BIJOU BOOK COMPETITION

Write a novella and Osborne Porter will publish the winners.

“The novella is much overlooked type of book, but one that we feel should have a more prominent place in current reading materials, and we would like to launch a new range with Bijou Books,” explains a representative from Osborne Porter. (“bijou” means a jewel or something small, delicate and exquisitely wrought.)

Novels, whilst absorbing, can take some wading through - especially for busy people. Short stories are fun reads, but can leave the reader wanting more. Novellas fall into the middle of these two categories and give the writer and the reader a more developed plot and characters, but at the same time get a good story told in a shorter number of words.

Many authors write novellas. Stephen King, a copious writer, keeps all the ‘discarded bits’ from the editing and paring down of his main novels, and turns them into short, sharp reads. Some of the best films have been made from novellas or short stories:

One of Stephen King’s best-known novellas – Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption was made into the box office hit The Shawshank Redemption, and The Langoliers was produced as TV movie. Breakfast at Tiffany’s was based on Truman Capote’s novella and Brokeback Mountain was one of Annie Proulx’s short stories.

The genre is open (but no children’s stories) with a minimum required number of words 20,000 (maximum 30,000). Entries must not have been previously published, and must be in English. Only e-mail entries accepted (as an attached MsWord file). Entrée fee R50 per book and the closing date is March 31, 2010.

The winning books will be published by Osborne Porter and will be made available on their website, as paperbacks and as a downloadable PDF e-books. First prize 20 copies (+ e-book); second prize 15 copies (+ e-book) and third prize 10 copies (+ e-book). The hard copy books can be used to give away to friends, or as review copies, to send to suitable people who will read and comment on them – useful for further promotion.

The winners will be chosen by an independent, qualified judge whose decision will be final. Authors will receive short critique on each entry. For more information visit www.osborne-porter.com or www.osborne-porter.co.uk