The Debut Dagger is a crime writing competition sponsored by the Crime Writers’ Association. According to Liz Evans, contest chair, 18 Dagger entrants have landed publishing contracts since the annual competition began in 1998.
The bad news: If you’ve already had a novel published commercially–in any genre–you can’t enter.
The good news: If your entry makes the short list, you’ll receive a professional assessment of your entry, even if you don’t win.
First prize is £500, tickets to the CWA Daggers’ Awards and a night’s stay in “a top London hotel.” The entry fee of £25 is payable by credit card or PayPal. The deadline is February 6, 2010.
Even if you are not eligible to enter, you may want to check out the CWA site. It offers a lot of useful writing tips.
