Pulp Idol 2025 is NOW OPEN!
For seventeen years the Pulp Idol competition has uncovered the best new novelists the city of Liverpool has to offer.
Many new novelists, including Ashleigh Nugent (LOCKS), Ariel Khan (Raising Sparks), James Rice (Alice and the Fly, Walk), Clare Coombes (Definitions), Natalie Denny (Keisha Jones Takes On The World) and Philippa Holloway (The Half Life of Snails), have found their first success through Pulp Idol. This competition is unearthing the best new novelists from Liverpool and across the country.
All finalists get their first chapter published in a book of ‘Firsts,’ which is produced in hard copy, a digital manuscript and made available on Amazon Kindle (and free on Kindle Unlimited!). Copies of Pulp Idol – Firsts are sent to agents and publishers.
If you have any questions about Pulp Idol, please email our Publishing Coordinator Jenny Dalton at jenny@writingonthewall.org.uk
Read the Rules and Eligibility Here!
Apply for Pulp Idol 2025!
Submissions Close: Friday 18th October 2024
What to expect from Pulp Idol?
Pulp Idol is different to most novel writing competitions. In most competitions, you submit your work and then find out if you win. Pulp Idol gets you in the room with other writers, agents and publishers from day one and our goal is to help you forge connections for your future career in writing and embrace your local writing community.
Stage One: The Heats
In the heats, entrants will be given three minutes to read from their opening chapter and answer questions from two judges. At the end of each heat, the judges will pick up to two winners to go ahead into the Grand Final! This years heats will take place between 25th-30th November 2024.
Stage Two: The Grand Final
In the Grand Final, all our heat winners will read from their first chapter to a new panel of judges which will include publishers and agents, who will announce our 2025 Pulp Idol Champion and runners-up. All finalists will be published in the anthology Pulp Idol – Firsts 2025. The final will take place in January 2025.
Stage Three: Editing
After the Grand Final, each finalist will be paired with an editor, a professional writer or agent, to fine tune their first chapter into the best it can be. They will then submit the edited version of their chapter to the anthology for it to be published!
Stage Four: The Anthology
In WoWFEST2025, our 25th Annual Festival, we will be launching the Pulp Idol Firsts 2025 anthology in May 2025. This book launch will be the finalists first chance to see their book and celebrate their success with fellow writers, as well as industry professionals, Pulp Idol alumni, agents, publishers and more!
Why YOU should apply for Pulp Idol 2023 – With Philippa Holloway
Why YOU should apply to Pulp Idol 2023 – With Melissa Grindon