The Novelry, an online creative writing school founded by Booker Prize–longlisted author Louise Dean, has launched a $100,000 writing prize aimed at reaching writers outside traditional publishing circles. With submissions closing July 31, the Next Big Story competition has already received over 5,000 entries and expects to reach more than 10,000 total submissions. An entry requires the first 1,500 words of manuscript and a $15 admission fee, submitted through Submittable.

Dean said the competition aims to reach nontraditional writers. "What I'm really interested in is reaching people who would exclude themselves from writing way before they got to apply for scholarships and bursaries," she told PW. "These are the sort of people who would have been where I was and made the assumption that to be a writer, you've got to be clever or posh. I don't think I had those, therefore, I won't. But I discovered that in fact, you don't need either of those, and they can be quite detrimental."

The competition requires only the first three pages of a novel concept, an approach Dean said targets "real people who probably love really high drama, high concept things" and "probably heavy consumers of genre fiction."

The Novelry has graduated some 3,500 to 4,000 students, with 50 to 100 going on to publish books. Alumni with recent successes include Theo Clarke, whose memoir Breaking the Taboo was a bestseller on the U.K. nonfiction bestseller charts, and Claire Leslie Hall, whose novel Broken Country was a Reese's Book Club pick. The program, which was founded in 2017, employs 49 people including writing coaches and editors from major publishing houses.

Dean said the program maintains relationships with literary agencies and talent agencies, with graduates securing representation quickly. "When we pitch our writers to literary agents, 75% of those who are accepted by agents will get major Big Five publishing deals," she said.

The Novelry's methodology, Dean said, is informed by her early career in advertising. "I wrote two novels that I put in a drawer," she recalled. "I finally understood what I needed to do on the third novel and got that published, and I thought if I'd have had a one-page brief from the beginning, I would have nailed this."

The Next Big Story competition will select eight finalists who receive a full yearlong writing course, and one winner will receive the $100,000 prize. Dean emphasized that the Novelry does not take commissions from subsequent agent deals or publication contracts.

Judges for the contest include Tayari Jones, Zosia Mamet, Zibby Owens, Julia Quinn, and Emma Roberts. The Novelry's team will conduct initial judging before advancing entries to the celebrity judges. Dean said this process ensures thorough review rather than submissions disappearing "into a black box."

Dean also noted that the current entry distribution follows U.S. population patterns, with California leading submissions, followed by New York, Texas, Florida, and Massachusetts. Approximately 75% of The Novelry's students come from the United States, despite the school's U.K. origins.

"I really strongly believe that writing is life-changing," Dean said. "It's about walking in someone else's shoes while you're writing it, and the reader is walking in someone else's shoes."

To this end, in the U.S., the Novelry has partnered with Edovo, a learning platform provider, to offer creative writing courses to incarcerated populations across the United States. Dean said over one million incarcerated individuals now have access to a version of the program's complete writing course through this initiative.

The Next Big Story shortlist will be announced September 28, followed by public voting until October 5. The winner will be announced October 12.