Rules

  • The Bath Novel Award 2021 is a prize for emerging novelists of any nationality or residency
  • Novels can be in any genre written for adult or young adult readers
  • Novels must be your original work and submitted in English
  • Novels can be unpublished, self-published or independently published
  • For the purposes of the competition, we define ‘self-published or independently published’ as published without an advance payment.
  • Writers who have accepted an offer of publication with advance for the submitted novel or any other novel are not eligible
  • Entrants may be agented or unagented, but should not be represented by either the judging agent or any agent within the judging agent’s agency
  • The winner of The Bath Novel Award 2021 will be announced in September 2021 and awarded £3,000
  • Entrants retain full copyright, however by entering, all shortlisted entrants give permission for us to post an extract of up to 5,000 words on our site
  • By entering the winner agrees to an interview which may be published on our site and in any media for publicity purposes
  • The longlist will be announced at www.bathnovelaward.co.uk in June 2021 with longlisted writers invited to submit their full manuscript for the final judging stages
  • The writer of the most promising longlisted novel, as chosen by the Bath Novel Award and Cornerstones Literary Consultancy will receive a free place on Cornerstones’ 18 week online course Edit Your Novel the Professional Way.  The value of this prize is £1,800. The course is non-transferable and there is no cash alternative to this prize.
  • Shortlisted novels will be announced in July 2021
  • Unrepresented shortlisted writers will be offered the opportunity to be introduced to an individually tailored list of literary agents by email or other means.
  • Entries are open from December 1st 2020 until 23:59 (BST) on May 31st 2021
  • As entries are read blind, your name should not appear anywhere in your extract/synopsis document
  • Submissions should be a single document which includes (up to) the first 5,000 words of a novel of at least 50,000 words followed by a one page synopsis
  • Extracts should be 1.5 or double-spaced in a 12pt font followed by a one page synopsis single spaced in a 12pt font.
  • If submitting your work online, we accept Word docs, docx and pdf
  • If submitting by post, entries should be postmarked no later than 31st May 2020
  • Submissions may not be altered after entry
  • The entrance fee is £28 per novel and you may enter as many novels as you wish
  • Sponsored places are available for writers on low incomes, more details here 
  • Entries which do not comply with the competition rules may be disqualified
  • Employees of the Bath Novel Award, Cornerstones Literary Consultancy and the judge’s agency are not eligible