Opportunities maybe

[Roy1]

The Daily Mail and Transworld join forces to discover exciting new writing talent. Transworld will offer the winner of the Daily Mail First Novel Award a publishing contract worth £30,000. For terms and conditions of entry click here

or go to Could you be the next publishing sensation? | the Daily Mail

[Sapheron]

Well, I'm already trying to write a novel (or two... or three...), so I guess I might as well give it a go. You never know, after all, and thirty thousand goes a long way towards university costs.

[Griffith]

Too bad it's only for people living in the UK. I live in America so I can't do it.

[Phil Brown]

Only £30k? Not worth the postage! I'm expecting an advance of at least £300k... Oh well...maybe I'll submit something it if I can remember, but they'll have to do better for volume 2!

[Sapheron]

Heh, don't make me feel cheap...

[Roy1]

Closing date for the competition is 2nd July 2007. So, unless you are really fast, you probably need to have your novel well underway now to meet that deadline.

Best of luck

[Phil Brown]

Now putting finishing touches to my MS for this competition. It's been a marathon but I think it was worth it, even if I don't win. At least it's given me a target and made me work damned hard.
But I still don't think its the money that's important here. It's the publicity you'd get. That is vital. Something to make you stand out from the crowd.

[lin robinson]

oo bad it's only for people living in the UK.

Yeah, bummer. I don't see contests like that in the US, do you? (Much less C. America where I hang/hide out)

[Birol]

Sure there are contests and fellowships in the US with geographic limitations. I've never seen one for just US writers, but I have seen them limited to writers residing in a specific state or a specific region of the country.

[SJAB]

If you haven't already submitted you have had it. There is a 24 hour national postal strike, beginning this morning.

[JDP]

D'oh! Given another month or so, I could've made it. Oh, well, I guess it aint meant to be.

[lin robinson]

"Like that" doesn't mean with geographic limitations. It meant contests of that type and magnitude. OK?

If you are aware of any such, I'm sure I wouldn't be the only one to appreciate hearing about them.

[Phil Brown]

I'm now working on the second volume of Time Crystal which is requiring some changes to volume 1. I'm also rethinking chapter 1 of volume 1, adding what I think is a dramatic new twist to the opening which brings out what is at stake in a more direct way.

I wonder what would happen in the unlikely event that I actually won this competition. Would I be allowed to change it? It's perfectly normal for text to change in the editing process between submission and publication, so I don't expect there'll be a problem, especially if the new version is better than the old. But I guess technically there could be questions raised...

By the way the postal strike made no difference as I don't trust the post even at the best of times and I had already booked a train to London. And if the trains had gone on strike I would have driven down to Ealing Broadway. Not that I'm in the least bothered about winning, of course...