First Novel Prize introduces support for low-income writers

The First Novel Prize is opening access to low-income writers this year, with organiser Daniel Goldsmith Associates sponsoring a minimum of 100 free places for writers who would otherwise struggle to pay the £25 entrance fee.

Founder Lorena Goldsmith said: “Over the years we understood that by not offering free entry to those writers on a low income, we’re missing out on a wealth of talent from all corners of the world. This is something we are now addressing, by sponsoring a minimum of 100 entries per each edition of the prize.”

Other changes include accepting incomplete manuscripts for entry. 

Goldsmith added: “The luxury of complete stories and concluded character arcs has worked brilliantly so far, but we’re hoping that by opening entries to fresh, possibly never-before-seen material, we’ll move closer to the beating heart of the fiction-writing world: the original and raw material that will form tomorrow’s bestselling titles.”

Launched in 2016, the the judges for this year’s prize are literary agent Hellie Ogden from Janklow & Nesbit and publisher Mark Richards from Swift Press.

Previous winners have gone on to secure publishing deals, such as Emily Itami’s Fault Lines (Phoenix Books), Laure van Rensburg’s Nobody But Us (Michael Joseph) and Neema Shah’s Kololo Hill (Picador).

Entries open in February and close in May every year at www.firstnovel.co.uk. Writers can enter up to 5,000 words of unpublished or independently published long-form fiction. Independently published means the author owns the rights to the work.