A creative writing prize for young people aged 7 to 18.
Seasonal Shorts: Christmas
We are looking for Christmas themed stories for our Seasonal Shorts competition.
Anyone under the age of 18 can enter a story of between 500 and 2,000 words.
Our competitions give writers the opportunity for their stories to be professionally published and recorded in audio.
Deadline: December 3rd 2023.
seasonal shorts
More Details
Categories
There are three age groups: 11 and under, 12 to 15 and 16 to 18.
The Prize
The winner and the shortlisted entries from each age group will be published in our Christmas collection of Seasonal Shorts, which will be available to place in stockings this year as both a print book and an eBook.
In additional to this, they will also be recorded and made available as an audiobooks, published and on all major platforms, including Kindle, Apple Books, etc.
This means that your work will be professionally published, meaning you will be able to hold a printed copy in your hands (or on your Kindle!), and proudly call yourself a published writer.
Who Can Enter?
Any UK based writer can enter, provided that at the deadline date of December 3rd 2023, they are 18 years old or younger.
The only stipulations are that the piece of work that you enter cannot have been previously published, either in print format or on a website / blog. Work that has won or been placed in another competition also cannot be entered.
You must have permission from a parent or guardian to enter, and they will need to upload the work.
Fee
There is a £5 admin fee to enter the competition. This supports the processing and reading of entries, and can be paid via PayPal via the link below or from the link on the entry page.
rules and how to enter
Please make sure that you read through all of the rules carefully before you submit your entry
Submitting an entry implies an acceptance of our completion rules, and if any of the rules are not adhered to you may be disqualified.
Length
We are looking for stories that are between 500 and 2,000 words in length. Stories should not be shorter or longer than this word count. Please note that your title and name are not included in the word count.
Style, Form and Subject Matter
The style and form of your story is completely up to you, but it must be Christmas themed or inspired by Christmas in some way.
Number of Submissions
There is no limit to the number of submissions that you can make, although you will need to pay the admin fee for each entry.
Format
You should ensure that you follow all of the format criteria listed below:
- You should submit your work as one of the following files: a Word document, a Google doc., a PDF or either a .rtf or .txt file.
- You can use any readable font, but it should be size 11 or 12 and in black.
- You should make sure that the title of your file should be the name of the story only. Please do not add your name as we read stories anonymously.
- Your pages should be numbered at the bottom of each page.
- You should use spacing of 1.5 or double spacing throughout your story.
- Add the word count to the end of your work after the conclusion of your story.
Copyright
The author retains the copyright for their entry, but Junoberry Books has unrestricted rights to publish the shortlisted work and extracts from the work in their published collection of short-stories (print, eBook and audiobook) and any promotional material that is relevant to this.
Judging and Decisions
The decision of the judges is final. Unfortunately no individual correspondence can be entered into and Judges cannot comment on individual entries. All stories are read anonymously and therefore judging is unbiased.
Deadline
The deadline for entries is midnight on 3rd December 2023. No entries timestamped after this will be accepted.
Results
All shortlisted writers will be notified by email in early December 2023, and published on our website shortly afterwards.
Entry: Admin Fee
£5.00
Pay the Admin fee via PayPal and then include your receipt number on your entry form.
Submit Your Entry
If you believe you are ready to submit your work then click below for the link to the online entry form.
Good Luck!