Saturday 23 July 2022 01:36 AM Your chance to be a top author: Today the Mail gives you the chance to have ... trends now
Have you ever dreamed of seeing your novel in a bookshop alongside those of your favourite authors?
Is there a hard-edged thriller inside you, just bursting to get out, or a brilliantly researched historical adventure, a tear-jerking romance or even a comedy of modern manners?
Many of us dream of having a bestseller — but first you have to get your novel published, a daunting prospect in today’s competitive book market. Until now.
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, which boasts authors such as Robert Galbraith, Val McDermid, Jenny Colgan and Clare Mackintosh.
Our chosen author will also get a £20,000 advance and be taken on by top literary agency LBA.
Previous winners — and runners-up — are now successful authors.
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
Our last, Louise Morrish, has just had her novel Operation Moonlight published (see panel, right). She hopes to follow in the footsteps of previous winners Amy Lloyd and Lizzy Barber (both of whose works have been optioned for films) and Georgia Fancett. Their books were all published to great acclaim.
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 How To Enter box, right, for a short version of the terms and conditions — but make sure you read the full set online and agree to them before entering.
We have asked our judges to give you a taste of what they are looking for. They 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!
Clare Mackintosh is the bestselling author of I Let You Go. Her new thriller, The Last Party, is out on August 4
Clare Mackintosh is the bestselling author of I Let You Go. Her new thriller, The Last Party, is out on August 4.
When I’m reading a novel, I can usually tell from the opening pages if I’ll love it or not.
Editing will iron out plot twists and pacing, but an author’s voice is harder to change. It comes not only from the words on the page, but from the order in which they are placed. There’s no right or wrong way for this voice to present itself.
For Claire, the most important thing is to make the voice compelling
I love novels where the writing is confessional (as though the author is talking privately to the reader) but I also love more objective narration.
The most important thing is that the voice is compelling; that it makes me feel I’m in a safe pair of hands and that I’m in for a great ride.
Character voice is just as important. I love a novel in which I don’t need a ‘Sasha said’ to know who’s speaking.
Before I start writing, I spend time in my head with my cast, working out who they are.
What was their favourite subject at school? What’s in their fridge? If they found a gold ring on the floor, would they hand it in? If you know your characters as well as friends and family, they’ll walk off the page and have us gripped.
Advertisement
Keep it simple and punchy
Ed Wood, publishing director at Sphere
I’m a huge fan of novels that come with a unique hook. Whether they’re in my core area — crime and thrillers — or whether they are love stories, coming-of-age tales, family dramas… keep it simple and keep it punchy.
Your crime novel, for example, might have familiar elements — the murderer and the detective, or the person afraid for their life, or the amateur sleuths who crack the big case — but finding a new and original concept, an angle no one else has thought of, is what it’s all about: give me that one-liner that just says yes, tell me more.
Then it’s all about danger and stakes: I want to hear about the characters inhabiting your world and what they’ve got to lose.
As long as a character has something crucial to lose — or to gain —then you’ve got a book people will want to read. And when a character’s needs come into conflict with another character’s desires, then you’ve got an exciting book, too.
And finally, it’s voice. Voice is how you express your story. Your concept is the book’s core, the characters drive the story, but voice is the writer’s expression.
Every writer’s voice is unique and finding one you love, and readers will flock to, is the secret to success. Readers remember stories and characters, but voice is what will keep them coming back for more, year after year.
Luigi Bonomi, founder of the LBA agency thinks authors should pull readers in with the first sentence
Concept, character, voice. Now, let’s go.
Pull the reader in straight away
Luigi Bonomi, founder of the LBA agency
Begin with a great sentence that pulls readers in. Open mid-scene. This allows you to pull the reader straight into the heart of the story. You can always go back later to what happened before this scene, but this way you are immediately immersed.
All novels need a beginning, a middle and an end. Make sure you describe your plot in a simple synopsis, about 600 words, setting out exactly what happens.
