About the TLC Pen Factor Writing Competition

The TLC Pen Factor Writing Competition is a competition for new, unpublished writing across fiction and non-fiction, open exclusively to Being A Writer Festival ticket-holders. 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. We have now gone fully virtual, welcoming an even bigger audience, and continuing to showcase the work of talented writers with our live pitch session.

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.

The TLC Pen Factor has been generously sponsored in previous years by Kobo Writing Life, IngramSpark, and Byte the Book. Prizes have included editorial feedback from The Literary Consultancy, digital marketing consultancy, web presence consultations, free one-day writing retreats, membership to various writing organisations, and free e-reading devices.

How to Submit

*Please be aware that the TLC Pen Factor Writing Competition for 2023 is now CLOSED for entries*

Full submission guidelines for the 2023 Festival 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• The work entered must be an original, unpublished work of full-length fiction or narrative non-fiction.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 20^th 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 2023 Prize is 9am BST Friday 16^th June 2022.

Previous Winners