Best Novel Opening for Children or Young Adults

We invite submissions for the opening 1,200 words of a novel for children aged eight to eighteen. You don’t need to have finished writing your manuscript to enter.

Prizes

Top 10 Shortlisted Entries

Your story included in The Winners’ Collection, which is sent to literary agents and publishers to help your work get noticed.

Your story and biography included in our Winners’ Gallery on the Searchlight Awards’ website, which agents, publishers, friends and family can access.

Your story included in our annual Searchlight Awards’ Anthology, which features the best entries from all our competitions in the last year.

First Prize

All the above, with your story recognised as the Competition Winner, plus a one-to-one call with literary agent Gill McLay and £500 in cash.

Key Information

Submissions from 20^th August 2021 to 22^nd November 2021, midnight UK time

Judge: Gill McLay of Bath Literary Agency

Word limit: 1,200 words, not including the title

Entry fee per story: £11

Results published: 21^st March 2022

Please read the rules below before entering the competition

Read the Rules

Our Judge

Gill is judging our Best Novel Opening for Children or Young Adults competition

Enter Now

This competition is now closed.

Competition Information

There are three rounds of reading and judging. The first is undertaken by our dedicated Searchlight Awards’ founder, Kim Donovan. Stories are then allocated to a team of experts in children’s writing, all with recognised qualifications and experience in Writing for Young People/Creative Writing, who carry out the second round of reading and decide the best 20 entries for the longlist.

In the last round, a guest judge reads all 20 stories, chooses the top 10 entries for the shortlist and an overall winner.

Here are some of the things our judges will be looking for:

Originality or an unusual twist
Writing craft
Distinctive voice
Evidence of a story beginning to unfold
Memorable
Appealing to the child/young adult readership

Your story must be suitable for a reader aged between eight and eighteen.
Your story must not exceed the 1,200 word limit, not including the title. There is no minimum word count.
Your story should be double-spaced, a size 12 font, and submitted as a doc, docx or PDF file.
Begin your story with the title. Please don’t include any other identifying information as stories are read blind.
Entries need to be in English.
Multiple entries are permitted. However, we require a separate entry form and a new payment each time.
Stories cannot be altered after they are submitted. Refunds are not given if a story is withdrawn.
Entrants must be 16 years and over.
Stories must be previously unpublished as whole books. Stories that have been submitted to forums for on-line critiquing are allowed.
Entries from authors worldwide are welcome.
Entries must be the work of the entrant.
While entrants retain full copyright, by entering the Best Novel Opening competition you give permission, if shortlisted, for us to publish your name, photograph, biography and the title of your winning story on the Searchlight Awards’ website.
By entering the Best Novel Opening competition you give permission, if shortlisted, for us to publish your story on our website, in our printed Anthology (publication date: Sept 2022) and in the Winners’ Collection, which will be sent to UK literary agents and publishers, unless you opt out. On the entry form we will offer you this option.
The decision of the readers and judges is final. No correspondence will be entered into regarding judging. We are unable to provide individual feedback.
Results will be posted on the Searchlight Awards’ website and winners will be emailed on 21^st March 2022.