Exeter Novel Prize

     the 2027 prize is now open for entries until 31st January 2027

This prestigious prize welcomes entries in English from all over the world, and is open to all authors who are without representation by a literary agent at the closing date, whether or not they have previously been published. (Scroll down this page for the full rules and to pay for your entry.)

​​ Hellie Ogden, head of the book department at WME Agency's London Office will choose the short list and the winner of the competition.

First prize - £1000 
​Five finalists receive £100

And - new for 2027: The highest placed entry from the EX postcode will receive a £200 EXcellence award.

Get your work read and noticed!

Open up your laptop or notebook, and get writing, or search the desk drawer and revisit a previous project. By submitting the first 10,000 words of your novel, along with a synopsis, you are in with the chance of not only winning a prestigious prize but also - by daring to put your work out there in the world - you are getting your name and work noticed.

Isn’t it time to take your writing seriously and send it out into the world?

Maybe, like some of us, you work best to a deadline: why not make use of our 31st January ‘27 deadline, or get it done by Christmas? Give yourself a timeline to not only perfect your novel’s opening chapters, but also to plan through the structure and story arc of your novel as a whole (which you will share with us in your synopsis.)

You can also request an appraisal report. One of our highly-skilled reader/writers will offer you clear and carefully considered feedback on your submission, with tangible suggestions to make your work the best it can be.

Feedback from authors this year: “So valuable - all comments very well received, thank you to you and your team”

“really good to hear an objective, informed viewpoint”

“Extremely helpful. I will definitely be making many of the changes you suggest, and I really appreciate the thoughtful comments,” “

““I know you cannot enter into correspondence, but I just read the notes (sent about my submission) and I want to say this is the best advice I have had in a year of feedback from editors and beta readers. Thank you so much. I know what to do now.”

“This is exactly the kind of guidance and encouragement that I needed”.

The fee for entry is £23, and for entry plus an appraisal report it is £150. Thanks to Exeter Writers, we have a small number of bursary places - please email and ask us if the £23 is a bar to you entering.

Ready to enter? Scroll down for more information on how to enter, and the rules (do read these thoroughly) plus our AI statement, and the entry buttons.

The winner of the 2025 prize was Uduak-Abasi Ekong, a Manchester-based Nigerian writer. Her fiction has appeared in The Bournemouth Journal, Ojuju Magazine, Wensum Literary, Everscribe Magazine, Brittle Paper, and Ekondo Review. She was runner-up for the inaugural Hilary Mantel Prize for Fiction and a winner of the 2025 Book Edit New Writers’ Prize. Her work has also been shortlisted or longlisted for the Women’s Prize’s Discoveries, Bath Novel Awards, Exeter Novel Prize, Merky New Writers’ Prize, and Creative Future Writers’ Award. She is a 2026 SmokeLong Emerging Writer Fellow and a Faber Academy alumna.

Her shortlisted novel, Welcome Back, Darling is a psychological horror about a woman whose dead husband reappears in the local market. It explores how grief can distort love into possession, and asks: What if the person who loved you most refused to let you go even in death?

How to Enter for 2026/7

Email your entry to exeternovelprize@gmail.com

1.Please ensure that the subject heading to your email is the title of your novel - e.g War and Peace.

2.Send us your synopsis (<500 words) and novel opening (<10,000 words) as a single document, titled with the title of your novel.

3.If you are requesting an appraisal report, please have the novel title then appraisal as your subject: so War and Peace - appraisal. Your attached document, with 500 word synopsis and 10,000 word opening of your novel, will have the title of your novel as its name. (Please don’t put Exeter Novel Prize or ENP in there)

4. We also need your postal address please - and if you have an EX postcode, and therefore qualify to be considered for our EXcellence award, can you put that in the subject line too? e.g. War and Peace, appraisal, EX. Many thanks to esteemed Penguin authors, and Clotted Crime members, Orlando Murrin and Jane Corry for making this award possible.

5.We have a small number of bursary entry places with an entry cost of £10 (Thank you to Exeter Writers for making these possible). Please email externovelprize@gmail.com if you want to claim one of these places.

Thank you.

Good luck!

 The Rules

Please read all the rules before you proceed: we don't want to disqualify anyone!

1.    The 2027 Exeter Novel Prize is open for submissions from September 1st 2026 until 11.59pm on January 31st 2027, which is without exception the closing date. Any entries received after this date will be disqualified and no refund of the entry fee will be made.
2.    The competition is open to everyone, living anywhere in the world, published, self-published or yet to be published, who is not represented by a literary agent. All those long-listed will be asked if they are still eligible to go forward.
3.  Entries should take the form of the opening of your novel (not a random selection of scenes) and must not exceed a total of ten thousand words, with a synopsis in addition of not more than five hundred words. Your synopsis needs to demonstrate that you have plotted your entire novel, and to offer the outline of the plot and its structure. Any entries received without a synopsis will be disqualified. Entries must be the author’s own work.The novel does not have to be complete. Self-published novels are acceptable.
4.   You may enter more than one novel, but each entry must be emailed separately and must be accompanied by a separate entry fee of £23. 
5.   Genres including Young Adult and New Adult are acceptable, but NOT middle grade please. 
6.   Your name should not appear anywhere on the attachment. The attachment should have the same name as the title of your novel as it appears in the subject line of your email (minus ENP - see How to Enter above). Only doc, docx, rtf and pdf files will be accepted. Any other formats will be disqualified. Please present your work in 12pt Times New Roman or Arial, 1.5 or double-spaced. ​Please have both synopsis and chapters in the same document.
7.    Entries must be in English.
8.    Entrants must be over 18 years of age.
9.    Entry must be made electronically and the fee paid via the website. The receipt issued by squarespace on payment of the entry fee is your receipt of entry. All receipts are matched with submissions and if we receive one without the other we will contact you. See How to Enter below.
10. Literary agent, Hellie Ogden from WME Agency will be the final judge. Although the organisers hope the winning entrant will achieve publication, no guarantee of agent representation or publication can be given.
11.   The decision of the judges is final. No correspondence will be entered into.

STATEMENT REGARDING AI - please read

Prohibited Content: Entries generated in whole or in part by artificial intelligence large language models (such as ChatGPT, Claude, or similar generative tools) are strictly prohibited.

Standard word-processing tools, basic spell-checkers, and standard grammar-assistance features are acceptable.

By submitting an entry, you confirm that the work is entirely your own original creation. If questioned, entrants must be able to provide developmental notes, early drafts, or other evidence of the human creative process upon request. Entries found to violate this policy will be disqualified.​

We support the Society of Authors’ HUMAN AUTHORED campaign. More information here.

NB the competition closes at midnight on January 31st 2027

exeternovelprize@gmail.com