital?

Patsy said...

The fee is high - but as you say they have a good reputation, so I imagine winning would be something publishers would take note of.

Carolb said...

I won't be entering this one, Lizy.

When part of the prize is potential publication it can bring territory issues with it if the winner is outside of the UK, so it is probably easier not to go beyond the UK.

Carolb said...

I agree, Patsy. Bridport has built up a good reputation for bringing attention to good writing. Any entrant who gets into the top 20 will surely be improving their future prospects.