Get In It to Win It!
It’s time for the 2024 First Page Cage Match and your chance to win $300!
Have you ever attended a live-action slush reading? If so, you know all about the nail-biting experience of sitting in a room full of fellow writers while your words are read aloud and then judged (yikes!) by a panel of editors.
A ‘slush pile’ refers to the stack of manuscripts (remember the days of paper submissions?!) that an agent, editor, or publisher wades through on their hunt for a hidden gem. Even though most publishers now receive their submissions digitally, the slush lives on!
The First Page Cage Match is your chance to get all the necessary feedback without all the agony. And it might just help your piece rise and shine from future slushy depths! Rather than sweat it out in a room full onlookers, you can get this all from the comfort of your own writer’s cave. We’ll reveal the names and titles only when it is time for the final eight contenders to enter the ring.
Long-form fiction writers, this contest is for you! Here’s how it works:
Send us the first two pages (up to 500 words) of your novel, novella, or novelette.
- All entrants receive a 1-year digital subscription to Pulp Literature.
- The most enticing eight entries will be published on the website with judges’ comments. These authors will be invited to submit their first ten pages (2500 words) and synopses to the cage match.
- From these eight, four semi-finalist entries receive judges’ comments on their first ten pages, and an invitation to submit thirty pages (7500 words).
- Each of the two finalists receive editorial critiques of their first thirty pages, and an invitation to submit their full manuscripts.
- The author of the winning manuscript will receive $300, an editorial review, and a synopsis critique.
And here are the details:
Contest opens: 1 August 2024
Deadline: 15 September 2024
Prize: $300
Entry fee: $30
Earlybird fee (before 15 September): $20
Editorial feedback on first two pages: an additional $10
Entry fees include a 1-year digital subscription to Pulp Literature.
Quarter-finalists announced: 15 October 2024
Semi-finalists announced: 1 November 2024
Finalists announced: 15 November 2024
Winner announced: 1 December 2024
Judges: Mel Anastasiou, Jen Landels, Genevieve Wynand
Editorial feedback will be a sentence or two on your first page, letting you know at what point in the page we stopped wanting to read more, and why.
Enter the 2024 First Page Cage Match today!
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