The Novelry Blog

Would You? Should You? Could You?

It's worth thinking what entering competitions can do for you and your career as an author.

Some points of view from our writers.

From Longlist to Literary Agent: My Year of Writing Competitions. 

By Louise Tucker, member of The Novelry.

This time last year I started entering my unpublished novel into writing competitions. I had drafted and redrafted it, had good feedback from agents but no takers, and wasn’t quite sure whether to give it up and start something else. Then someone at The Novelry shared a link about the Stockholm Writers’ Festival First Pages Prize and, thinking I had nothing to lose but money, I entered.

The same week another friend at The Novelry put up a reminder about the Lucy Cavendish Prize and I decided to enter that too. What harm? I thought, as I pressed the ‘submit’ button and paid out some more cash; at least I was constantly revising and revisiting the crucial first pages and chapters.

A...