Entries are invited for the first 1,200 words of a longer novel for children or young adults aged eight to eighteen. You don’t need to have finished writing your manuscript to enter.

Winners will be chosen by literary agent Rachel Petty of The Blair Partnership.

Second Prize: manuscript feedback from celebrated author and creative writing tutor Steve Voake. Shortlisted entries: featured in Searchlight’s Pitch Book of winning stories, which is sent to an extensive list of literary agents and publishers who have requested it.

We are keen to encourage quality, so suggest writers to check their stories before submitting using Prowritingaid. They have free and paid versions and are the best writing software we know to help improve grammar, readability and check for repetition, ‘sticky’ sentences and suggest alternatives.