The Times/Chicken House Children's Fiction Competition 2025

The Times/Chicken House Children’s Fiction Competition is an annual competition organized by Chicken House, a publishing company in the UK.

To enter, you must have written a completed full-length novel suitable for children/young adults aged somewhere between 7 and 18 years. By full-length we suggest a minimum of 30,000 words and a maximum of 80,000 words.

The competition is open to entrants aged 18 or over. Entries must be written in English.

Entries must be the original work of the entrant and not previously commercially published and distributed (self-published works are allowed).

First prize is a worldwide publishing contract with Chicken House with a royalty advance of £10,000. The winner will also receive a discussion of representation with this year’s agent judge, Gyamfia Osei of Andrew Nurnberg Associates Ltd.

The second prize, the Lime Pictures New Storyteller Award, is a publishing contract with a royalty advance of £7,500 plus a discussion of representation with Gyamfia Osei. The prize will be awarded to a manuscript that shows great potential for film and TV development.

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.