Daily Mail First Novel Competition 2022
Today, the Mail and one of the world's biggest and most respected publishers launch a search for the UK's brightest literary talent. For the winner, the prize will be life-changing - their book will be published by Little, Brown's Sphere imprint. Our chosen author will also get a £20,000 advance and be taken on by top literary agency LBA.
By entering, your opening chapters and synopsis will be read by publishing professionals. If you win, an editor will help you shape and polish your first work of fiction, tackling plot problems, character development and scene setting.
Although entrants must be aged 18 or over, there's no upper age limit - after all, experience feeds imagination. Even if you don't scoop the first prize, it's possible your book may be chosen for publication anyway if the judges decide it has potential. This has been the case with several runners-up in the past.
Your entry must be written for an adult audience, can be in any genre except Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror and can be contemporary, historical, funny or tragic, dark or delightful, so long as it has an original voice, compelling characters and a driven plot.
The contest is for first-time authors who have not had any work of fiction published before.
It doesn't need to be complete - just send 3,000 words, plus a 600-word synopsis (including spoilers) to show where you plan to take your plot and characters.
See the website for the terms and conditions - but make sure you read the full set online and agree to them before entering.
Our judges are bestselling novelist Clare Mackintosh; Ed Wood, Sphere publishing director; Darcy Nicholson, Sphere editorial director; Luigi Bonomi, founder of the LBA agency; and Hannah Schofield, a leading agent at LBA. Completing the judges' line-up is Sandra Parsons, Daily Mail literary editor.
So what are you waiting for? Read on - and start writing!