The 2025 Times/Chicken House Children's Fiction Competition

The 2025 Times/Chicken House Children's Fiction Competition is now open for entries!

The 2025 Times/Chicken House Children's Fiction Competition : The Times/Chicken House Children’s Fiction Competition, an annual competition organised by The Times and Chicken House, has been recently opened for entries inviting submissions of a completed full-length novel suitable for children/young adults aged somewhere between 7 and 18 years.

➜ Short description

The Times/Chicken House Children’s Fiction Competition is an annual competition organised by The Times and Chicken House, a publishing company in the UK.

The entrant must not previously have had commercially published any whole children’s novel.

To enter, you must have written a completed full-length novel suitable for children/young adults aged somewhere between 7 and 18 years. By full-length organiser suggest a minimum of 30,000 words and a maximum of 80,000 words.

Organiser is looking for original ideas, a fresh voice, a diverse range of entries and stories that children will love.

Entries must be written in English.

Entries must be the original work of the entrant and not previously commercially published and distributed (self-published works are allowed).

The winning entry will be the novel that, in the opinion of the judges, demonstrates the greatest entertainment value, quality, originality and suitability for children.

➜ Submission requirements:

You will need to create a single Word document containing the following submission materials:

➜ A page-long covering letter explaining why you believe your novel would appeal to children and telling us a bit about yourself.
➜ A page-long synopsis of your story. Please include all the main points of your plot in your synopsis, including ‘spoilers’ – organiser need to know what happens at the end!
➜ The full manuscript.

➜ Who may enter?

The competition is open to writers over the age of 18.

➜ Prize:

The main prize is a worldwide publishing contract with Chicken House with a royalty advance of £10,000. The second prize, the Lime Pictures New Storyteller Award, is a publishing contract with a royalty advance of £7,500. The winner will also be offered representation by Lydia Silver of Darley Anderson Children’s Book Agency.

➜ Entry fees:

The entry fee is £20.