The Page Turner Awards: Submissions are Open for 2021

Cover: page turners award 2021, sponsored by prowritingaid

We love hearing about exciting new writing talent here at ProWritingAid. That's why we are thrilled to sponsor the Page Turner Awards again in 2021.

The Page Turner Awards give writers the chance to enter their work into a competition where they could win a publishing contract, film rights option, mentoring partnership, and more. Each award winner will also receive a ProWritingAid Premium license.

The judging panel will include agents and publishers looking for writers to publish, film producers looking for scripts to produce, and high-profile experts from the literary world (including ProWritingAid's own Lisa Lepki!).

Ready to get involved? Keep reading to find out more and to learn how ProWritingAid users can enter for free.

Contents:

The 2021 Awards

In total, there are five award categories, and you can enter up to five submissions across the different award categories:

Writing Award: which is open to all unpublished and completed manuscripts.
Young Writer Award: which is open to any writer aged between 18 and 25.
Writing Mentorship Award: which is open to any writer with an unpublished and uncompleted manuscript.
Screenplay Award: which is open to all completed scripts and screenplays.
Book Award: which is open to any published books, whether traditionally published or self-published.

All Awards accept fiction and non-fiction in all genres.

Free Entry for ProWritingAid Newsletter Subscribers

Subscribers to the ProWritingAid newsletter will receive a free entry code on Tuesday 2nd Feb, so keep an eye on your inbox!

How does it work?

The Page Turner Awards are open to writers across the globe. Entrants will submit the first 10,000 words of their manuscript for consideration.

Over the summer, a panel of literary agents and publishers will choose a winner in each category based on the first ten pages of your submission. The winners of these incredible prizes will be announced in September. You won’t want to miss this opportunity!

The judging panel is made up of successful authors, literary agents, publishers and film producers and includes Paul Michael Glaser of Starsky and Hutch fame. See all of the fantastic judges here.

For more information on this year's awards, head over to the Page Turners website, and subscribe to their newsletter below.

Subscribe to the Page Turners Newsletter

Why Should You Enter?

The Page Turner Awards creates fantastic opportunities for authors. Here's what some of this year's winners had to say about taking part:

"I submitted part of my memoir never expecting to win something. When I heard that I was a finalist and that an agent was interested in my book, I couldn't believe it. Submitting is a simple process, and I am glad that I did it. Now, having been announced as the winner… I can’t believe it! It just goes to show that anyone with a true-life story told well can be a writer and even go on to win a writing award." — Elizabeth Goodhue

"Writing awards encourage new and aspiring writers to develop their writing skills in a most enjoyable and non-threatening manner. Winning is the icing on the cake and has inspired me to keep writing." — David Hay

The global awards culminated in a (very 2020) Zoom awards ceremony. It was great to put names to faces and to see just how much the awards meant to the authors.

Congratulations to all of the winners. We can't wait to see your books on the shelves!

If you're considering taking part in next year's awards, keep reading for some awesome inspiration from this year's winners.

The 2020 Winners

An incredible 56 awards and prizes were presented during the ceremony. Here are just some of the success stories:

Three writers have won literary agency representation
Four writers have had their full manuscript requested by literary agents
Five writers have won a writing mentorship
Five writers have won a publishing contract
Two already-published authors have won an audiobook production
Thirteen indie authors have won a publishing contract and audiobook production
Two indie authors have won highly valuable publicity campaigns

The main awards of the night were the Fiction and Non-Fiction Book and eBook awards. You can read an extract from the winning submissions by following the links below.

Fiction and Non-Fiction Book and eBook Awards

Mark Stibbe: Fiction Writing Award

Mark Stibbe, from Folkestone in Kent, has been announced as the winner of the Page Turner Awards Fiction Writing Award for his manuscript A Book in Time. Mark has also been offered literary representation by London literary agent Yasmin Kane.

You can watch an interview with Mark and Yasmin below:

Premise: Imagine if an antique book, a rare first edition, could speak and could tell the tale of its 200-year journey in search of the mother who bore it. Would such a story not call forth in us a new reverence for physical books?

You can read an extract from A Book in Time here.

Elizabeth Goodhue: Non-Fiction Writing Award

Elizabeth Goodhue is a freelance writer and blogger. Her blog, thetruthaboutdownsyndrome.com, hatched into The Truth About Down Syndrome: Lessons Learned from Raising a Son with Trisomy-21. She has been offered representation by literary agent Kizzy Thompson through the awards.

Premise: A mother traces her personal journey beyond the maze of social, governmental, medical, and school bureaucracies that accompany people with different abilities. Her mission has always been to bust the stereotypes people create, not just around Trisomy-21, but around anyone with a difference.

You can read an extract from The Truth About Down Syndrome: Lessons Learned from Raising a Son with Trisomy-21 here.

David Hay: Fiction eBook Award

David Hay from Stockton-on-Tees has been announced as the winner of the Page Turner Awards eBook Fiction Award for his contemporary humour novel, The Wisdom of the Wise.

Premise: Trouble is brewing in the sleepy village of Clamford in the Vale where the locals are experiencing hard times since the winter storms ripped away their ancient road bridge. The pub is struggling, the church congregation is dwindling, and the farmers are wearing permanent frowns. Salvation appears in the form of a generous legacy bequeathed by a recently deceased lady of the manor, but her generosity comes with conditions... conditions which soon generate a scandal that few will ever forget.

You can read an extract from The Wisdom of the Wise here.

Robert Barry: Non-Fiction eBook Award

Robert Barry from Kilkenny in Ireland has been announced as the winner of the Page Turner Awards eBook Non-Fiction Award for his eBook, The Truth—The Biggest Cover-Up in History.

Premise: The Holy Grail is a gate through which we may return to heaven. ‘I will create a gate. Whoever enters through it will be saved.’ (John 10:9) For the first time in 2,000 years, this book reveals all!

You can read an extract from The Truth—The Biggest Cover-Up in History here.

Mentorship Prize Winners

The Mentorship Prize gives authors the opportunity to be awarded a writing mentor who will help them hone their style and get their manuscript ready for publication.

The 2020 winners are:

Suzanne Smart, P.O.S.I.T.I.V.E. I.M.P.R.I.N.T. Lasting Impressions for Transformation. Find Suzanne on Twitter.

Lara Byrne, Lotharingia.

E A Carter, The Call of Eternity. Find E A Carter on Twitter.

Peryn Roel, The Unfolding of Time. Find Peryn on Twitter.

Billy Wittenburg, Murder on the Border. Find Billy on Twitter.

Emily MacNevin, Ruby's Big Red Heart.

Audiobook Winners

Spectrum Audiobooks chose the following authors to win an audiobook production worth thousands:

Michael Jack Webb, The Oldest Enemy.

C.L. Wells, Murder at Rendsburg Resort. Find C.L. Wells on Twitter.

Andrea Torrey Balsara, The Great & the Small. Find Andrea on Twitter.

Rhoda Baxter/ Jeevani Charika, A Convenient Marriage. Find Rhoda on Twitter.

Jeff Elkins, Grab.

Richard Attree, Somebody's Doodle. Find Richard on Facebook.

David N Robinson, The Stand-In. Find David on Twitter.

Oliver Richbell, Gloriana. Find Oliver on Twitter.

Beth Barany, Into The Black. Find Beth on Twitter.

Richard F Novak, An Uprising in Rome, 1849.

Brooke Sivendra, Blood, Love + Lies. Find Brooke on Twitter.

TD Parker, At Arm's Length.

Dominic Hayes, Room 40: 25 Years Before Bletchley Park, Codebreakers Gather.

Kitiera Morey Edge of Dystopia: Torrent. Find Kitiera on Twitter.

Publishing Contract Winners

The following writers have won a publishing contract and audiobook production with Spectrum Publishing. We'll be looking out for their titles as they are released!

William Kaufmann, Killing Bodhi. Find William on Twitter.

Alex Tremari, Dragoncast. Find Alex on Twitter.

Chas Harrington, On The Cards of Steven McGuire.

Aaron A. Davis, The Dead Breathe Still.

John Righten, Resilience, The Lenka Trilogy Part 2. Find John on Twitter.