New Voices | Terms & Conditions

To ensure this competition is for you, please carefully read and consider these terms and conditions, and the information under 'What Is the Programme?' and 'What We Are We Looking For'. 

By submitting your entry, you accept and agree to the following Terms & Conditions:

  1. The competition is open to writers of any nationality writing in English.
  2. The writer must not be represented by a literary agent.
  3. The writer must be aged 18 years or over.
  4. The writer must never have had a novel (including children’s and young adult novels) published by a publisher or have signed a contract to publish a novel in the future.
  5. If the writer has self-published novels previously, the writer remains eligible to enter with a new work.
  6. Entrants who have had other types of publication which are not novels, such as magazine, journal or news articles and other works of non-fiction, or poetry, memoirs, and short stories, are eligible.
  7. The new work must be intended for adult readers. We do not accept children's or young adult fiction.
  8. The submission must be the first three chapters of a novel, not exceeding 10,000 words, at most. The work must be a fledgling idea or early work-in-progress only. The New Voices award is not for full-length drafts.
  9. Entries must be entirely the work of the entrant only, and not written or edited with any third party or using any form of AI.
  10. If the writer submits their work in other competitions and wins, they should notify us. If we believe there is a conflict of interest, we may ask the writer to withdraw their submission.
  11. Entries must be submitted digitally as a Word .doc, or .docx. Entries should be double-spaced in font size 12.
  12. There must be no reference to the author's name or personal details in the manuscript as we operate an initial concealed reading process.


General:

  • We will comply with relevant data protection legislation.
  • We cannot accept any responsibility and shall not to the extent permitted by law be liable for any damage, loss, injury or disappointment suffered by any entrant entering the competition.
  • Entrants should keep back-up copies of any work submitted to the competition.
  • These Terms & Conditions are governed by the laws of England and Wales and are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.

We reserve the right:

  • to not award any of/all of the places where circumstances are beyond our control, or if the judging panel’s verdict is that the overall quality of entries is not up to the required standard.
  • to extend the judging process and/or announcement of the winners should the number of entries exceed expectations.
  • to disqualify any entry if we have reasonable grounds to believe that the entry does not comply with these Terms & Conditions.
  • to amend these Terms & Conditions from time to time where reasonably necessary or where circumstances are beyond our control.

Please contact us if you have any questions.