The Dusty Manuscript Contest—Apply (Awards: Over 1 Million Naira)

Yet another Book Prize is here! GTBank, Farafina and OkadaBooks are launching the “Dusty Manuscript” initiative. It is a brand new literary prize created to discover a first novel manuscript written by a Nigerian author.

We all know how hard it is to write a book- some might find it easier to attempt to soften rocks till it was chewable. It is easy to walk out midway through the story, consoling yourself with the fact that no one would want to read it anyway, burying another manuscript yet again. This is why GTBank has taken up the Dusty Manuscript initiative to empower Nigerian writers. There are more than a thousand writers in Nigeria, yet only a small fraction gets the chance to publish their works, either because they abandon it at some point or do not have a publisher for their books. The idea is to get writers to tell and sell their stories across the globe because it’s high time to dust off those manuscripts and get them published. No more excuses, writers.

The Dusty Manuscript Contest features a two-day book writing and marketing boot-camp for the top 25 long-listed authors. To be selected, writers are required to submit novels that depict Crime and Romance in an innovative way that sheds light on the Nigerian culture.

Entries will be judged by top authors and will be based on writing prowess, interpretation and style of writing, level of interest to the general public on the subject matter, potential commercial success of the book among other criteria.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

• Word count: 25,000 to 35,000 words
• Genre: adult fiction
• Written language: English
• The manuscript must be unpublished (never been printed in any form – anthology, magazine, newspaper, or online, with the exception of personal blogs and personal websites. )
• Participants should have at least one parent born in Nigeria who holds citizenship of the same.
• All entries must be submitted via the GTBank portal with an overview and synopsis of the manuscript, and a brief author biography.
• One entry per person

NOTE: No entry fee is required

Formatting Guidelines for Manuscript

• Submitted as a PDF or Word file (.doc and .docx)
• Twelve-point font, double-spaced
• All pages should be numbered and should contain the manuscript title.
• Author’s name should not be present anywhere on the manuscript.

PRIZES/OPPORTUNITIES

• First Place: N1,000,000 + publishing contract with Kachifo Ltd
• Second Place: N500,000 + publishing contract with Kachifo Ltd
• Third Place: N250,000 + publishing contract with Kachifo Ltd
• The remaining shortlisted books with the exception of the top 3 will get their books e-published by OkadaBooks.
• Top 25 shortlisted authors receive a two-day bootcamp training on writing, marketing and branding.

TIMELINE

Submission date; February 5th – March 15, 2018
Submission portal closes at 12:00 a.m. midnight (CST) on March 15, 2018.
The long-list will be announced in May 2018
Bootcamp and announcement of shortlist will be announced in May 2018
Announcement of Top three will be announced in June 2018

To submit your story, kindly visit http://csr.gtbank.com/dustymanuscript