‘Daily Mail’ and PRH launch £20,000 UK debut crime writing competition

In the UK, Penguin Random House (PRH) imprint Century has partnered with the Daily Mail newspaper to run a £20,000 (A$32,870) debut crime writing competition, reports the Bookseller.

The competition is open to first-time novelists, who are residents of the UK and have not had a work published in any format, including in print, self-published and ebooks. To enter, writers are to submit 5000 words of their manuscript along with a 600-word synopsis of the book.

The competition follows last year’s Daily Mail First Novel competition, which the newspaper also ran in partnership with PRH. The winner, Amy Lloyd, was awarded a £20,000 publishing deal with PRH and will see her book, Red River, published in the UK in January 2018.

A spokesperson for the newspaper said, ‘We were so impressed by the quality of the entries that we, and Penguin Random House, are running the competition again this year. However, as most of the best entries last time were crime and thrillers, this year we are asking for entries in that genre only.’

The judges for the competition are crime author Simon Kernick, literary agent Luigi Bonomi who will represent the winner, Century and Arrow publisher Selina Walker and Daily Mail literary editor Sandra Parsons.

Category: International news