Richmond Magazine

James River Writers

The Best Unpublished Novel Contest is a partnership between James River Writers and Richmond magazine. The first-prize winner receives $500, publication of an excerpt in a fall issue of Richmond magazine, and a ticket to the annual James River Writers Conference. 

Best Unpublished Novel Contest

The author must be a resident of Virginia, a student at a Virginia college or university, or a member of JRW.

Your manuscript should be a work of fiction or a novel in verse.

Work may not have been published prior to contest submission. This includes self-publishing, small press publishing, print on demand, and publishing the work on a blog or website. (If you have self-published a book, you may want to consider the Best Self-published Novel Contest.)

Each fifty-page submission must be uploaded via the official form, below.

Each page of the manuscript must have the title in the upper left corner, page numbers in the upper right, and be double-spaced with one-inch margins in Times New Roman or Arial font, size 12. Please do not put the author’s name on the manuscript. Manuscripts will be disqualified if submitted with names or other identifying information on any of the pages.

Full manuscripts will be requested in April if the submission passes the first round of judging. If requested, full manuscripts should be no more than 100,000 words.

Best Unpublished Novel Contest

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