WriteMentor 2026 Novel and Picture Book Awards
In partnership with Darley Anderson Agency, the WriteMentor 2026 Novel & Picture Book Award is looking for new writing talent in children’s, young adult, and adult fiction.
Now in its eighth year, this prestigious writing award invites entries worldwide within three categories: Picture Books, Children’s (Chapter Books, Middle Grade, Young Adult), and Adult fiction.
The winner of each category will receive a £500 cash prize, a 45-minute one-to-one virtual consultation with the agent judge for that category, and a one-year free membership to the Hub, WriteMentor’s online membership platform, worth £150. The consultation will consist of a 15-minute discussion of the winning entry and 30 minutes for additional questions including industry insights and career guidance.
This year, we are offering both a standard entry and a feedback entry for our writing award.
Entries for our writing award are open now until 31st March 2026. Enter below.
Judging Panel
Picture Book Category Judge
Lorna Hemingway started agenting in 2019 at Bell Lomax Moreton and then moved to Darley Anderson in 2025 where she represents bestselling authors and illustrators, many of whom have gone on to win or be shortlisted for prestigious awards and featured in The Observer, The Sunday Times, and The Guardian.
Children’s Category Judge
Lucy Irvine joined Darley Anderson after eight years at PFD. Her list contains bestselling and celebrated authors, who have been nominated and included in a variety of accolades including the Carnegie Medal for Writing & Illustration, the Branford Boase Awards, the British Book Awards, and Waterstones Book of the Month.
Adult Category Judge
Clare Wallace joined the Darley Anderson Agency in January 2011. Clare is building both the Darley Anderson Children’s Agency and the Darley Anderson Illustration Agency lists and also represents a boutique list of commercial adult fiction in both the UK and US. In 2024, she was shortlisted for Agent of the Year by the British Book Awards.
Information on feedback entry
For writers, good feedback is invaluable. It can provide you with a fresh and professional perspective on your writing, identify strengths and weaknesses, and help you polish your manuscript to give yourself a better chance when submitting to agents and publishers.
If you opt in for feedback, our team of experienced authors, many of whom are professional editors, will read and assess your entry.
Our feedback is constructive, not destructive, and we work with kindness, honesty, and respect. Our readers will highlight all the best parts of your manuscript alongside areas identified for improvement.
Prizes for our writing award
FIRST PRIZE
The winner of each category will receive a 45-minute one-to-one virtual consultation with the agent judge for that category, and a one-year free membership to the Hub, WriteMentor’s online membership platform, worth £150. The consultation will consist of a 15-minute discussion of the winning entry and 30 minutes for additional questions including industry insights and career guidance.
Cash prize: £500 for the winner of each category
SHORTLIST
All shortlisted writers will receive one-month free membership to the Hub, WriteMentor’s online membership platform. We will also put them in a draw for a full manuscript developmental edit.
LONGLIST
Each person on the LL’s will be put into a draw for 6 months of free Spark Mentoring.
How to enter our writing award
WriteMentor invites all unpublished and unagented authors aged 18 and above to submit their Picture Books, Chapter Books, Middle Grade, Young Adult, and Adult fiction to the 2026 Novel & Picture Book Awards. The writing award is open internationally for completed works written in English.
Entrants to the writing award can submit any genre of Picture Books, Chapter Books, Middle Grade, Young Adult, or Adult fiction:
- For Picture Books, please submit a completed manuscript in a single Word document.
- For novels (Chapter Book, Middle Grade, Young Adult, Adult), please submit the first 3,000 words for your novel and a one-page synopsis in a single Word document.
Entry fee is £12 with a limited number of concessions for the standard entry (there are no concessions available for the £24 feedback option of entry).
If you need to enter using a concession, please get in contact with us via our contact form. Let us know a little about your situation and we’d be happy to send you a link to enter.
Please ensure you read the rules below before entering.
Key dates for our writing award
Submissions to our writing award are open now until 11:59pm on Tuesday 31st March 2026.
We will announce the longlist and shortlist in May 2026 and the winners later in the year.
“I’ve entered the WriteMentor Novel Award pretty much every year since it first began and it’s changed a lot in that time – for the better, in my opinion. I have truly appreciated all the thought, care and consideration Stuart has put in to organising it with entrants’ mental health at the forefront.”
Cate Haynes, 2023 Novel Award winner
“The experience was fantastic. The WriteMentor team and Stuart show so much care for everybody in the way they announce results and the advice they offer to help deal with each stage. Also, the WriteMentor community on Twitter is just amazing. Everyone is so welcoming and kind, and they’re always ready to celebrate and support each other. I feel so very lucky to be amongst many brilliant writers. The standard is so high every year and the results are so close.”
Saira Shah, 2023 Picture Book award winner, now represented by Peters Fraser + Dunlop
Rules for entering
Entries for complete manuscripts only – Picture Book, Chapter Books, Middle Grade, Young Adult and Adult of any genre. You may enter as many novels/texts as you wish.
You cannot be currently agented, and you must never have had a book traditionally published. If you fulfil either of the above criteria, or both, you are not eligible to enter. Independently published writers who have not received an advance may enter, but not with a published novel.
For Picture Book writers, send us the whole manuscript, with a short synopsis at the start (a pitch would suffice). No artwork or illustrations please. Text only. Ideal word count is between 500-1000 words.
For Novel writers, submit a synopsis (single-spaced) and then first 3,000 words (1.5 or double-spaced) in the same word document.
Word limit is not negotiable and if you exceed this, we will not read your entry. We suggest finishing at a suitable point before 3000 rather than mid-sentence. A great 2000-word entry, that finishes on a great cliff-hanger is probably more effective than a 2997 word entry that stops in the middle of a scene.
Use 12 and a plain font like Times New Roman. Put page numbers in the footer.
Name your document in the format of ‘TITLE.docx’ – i.e. ‘THEHOBBIT.docx’ with the title of the manuscript in the header.
Do not put your name anywhere on the document or in the name of the uploaded document, as entries are read anonymously. The ONLY place your name should be is in the name field on the form. If you notice on your confirmation email that the document title includes your name, do not worry. We will manually rename the file before it’s passed onto the readers.
Use the link at the top of the entry form page to pay your entry fee.
All entries will be sent digitally. We are committed to being green and want to keep costs for writers down, so mail entries will not be allowed.
If you are unable to pay the entry fee, simply type CONCESSION in the box on the entry form. You do not need to provide any evidence or explanation for this. However, we are limiting the free entries this year to 30 and one FREE entry per person.
If you are short listed for the novel award, we will contact you after the announcement to ask for your full manuscript. Please send this within 7 days.
All announcements about the writing award will happen via the site, so do sign up to our mailing list and follow us on social media.
Writing award FAQs
I entered last year – can I enter again?
Absolutely.
Will I get the same readers?
It’s unlikely, as our pool of readers does change a little, and the odds of getting the same readers as last time are very slim.
Can I enter more than one novel/text?
Yes, enter as many as you like, but each one will need its own entry form and fee.
Will I get a confirmation email when I enter?
Yes, we will email the address that you input on the entry form. Do check junk/spam folders before enquiring.
I don’t have Word – how can I submit a .doc or .docx file?
If you do not have word, then you can paste your entry into Google Docs, then download the file as a .doc or .docx. We have nearly 50 people judging the writing award in total, many of which will not be able to access files sent in other formats.
What happens if I sign with an agent during the reading/judging period?
Send us an email, or a message via the contact form, and you will need to withdraw from the day of signing your contract.
Should I include my prologue?
Simple answer. If your prologue is good, include it! Seriously, this is your call, but our experience is that when you only have 3000 words to grab our attention, and if your prologue isn’t in the main storyline, it might be worth considering leaving it out.
Do I HAVE to do a synopsis?
YES! We understand the agony, but don’t fret – simply hit us with a blow-by-blow account of the main things that happen in the story – 1 page, single spaced – and that will work fine. Ultimately you won’t miss out on being listed due a poor synopsis, but you will due to a poor chapter 1, so focus on that.
I’m only a few words over 3000, can I just enter them?
Sorry, but no. Only way to ensure absolutely fairness for those entering our writing award is to apply this upper limit rigidly. Most writers will spend hours editing and cutting, or choosing to end earlier to make the limit, so you should, too. Worth noting that a 2000-word extract that is great is just as likely to get listed as a 2999 word extract, and it’s unlikely the latter will finish in a place that is perfect for making your reader want more. That is the priority over a few extra words.
Which age category should I put down?
Hard for us to answer, but the general rule is kids tend to read 2 years up. So, if your main character is 12, you’re looking at a 10-year-old reader.
Am I guaranteed to sign with an agent if I’m shortlisted?
No. But a large % of our longlisted and shortlisted authors from previous writing awards are now with agents, and we have a several published authors from that group, too. We offer no guarantees, performing well in a novel award means you have impressed many adult and kid readers and is a good sign that your story has appeal.
I’ve entered. What should I do while I wait?
Take care of yourself. Take a break. Do something else. Write something else. Forget about the competition and set a reminder for the day of the longlist announcement. Casually browse the list when it’s announced, without expectation or hope. If you’re not there, at least you’ve been working on something new and won’t be too disappointed. If you are on there, then it’s a nice surprise and welcome boost. This year we will email everyone at the same time with the outcome. We will then publicly announce later, to give those receiving the news time to process this before posts are made on social media etc. But the absolute priority is you, and your mental health and wellbeing, so please enter, then forget about it. Writing a long game and is not about 1 individual writing award or moment in time – keep up the good habit of submitting and moving on and it will benefit you in the long run.
Award success stories
Sophia Payne won the 2020 WriteMentor Picture Book Award with Faruq and the Wiri Wiri, now published by Templar Books
Sean Dooley won the 2021 WriteMentor Novel Award and is now represented by Caroline Wakeman Literary Agency
Chris Galvin shortlisted for 2021 WriteMentor Novel Award and is represented by David Higham Associates
Louse Finch’s novel The Eternal Return of Clara Hart, runner-up in the 2020 WriteMentor Novel Award, is now published by Little Island
Aoife Doyle won the 2021 WriteMentor Novel Award and is now represented by Peters Fraser + Dunlop
Sue Cunningham won the 2020 WriteMentor Novel Award and is now published by Scholastic
Alexandra Page‘s winning book for the 2019 WriteMentor Novel Award, Wish You Was, is now published with Walker Books
Kathryn Foxfield‘s novel, Good Girls Die First, runner-up in the 2019 WriteMentor Novel Award, is now published by Scholastic
Amy Borg, shortlisted in the 2019 WriteMentor Novel Award, is now represented by Sara O’ Keeffe