Blue Pencil Agency First Novel Award 2020 The BPA First Novel Award is open to unrepresented and unpublished authors for a novel in any adult fiction genre. We are thrilled to announce the winners of the First Novel Award 2020. Our judges this year were literary agents Caroline Wood and Carrie Plitt of Felicity Bryan…
SO, WHAT IS A COVER LETTER? Literary agents and many literary competitions require a cover letter along with your sample chapters and synopsis. This is a formal introduction to you and your novel. Note: It is not a CV, a bio or a blurb for the book. It’s a letter that should make the agent…
We are thrilled to announce the BPA First Novel Award 2020 shortlist. This year’s judges, literary agents Caroline Wood and Carrie Plitt from Felicity Bryan Associates and best-selling author Anna Hope (Expectation, The Ballroom, Wake), found it difficult to choose six titles from an impressive longlist. Prizes include agent introductions as well as cash and…
We are delighted to announce the First Novel Award 2020 Longlist. This year’s judges are literary agents Caroline Wood and Carrie Plitt from Felicity Bryan Agency and best selling author, Anna Hope (Expectation, The Ballroom, Wake). Prizes for the winners include agent introductions as well as cash and an editorial report. The Award is given…
SO, WHAT IS A SYNOPSIS? A synopsis is a functional document summarising the story of your novel. It usually fits on a single side of A4, but always check the agency/competition website for specific requirements. Third-person, present tense, reasonable font size… NAILING YOUR STRUCTURE We all love a good rhetorical question in a juicy…
Ahead of announcing the winners of our First Novel Award on Friday 27 September, here are the openings of the six shortlisted novels. The winner will receive £1,000 in cash plus an introduction to literary agent Nelle Andrew and the runner up, £250 in cash and a manuscript review from a BPA editor. The standard…
Blue Pencil Agency announces the First Novel Award 2019 Shortlist. Our 2019 judges are literary agent Nelle Andrew and author of The Witchfinder’s Sister, Beth Underwood. Prizes for the winner and runner up include an introduction to Nelle as well as £1,250 in cash and an editorial report. The Award is given to unpublished writers without…
Blue Pencil Agency announces the First Novel Award 2019 Longlist. Our 2019 judges are literary agent Nelle Andrew and author of The Witchfinder’s Sister, Beth Underwood. Prizes for the winner and runner up include an introduction to Nelle as well as £1,250 in cash and an editorial report. The Award is given to unpublished writers…
Yesterday evening we had the pleasure of attending the launch for Carolyn Kirby’s debut novel ‘The Conviction of Cora Burns’. We are incredibly pleased about how far both the novel and Carolyn have come since we awarded her first prize in the inaugural blue pencil agency First Novel Award back in 2017, judged by agent…
Jules Lampshire is the winner of the Blue Pencil Agency First Novel Award 2018 for her novel My Poor Deluded Girl which she wrote while attending the six month Faber Academy Writing a Novel programme in 2017. Our judges praised her work as being “one of those real moments in fiction where a reader can put themselves…