Hot Key Books Young Writers Prize 2014
Hot Key Books is teaming up with online writing community Wattpad for this year's Young Writers Prize.
The competition, which is open to young people writing in English from anywhere in the world, is aimed at finding new and young YA authors. Entrants must be unpublished, unagented and aged between 18 and 25. It has been running since 2012 but this is the first year Hot Key has partnered with Wattpad after previously working with the Guardian (2012) and Kobo (2013).
Sarah Odedina, m.d. at Hot Key Books, said: "We've always had a school on the judging panel of the competition, but getting votes from the Wattpad community is a brilliant opportunity to get even more direct input from voracious readers. There are a wealth of undiscovered voices already on Wattpad as well as thousands of engaged readers, so we're sure this partnership will add a whole new dimension to the prize.
"We feel it's particularly important to show young people that publication is achievable and help them connect with the idea that writing is a career they can really pursue."
Wattpad users will vote for their favourite titles and the 20 most popular will become the longlist. Hot Key will pick five books to make up the shortlist before a panel of judges chooses the winner.
This year's judges are: TV and radio presenter Jameela Jamil, author and Time Out journalist Tom Huddleston, author Maureen Johnson, Rachael Wing from Wallingford Bookshop, and the winner of the 2012 Young Writers Prize, Katie Coyle. Two secondary schools will also be involved in the final judging.
Entrants must upload a complete manuscript onto Wattpad by 16th August. The longlist will be announced 19th September, the shortlist 14th November, and the winner will be revealed in April 2015.
The rules are in a story you can read here.
The winner will receive prize money of £10,000 and a publishing contract with Hot Key Books.
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