Thank you for visiting NewWriters.org.uk. Our current competition is the New Writers Flash Fiction Competition (top prize £1,100, deadline: 31st Jan 2025).
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The BPA First Novel Award is run by the Blue Pencil Agency who offer a range of services for authors including manuscript assessment, mentoring and copy editing. They also run events for writers. The winners of the competition will receive cash prizes (with £1,000 to the winner), but arguably more valuable than the dish is the additional prize in each case: an introduction to a literary agent.
The literary agents in question are Hellie Ogden and Suzannah Ball from WME Agency, who are competition judges for 2025. The other judge is author Samuel Burr.
Note that as well as submitting the opening chapter or chapters of your novel (up to a maximum of 5,000 words), you should also include a 300-word synopsis and a covering letter – each on separate documents. As always with writing competitions, ensure you check the submission information carefully and comply with spacing/font requirements.
Note that there are 20 free entries available for low income writers, details of which can be found on the competition page below the ‘How to submit’ section.
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