Mslexia news
MSLEXIA 2011
WOMEN'S NOVEL COMPETITION
1st Prize: £5,000
Judging Panel:
Clare Alexander, literary agent
Jenni Murray, broadcaster
Sarah Waters, novelistThe competition is open to unpublished women novelists writing in any genre for adults, including literary fiction, women’s fiction, young adult fiction, science fiction, fantasy, chick-lit, crime fiction, thriller, historical fiction... but not nonfiction or fiction for under 13s. To constitute a novel, your book must total at least 50,000 words.
Closing date: 30 September
Entry fee: £25
Send up to 5,000 words – which must be the first 5,000 words of your novel. Please make sure you have finished the novel before you send your entry.
Please note: This is NOT an annual competition. The next novel competition is planned for 2014.
WORKSHOPS FOR NOVELISTS
Quick Fix Fiction: Struggling with last minute tweaks to your novel manuscript? Need some tips for polishing your entry? Read our feature Quick Fix Fiction, first published in issue 49, in which top manuscript editor Rose Gaete details six last-minute fixes to try with your finished manuscript before sending it out into the world. Read more >>
Visit our Get Published section for a series of intensive workshops to help you with your novel, originally toured with the From Laptop to Bookshop Mslexia roadshow. Find out all about the perfect first paragraph, as well as how to choose a title, compose a pitch letter and write a synopsis in a series of free pdf downloads – and there is also a series of interviews with agents and authors who reveal their secrets and offer up advice to the budding novelist. Perfect if you're honing your entry for the Mslexia women's novel competition! Read more >>
Who is the competition aimed at?
"It doesn't have to be the truth, just your vision of it, written down." Virginia Woolf
- Women with an unfinished manuscript languishing in a bottom drawer. (Could this be the impetus you need to finish it?)
- Women who took up the write-a-novel-in-a-month challenge with NaNoWriMo and have a rough first draft. (Why not polish it up and send it to Mslexia?)
- Women who’ve submitted their completed novels over and over, and have despaired of finding an agent. (If you reach our shortlist, they’ll all sit up and take notice.)
- Women who’ve always wanted to write a novel, but could never find the time.
Get your book noticed
Because publishers specialise in different genres, we cannot guarantee a publishing contract at this stage. But we can guarantee that agents and editors will be falling over themselves for a first read of the winning manuscript.
What editors and agents are saying:
'When you find a great winner you can be sure publishers will come knocking. I will be first in line, wanting to read whoever wins’
Lennie Goodings, Virago Press‘It’s exciting to welcome a new prize that shines a light on talented unpublished women writers – I’d love to have first read of the winning novel’
Judith Murray, Greene and Heaton Literary Agency‘How wonderful to hear about this new platform for talented women writers. I’m really keen to read the winning manuscripts’
Alexandra Pringle, Bloomsbury Publishing‘If a new writer wins a competition it immediately grabs my attention. I am a big fan of Mslexia and will definitely look at the prizewinning entries’
Madeleine Buston, Darley Anderson Literary, TV and Film Agency‘I’m committed to discovering new women’s voices, so this is great news. I know there are many talented writers out there waiting to be discovered’
Sarah Savitt, Faber and Faber