Louise Walters Books
Welcome to the 2024 page 100 competition... which is now closed to entries... Many thanks to all who have entered. I will be fulfilling all the book-and-entry orders ASAP. Then I will start reading the entries and sending out feedback. It will be a rolling process from October to December, so please bear with me.
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Good luck!
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I'm delighted to be running my page 100 competition for the sixth year. It's always proved to be an intriguing competition, and a little bit different. This year I'm thrilled to be offering editorial feedback to ALL entries. I know, it's bloody mad... I'm going to be very busy over the autumn... but I want to offer something genuinely useful, as well as the chance of winning or being a runner-up. Please read on for entry requirements and full details of this year's prizes... including something rather special from the Big Green Bookshop...
1. The competition is for unpublished novels and novellas, writing in English, in any genre, including children's fiction. But please only enter if your story runs to 20,000 words or more.
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2. The competition is open to any writer from anywhere in the world, but your page 100 must be written in English. (I have now opened up my website shop to the rest of the world, including Europe.)
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3. Please send your page 100 only. Please send it EXACTLY as it falls on your page in your manuscript. If this is a partial page, for instance at the end of a chapter, please send a neighbouring page instead. No need to let me know if this is the case.
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4. The entry fee this year is £10. For £12.50 you can get a book-and-comp-entry combo. This gives you entry to the competition and a signed copy of one of my books. Let me know which one you would like in the notes box when you place your order.
If £10 is not do-able for you, I can offer free or reduced fees for low-income writers. I can offer six free entries for writers who are working-class and/or on a low income. Please email me in complete confidence to discuss this.
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5. Please pay for your entry at my website bookshop. You will be given a five-digit order number, eg, 11234, which you then will need to put in the subject header when you send me your Page 100. Please send your entry, after paying first, to info@louisewaltersbooks.co.uk
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6. All entries must be emailed to me as a Word doc ONLY with no identifying info on the actual page 100. I do have to disqualify entries every year because of this, so please double-check. No refunds are given for disqualifications.
7. The competition is open to entries until Monday 30 September, 23:59 BST.
8. You may enter more than one page 100, but you will need to pay £10 per entry. Multiple entries can be ordered in one go, no need for a separate order for each entry.
9. FEEDBACK: this year I'm very excited to be offering individual feedback for every page 100 entered. This feedback will include some mark-up on the page itself, using tracked changes, and a small set of notes, up to around 300 words. I have increased the entry fee this year to enable me to be able to take the time to offer this feedback. Please be warned: feedback can be hard to stomach if you've never had any before. If you would prefer to enter and NOT receive feedback, that is fine. Just let me know in the note section when you place your order. The fee to enter will remain £10/£12.50. Also, be assured that a preference for no feedback won't affect how your page fares in the competition. There is no disadvantage to declining feedback.
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10. PRIZES: in addition to the feedback for all entrants, I'm also offering the following prizes for the top three entries:
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TWO runners-up will receive feedback for their first ten pages, as well as for their page 100.
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ONE winner will receive feedback for their first ten pages, as well as for their page 100, and the winner will also receive a 12-month book club subscription from the fabulous Big Green Bookshop - a book posted to you, based on your tastes and preferences, every month for a year.
11. Announcement dates:
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The comp will close to entries on Monday 30 September 2024.
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I will read entries in October and announce a long list of around twenty on or by Thursday 31 October 2024. This initial read and sift of entries will all be done anonymously until after the long list has been decided upon. (My older kids do the admin and matching up of entries for me, and I only see names after the long list has been decided.)
I will commence sending feedback to all entries from Friday 1 November. The plan is to get all feedback to entrants by the end of November, but I may need a little longer, depending on how many entries I receive.
I will announce a short list of six page 100s on or by Friday 15 November 2024. At this stage I will ask to see the first ten pages from each short-listed writer.
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I will announce the runners-up and winner on or by Monday 2 December 2024. I will then arrange completion dates with these three writers for my feedback on their first ten pages. I will aim to get this work completed before Christmas.
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I hope this all sounds exciting. Please do enter. I've never failed to be impressed by the quality of entries and I always unearth a few gems along the way. Previous winners and runners-up have gone on to get literary agents. So what am I looking for? Essentially, I'm looking for writers who are in control of their material; who can write great dialogue, or great description; who can create pace and tension. This competition does look beyond your opening pages or chapters. It's easy to focus on the beginning and not realise that your story is slowing down, or meandering, or losing its way. I want to see excellent pace (whatever that might look like in your novel) and I want that sense of a story in full swing.
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Very good luck if you decide to enter this year; and of course if you have any questions, please e-mail me:
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Thank you!
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