Could you be The Northern Echo New Novelist of the Year? (From The Northern Echo)

Could you be The Northern Echo New Novelist of the Year?

5:10pm Thursday 2nd November 2006 in

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TO be in with a chance of winning a contract with leading literary agent Caroline Sheldon, all you have to do is send the first chapter of your novel with a covering letter outlining your novel's synopsis, explaining who you are and which genre you see your book fitting into.

Caroline will consider fictional work of any genre - from children's and crime, to women's or historical writing. Over the coming weeks, Caroline will be giving valuable tips to budding authors. Published novelists will also be revealing how they felt when they had their first books published.

The closing date for entries is Tuesday, December 12. A shortlist of 15 will be announced in The Northern Echo on February 6. The shortlisted candidates will then need to submit a further two chapters which should already have been written. Caroline, authors GP Taylor and Wendy Robertson, and Northern Echo journalists Lindsay Jennings and Sharon Griffiths will judge the final entries.

Caroline will work with the winner with the aim of achieving a significant publishing contract.

The competition is being sponsored by the School of Arts and Media at the University of Teesside.

The school runs a variety of full-time and part-time courses from English Studies to Creative Writing and Screenwriting. Students on the English Studies course ranked their subject at Teesside among the top five nationally for overall satisfaction with their course.

RULES

Only one entry per person. The novel must be a work of fiction.

As is customary, part of the agreement between the winning author and the Caroline Sheldon Literary Agency would include the right for either party to terminate the representation at a month's notice.

Entrants must live in the North-East of England or North Yorkshire and include an address and daytime telephone number on their entry.

Entrants must have the second and third chapters of the work available.

The manuscript must be typed and double spaced on A4 paper.

Authors must keep a copy of their manuscript as manuscripts cannot be returned.

Send your entries to: Lindsay Jennings, New Novelist of the Year competition, Features, Priestgate, Darlington, DL1 1NF.