Invisible Publishing is pleased to announce the 2025 iteration of our First Novel Prize, which will be awarded to a promising and unique literary fiction manuscript by a writer who has never had a full-length novel published. (New for this year: authors of published poetry, non-fiction, and short story collections are eligible.) The selected manuscript will be published by Invisible Publishing in 2026–27. In addition to a $1000 advance against royalties, the winning writer will receive a $2000 prize.
Invisible is committed to publishing a diverse array of writers and presenting unique perspectives, and we are looking for work that is deeply grounded in a sense of difference and the unexpected. Other than that, we’re up for anything from holiday romances to new takes on the nineteenth-century whaling novel. With this in mind, we strongly encourage LGBTQ2SIA+ writers, Indigenous writers, writers from marginalized communities, and writers of colour to submit their work.
The Invisible Publishing First Novel Prize is awarded in collaboration with York University’s Book Publishing program and Dr. Matt Bucemi, Assistant Professor of Book Publishing. York’s students will help Invisible’s staff to choose the winning manuscript and will offer their feedback on the initial edit. This is a chance for students to get an intimate look at the publishing process and to make a meaningful contribution to an exciting new project; once they have given their early input, the project will be guided to completion by Invisible’s own team. The winning author will be given the opportunity to give a keynote talk and hold a Q&A with the York student community.
Publisher Norm Nehmetallah on what makes the First Novel Prize so exciting: “Our mission is to publish wholly original books and to sustain literary communities of all sorts. This prize helps us fulfill that mission on several levels: we’ll discover new authors who deserve to have their voices broadcasted to the world, bring excellent new books into the market, and foster the next generation of publishing talent by showing students how the industry, and independent publishing in particular, works.”
Guidelines: Authors must be Canadian citizens or permanent residents to submit. Otherwise, submissions to the First Novel Prize should follow all of our existing submission guidelines. Agented submissions are welcome. All submissions should be sent via email to submissions@invisiblepublishing.com with the subject line First Novel Prize. The submission period for the inaugural prize runs from 25 September to 1 November 2024. The winner will be announced in January 2025.
Dear Invisible Publishing, How wide open is your novel competition to speculative, humorous, with supernatural elements, place non-specific manuscripts? And, is 102,000 words too much? Thank you for your time.
Wide open! And no word limit.