AN author from North Yorkshire is hoping for a second chance at winning a prize with his first novel.

Electricity, by Ray Robinson, has been chosen for a long list of 100 books in a new promotion called Spread the Word, organised by National Book Day in association with Book Tokens Ltd.

The aim is to promote paperback fiction by living authors who have written books that have not won major prizes but are considered worthy of wider notice.

The judging panel for the long list comprised World Book Day staff, retailers and representatives of libraries and reading groups.

A shortlist of ten will be revealed on February 1 and the winner, to be announced on March 6, will receive £5,000.

The initiative is being promoted on the website http://www.worldbookday.com/spreadtheword/books/book_results.asp?offset=50 and by publishers taking part. Reading groups will be invited to discuss, comment on and vote for their favourite title.

There will also be a weekly draw to win £100 worth of National Book tokens and books from the lists of publishers taking part. Libraries across the UK will be promoting the books on the long list.

Mr Robinson, 36, a former pupil of Bedale High School living and working in London, drew on family experiences of epilepsy to write Electricity. It was shortlisted in the fiction section of this year's James Tait Black Memorial Prize but failed to win.