Harlequin to Launch Writing Contest With Publishing Contract Prize

Posted on June 22, 2012

Harlequin and Mills & Boon, its international romance imprint, have announced So You Think You Can Write, a new annual global English-language writing contest and online conference. The free 24/7 online conference will be held from September 17-21, 2012.

At the conference, editors from Toronto, New York and London will hold podcasts, videos, webinars, blogs, live chats and Twitter events. Harlequin says the event has been organized in such a way as to help participants prepare completed manuscripts for submission to the So You Think You Can Write contest by the deadline, October 13, 2012.

Entrants into the contest portion of the conference will initially be asked to submit a first chapter accompanied by a maximum 100-word pitch. An online vote, open to the public, will narrow the field down to 25 contestants who, along with three wildcard entrants selected by Harlequin, will then be required to submit a finished manuscript. Harlequin and Mills & Boon editors will select three finalists whose manuscripts will be judged in an online vote, which is open to the public. A winner will then be named and awarded a publishing contract to write a series romance novel for Harlequin/Mills & Boon.

The contest rules have not yet been published. The website for the contest and conference can be found here.