We received a ton of fantastic submissions for this year’s Great Novel Contest. After much deliberation, our judges have selected ten finalists, from which the grand-prize winner and runner up will be selected.
This contest was open to manuscripts of 50,000-125,000 words in all genres except for children’s books and erotica. Learn more about the 2020 Great Novel Contest here and mark your calendars for January 1.
Judges considered a variety of factors when choosing finalists, including organization, style, viability of concept, and prose quality. All submissions were judged “blind”—no names, history, demographics, or identifying information was shared with the judges.
This contest is sponsored by Columbus Publishing Lab, an outstanding company which provides publication and marketing services to authors and small presses. Learn more at www.ColumbusPublishingLab.com.
These finalists are presented in a randomized order:
White Oaks by Jordan King
Fellow Travelers by Jesse Bethea
The Thin Red Jellies Within by Bill Hughes
Breach of the Covenant by Steven Hiller
Paralith by Mike Sieminski
Museum of an Extinct Race by Jonathan Rosen
Earth 2.0 by Shannon Ferretti
A Principle of Light by Janet Irvin
Unfollowers by Leigh Ann Ruggiero
Becoming Nora by Margaret Kirby
These ten finalists will receive further consideration. We will present one of these finalists with a publishing contract, as well as $3,000 in author development services from Columbus Publishing Lab. The winner will be a published author with the platform to prove it.
One runner-up will win $1,000 in author development services from Columbus Publishing Lab.
The remaining finalists will receive a publishing consultation, as well as a letter of recommendation to publishers and agents.
While the following four titles were not selected as finalists, our judges felt that they deserve recognition for the quality of their work.
Inherent Lies by Alicia Anthony
The Magdalenes by Jeanne Skartsiaris
Girl on the Edge by Kirby Nielsen
Longshot by Jerina Pieri
Thank you to all of the authors who entered The Great Novel Contest 2019. While only a limited number of manuscripts could be selected as finalists, we were overwhelmed with the quality of the submissions that we received this year.
Thank you again to Columbus Publishing Lab for sponsoring this contest. Please visit www.ColumbusPublishingLab.com to learn more about their services.
Learn more about The Great Novel Contest at NovelContest.OhioWriters.org. Don’t forget to mark your calendar for next year!