Entries open on February 14th and close at midnight BST on 31st July 2022

Rules

The £1000 prize is for a thriller in which no woman is beaten, stalked, sexually exploited, raped or murdered.
Thriller genres include crime, mystery, historical, sci-fi, cyber, comedy, psychological, spy, suspense, political, satirical and disaster. We are not at this time looking for pure horror or fantasy novels.
For the purposes of this Prize, ‘murder’ does not include incidents where people in general or specific groups of people are the targets or victims, e.g. war, terrorist attacks, hostage situations, sabotage.
The competition is open to authors of any nationality who are over the age of 18 on the closing date.
Submissions may be traditionally or provably FIRST self-published in English (print or e-book) between Jan 2020 and 31st July 2022, or not yet published. Translations are welcome.
Entries may be submitted by authors, agents or publishers, but must be in the required format via the Submissions form.
If you entered an unpublished previously, you are welcome to enter it again if the novel is now published/self-published, or if you have been rewriting or polishing and it is still unpublished.

Format

The first 5000 words of each entry, double spaced, 12pt, plus a one page synopsis, single spaced 12pt, should be submitted AS ONE DOCUMENT in pdf, .doc or .docx file format.
Entry forms are accessed via the SUBMIT buttons.
The title of the novel should be at the top of the document, but no identifying name/s of author or submitter should appear on the document itself. Entries will be read blind.
Completed novels will be requested by the end of August and must be at least 50,000 words. As we may request the additional material at any time, novels should ideally be completed before entering.
Complete novels called for can be submitted as pdf documents, or as published books by arrangement. This time we will require the name of the author and whether the novel is published/self-published or not yet published.
By submitting work for the Prize you are agreeing that ALL criteria have been met and you have accepted these terms and conditions.
You are also agreeing that we may contact you and add your name to our database to keep you informed about the Prize. Your details will never be shared or sold to third parties.
Any entry failing to meet the criteria will be disqualified.

There is a fee of £20 for each entry. Multiple submissions are welcome.

We can offer up to 10 FREE ENTRIES to low income writers of any age. Closing date to apply 30th May.

Entries are strongly welcomed from BAME writers and those from other under-represented groups.

*If you are unable to enter online, get in touch via the Contact page and we will be happy to accept your postal entry.

The short list will be announced on 2nd November 2020. The winner will be announced on 25th November 2020, the International Day For The Elimination of Violence Against Women. The winner will receive a prize of £1000 and an engraved glass award.

Copyright will remain with the author, but we reserve the right to publish up to the first 5000 words of each shortlisted novel on the Staunch Book Prize website.

Submissions

Our shortlists contain published and unpublished novels submitted by mainstream and indie publishers and individual authors. All entries stand an equal chance!