We’re delighted to announce that the Prize Bundle has been confirmed for this year’s TLC Pen Factor Writing Competition, which is open to attendees of our first ever Being a Writer Festival, which will be held throughout June and July this year! Now in its tenth year, the competition started as an adjunct to TLC’s Writing in a Digital Age Conference in 2012, later becoming part of our popular Writers’ Day, held at the Free Word Centre in London.
To keep with the theme of Being a Writer, we’ve structured this year’s Prize Bundle around the 4 things that writers have told us are important to them. These are:
- Time & Space
- Feedback
- Knowledge
- Community
The prize bundle this year is worth £2,000 and we’re very grateful to our wonderful prize partners for their generous support. To be in with a chance of winning, you need a ticket to our Being a Writer Festival, which you can pick up here.
*The deadline for submission has been extended to 9am GMT Monday 20th June 2022.*
More information on the 2022 prize, judging panel, and prize partners below…
TLC Pen Factor Writing Competition 2022
We asked writers who are members of our Being a Writer community what were the most important aspects of being a writer that they felt they needed support with. We’ve tried to reflect that in our Prize Bundle for this year. The Prize Bundle is as follows:
*NEW* Financial Support
Thanks to a generous sponsor, the 2022 winner will be awarded £200 in cash, with four finalists winning £50 each!
Time and Space
Arvon will provide the winner with x1 Arvon At Home Writing Week (worth £400) and attendence at 2 Masterclasses of their choice (worth £70).
Feedback
TLC will provide the winner with one full year of support, including a full manuscript assessment (worth circa £650), a one-to-one online writer’s surgery (worth £160), access to an Industry Day at TLC with a literary agent and editor (value circa £200), and a one-month digital showcase platform for the work.
Knowledge
Writing Magazine will provide the winner with a one year digital subscription. (worth £38.99)
Community
Spread the Word will provide the winner access to their London Writers Network newsletter (quarterly newsletter packed with opportunities to help your writing and career flourish) and a Bespoke Professional Development Advice and Info session (1 hour via zoom).
The Royal Society of Literature will provide the winner with a one year Membership to Royal Society of Literature. Benefits include free attendance to all RSL events, subscription to members magazine and an invitation to RSL’s Summer Party. (worth £50)
About the TLC Pen Factor
Submit your unpublished writing to the TLC Pen Factor Writing Competition for the chance to have it land on an industry specialists’ desk, and to win a suite of prizes. We will select a long and shortlist to send to our in-dustry judges, who will deliberate at a judges’ meeting ahead of the Online Writers’ Day. A winner will be announced at the event.
The TLC Pen Factor Writing Competition is a competition for new, unpublished writing across fiction and non-fiction, open exclusively to Being A Writer Festival ticket-holders.
As a competition, TLC Pen Factor has an impressive track record for finding talent, with many of our previous finalists going on to be published – including as a direct result of meeting their agent at the event! You can read about how entering (and subsequently winning) resulted in Lizzie Damilola Blackburn landing a two-book deal with Viking here. Previous winners and finalists include Neema Shah, Guinevere Glasfurd, Adam Sharp, Abi Dare, and Fawzia Kane.
TLC Pen Factor Key Details
*The deadline for submission has been extended to 9am GMT Monday 20th June 2022.*
TLC Pen Factor Judges for 2022 are Rhea Kurien (Orion), Jamie Cowen (The Ampersand Agency), and Rachel Yeoh (Madeleine Milburn Agency).
Full entry guidelines and Ts & Cs will be sent to paying ticketholders once you purchase your Festival Pass, Individual Session Tickets, or Video Ticket. You must be a Being a Writer Festival ticketholder and able to attend the TLC Pen Factor Live Pitch on Thursday 14th July 2022 in order to enter the TLC Pen Factor Writing Competition.
How to Submit
Full submission guidelines will be issued once you have booked a ticket for Being a Writer Festival. The below is a summary of key points.
- The work entered must be an original, unpublished work of full-length fiction or narrative non-fiction. It does not have to be complete at the time of entering the competition.
- Your work must not be on submission to literary agents or publishers at the point of entry. If the work is on historic submission and you receive an offer of representation, you must immediately inform us and withdraw your submission from the competition.
- Unfortunately we are unable to accept short stories, poetry, picture books, or scripts.
- The work entered cannot have been previously published by a publisher with a curated list (i.e., where the work has been through an editorial selection process). Previously self-published work will be accepted.
- You must be a Being a Writer Festival ticketholder and able to attend the TLC Pen Factor Live Pitch on Thursday 14th July 2022 in order to enter the TLC Pen Factor Writing Competition.
- You must enter the competition using the same name and email you used to purchase your ticket, so that we can verify your eligibility to enter.
- The judges’ decision re: longlist, shortlist and the overall winner is final and unfortunately we are not able to enter into discussion or give feedback.
- Submissions not complying with the submission guidelines will not be considered.
The Submission Deadline for the 2021 Prize is 9am (BST), Monday 13th June 2022.
