THE 2016 BEST FIRST NOVEL COMPETITION 

Del Sol Press seeks to publish exceptional work by both new and recognized writers. Our emphasis is on original, unique, and accessible work with an edge. We are only interested in the very best work, regardless of source or type. 

The competition is open to all authors writing in English regardless of nationality or residence, and is available to published and unpublished authors alike. Genres we are looking for include literary and upmarket fiction, mainstream or general fiction, mystery/thriller or speculative fiction with a literary edge, serious women’s fiction, and unique experimental work. 

Finalist manuscripts will also be considered for publication. 

First Place Winner Receives 

A $1,500 honorarium, paid August 1, 2016, and book publication by Del Sol Press in fall 2016, plus 20 copies of the winning book. 

Second and third place winners receive free tuition to the Algonkian New York Pitch Conference where they can pitch their novels to editors in the commercial publishing business. 

Del Sol Press would like to thank Algonkian Writer Conferences for providing this opportunity. 

Eligibility 

• Writers who are at least 18 years of age and who live inside the United States.
• Simultaneous submissions are acceptable (as long as you let us know immediately if the manuscript is accepted for publication elsewhere).
• Excerpts from the manuscript may have been published previously in magazines, journals, anthologies, chapbooks, or self-published books, but must be submitted in manuscript form.
• If the work has previously been published by an independent small press or eBook press, it may be entered but only if the author has regained the rights. If the work is currently published and the rights remain with the publisher, the work does not qualify.
• If the work is self-published, it may be entered in the contest.
• If the work was previously published by a major commercial New York publisher (Penguin, Random, St. Martins, etc), or any of imprints of that publisher, it does not qualify as a “first novel” and therefore cannot be entered.
• Employees, volunteers, and board members of Del Sol Press, their partners, spouses, and immediate families, and immediate family, friends, and former students of the judge are not eligible.

Competition Guidelines

• Deadline (postmark), May 13, 2016.
• 200-450 typed manuscript pages.
• Genres we are looking for include literary and upmarket fiction, mainstream or general fiction, mystery/thriller or speculative fiction with a literary edge, serious women’s fiction, and unique experimental work.
• $30.00 contest fee paid at time of online submission. Online entries must be accompanied by submission fee. Please use Submittable.Com (link below) to submit both the Del Sol Press contest fee and your manuscript. 
• Contestants may be submit more than one manuscript. Each additional ms is $20.00.
• Attach your manuscript as PDF OR DOC/DOCX file and name file with your full name and the title of the work. Example: “fullname-titleofwork.” No name, no entry. The manuscript itself should have the title/page number in the upper right corner of every page. 
• Also attach the first chapter of your manuscript as a PDF OR DOC/DOCX file and label the file with your full name, title of the work, and “CH1.” The manuscript itself should have the title/page number in the upper right corner of every page.
• Your name should not appear on the manuscript itself.
• Paginate consecutively in upper right hand corner with title. Example: “title/number” in header in 10 point font.
• Standard manuscript format: double spaced, one inch margins, Times New Roman, 12 point font. Chapters begin halfway down page. Text only, no images, no colors. 

Queries to Chris Stewart, Editor in Chief and Contest Coordinator. Email: editor (“at”) delsolpress.com. 

THE JUDGE FOR THE 2016 DSP NOVEL PRIZE 

Madison Smartt Bell is the author of thirteen novels and short story collections. In 2002, the novel DOCTOR SLEEP was adapted as a film, Close Your Eyes. Forty Words For Fear, an album of songs co-written by Bell and Wyn Cooper and inspired by the novel ANYTHING GOES, was released by Gaff Music in 2003. 

Bell’s eighth novel, ALL SOULS RISING, was a finalist for the 1995 National Book Award and the 1996 PEN/Faulkner Award and winner of the 1996 Anisfield-Wolf award for the best book of the year dealing with matters of race. 

His most recent novels are THE COLOR OF NIGHT (Vintage), about which Kirkus Reviews says, “A hybrid of mid-career Cormac McCarthy and the film collaborations of Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez… Bell’s skills as a novelist are amply in evidence,” and ZIG ZAG WANDERER (Concord Free Press)–a short story collection in an innovative “infinite book” format. 

Born and raised in Tennessee, Madison has lived in New York and in London and now lives in Baltimore, Maryland. A graduate of Princeton University (A.B 1979) and Hollins College (M.A. 1981), he has taught in various creative writing programs, including the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and the Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars. Since 1984 he has taught in the Goucher College Creative Program, where he is currently Professor of English, along with his wife, the poet Elizabeth Spires. Bell served as Director of the Kratz Center for Creative Writing at Goucher College from 1999 to 2008.  

In 2008 he received the Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

>via: http://www.delsolpress.org/DSP-NovelCompetition.htm