New Book Competition

LONDON BOOK FAIR have announced details of a competition to find the nation's hottest fiction talent.

LIT IDOL aims to find the UK's most promising new novelists with the winner receiving representation by Curtis Brown, one of Europe's oldest and largest independent literary and media agencies.
Entrants should submit no more than 10,000 words from the opening chapters of a novel as well as a 2 page synopsis.

The closing date for the competition is the 23rd January 2004 after which all entries will be filtered by professional readers before a shortlist of 5 is selected to go forward for a People's vote. This vote will be taken into account when the Final Five are invited to read from their work in front of a panel of experts to include Curtis Brown agent, Ali Gunn, novelists, Jenny Colgan and Emlyn Rees, Hephzibah Anderson, Fiction Editor for the Daily Mail and a Borders bookseller.

Final judgement will be passed by an audience of industry professionals and invited guests who will vote for the winner live at the London Book Fair on Monday 15th March 2004.

Entry details for LIT IDOL are available at www.thebookplace.com, in branches of Borders and Books Etc and online via the official London Book Fair site, www.lbf-virtual.com.

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