- The Bath Children’s Novel Award 2023 is a prize for emerging children’s authors
- For the purposes of the competition emerging children’s authors are defined as unagented writers who are yet to accept an offer of publication for a novel (for any age of readers including novels for adults), chapter book or picture book which includes an advance / pre-publication payment from the publisher.
- Entries may be submitted from June 1st until 23:59 GMT on November 30th
- The prize is open worldwide to writers of any age and any nationality / residency
- Books can be unpublished, self-published or independently published
- We accept: YA novels; novels for teens; children’s novels; early readers; chapter books and the text of picture books
- Entries should be your text only without any photographs, maps or artwork
- Full manuscripts may be of any length, however as a guide, we recommend 500 – 600 words per picture book, 6-10,000 for a chapter book, 40-60,000 for middle grade and 50-70,000 words for YA (or longer for fantasy novels).
- Books must be submitted in English and must be the author’s own work.
- The winner of The Bath Children’s Novel Award will receive £3,000. In the event of a joint win, the prize money will be shared equally between winners.
- The writer of the most promising longlisted novel, as chosen by the Bath Novel Awards and Cornerstones Literary Consultancy will receive a free place on Cornerstones’ and Professional Writing Academy’s 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.
- Submissions should include one document including (up to) the first 5,000 words of your book, double-spaced in a size 12 font followed by a one page synopsis which should be single-spaced in a size 12 font. For picture books, submissions should be the text of up to three books in a single document followed by a short synopsis of each
- Submissions should be made online and we accept Word docs, docx and pdf
- As entries are read blind, your name should NOT appear anywhere in the document containing your extract and synopsis.
- The entrance fee is £29 per submission and you may enter as many times as you wish.
- There are a number of free sponsored entries for low income writers otherwise unable to afford entry fees. Application details here
- The winner agrees to an interview which may be published on our site and in any media for publicity purposes.
- 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.
- The longlist will be announced mid December with longlistees invited to submit their full manuscript for the final judging stages.
- Shortlisted novels are announced in January.
- Shortlistees will win a compilation of Junior Judges’ and award readers’ feedback on their full manuscript
- All listees will win feedback from an editorial director at Cornerstones Literary Consultancy on their first ten double-spaced pages plus one page synopsis. This feedback will be provided after the winning novel has been announced.
- The winner of the Bath Children’s Novel Award 2023 will be announced in February 2024.
- Entries which do not comply with the competition rules may be disqualified.
- Employees of the Bath Novel Award, Cornerstones Literary Consultancy, Professional Writing Academy and the judge’s literary agency are not eligible to win.
- The judges’ decision is final, and no correspondence will be entered into concerning this decision.