book review competition 2022

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We review published and unpublished (ARC and manuscripts) books in any of our 150+ genres. Your review will be posted on our site with a full featured Review Page as well as on other trade and social media sites. Your review will also be indexed by search engines like Google, which recognizes our reviews and formats them with their starred rating, just like Amazon and Goodreads. All 5-star reviews receive a FREE "Five Star" digital seal for your website and a high-resolution version for your book cover. Our seal can be seen on book covers from indie authors to iconic publishers like Simon & Schuster.

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We review published and unpublished (ARC and manuscripts) books in any of our 150+ genres. Reviews will be posted on our site, KOBO, Google Books, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. You can also post our review in Amazon’s Editorial Reviews section. Reviews will be indexed by search engines like Google, who recognizes our reviews and formats them with their starred rating just like reviews from Amazon. In addition, our reviewers often post reviews to their blog, and social sites. We do not post negative reviews. If a book receives a poor rating, we provide private constructive criticism instead.

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Readers' Favorite is growing fast, and even with over 1,000 reviewers we still need many more to keep up with the growing demand for reviews. Choose from hundreds of books each month from seasoned veterans like James Patterson to first-time indie authors. You can even earn money and win cash prizes!

Our summer review-writing competition is back for 2023!  

If you're a primary school pupil, get reading this summer and send us your book review. You could win a zoom chat for your class with 'Dirty Bertie' author Alan M acDonald, plus 200 books from Wob to add to your school library!

Alan MacDonald is the author of the 'Dirty Bertie' series and other popular books such as The Prince of Pants  and Iggy of the Urks . He has also worked on writing for Television shows such as Horrid Henry and The Tweenies. He really enjoys paying Author visits to schools and answering questions from the children he meets there.

Thanks to the generosity of Wob, the two winning schools will also receive the fantastic prize of 200 books each to boost their School library!

Downloadable asset pack.

Have you read a book and wanted to tell everyone they should read it?  Well, now's your chance!  Send us a review of your must-read book and you could win books for you and your school. 

You can use one of these templates for your book review, one from school, or you can create your own. 

If there isn't a book that you would like to review, you can choose an e-book ( Oxford Owl have some great free ones) or alternatively write your own short story (maximum 600 words).

Summertime book review

Some things to include in your review:

Paint a quick picture – explain what the book is about, but no spoilers please!

Opinion – why do you like it? Why didn’t you like it?

Who else would like this book?

Would you recommend it to others, or not?

What could you win?

Alan MacDonald is the author of the 'Dirty Bertie' series and other popular books such as 'The Prince of Pants' and 'Iggy of the Urks'. He has also worked on writing for Television shows such as 'Horrid Henry' and 'The Tweenies'. He will host a virtual Q&A with the Winning classes in KS1 and KS2!

Thanks to the generosity of Wob , the two winning schools will also receive the fantastic prize of 200 books each to boost their School library!

The winning pupils and schools will each receive a certificate, and their book reviews will be featured on the Schoolreaders website and Social Media. The winning entrants from each Key stage will also receive a £25 book voucher.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION  

This is a competition for pupils of primary school age.

The child's name and age and an adult's contact details must be included with each entry.  

Please also include the name and town of the entrant’s primary school so we can contact them.

Send entries by e-mail to [email protected] or post them to: Schoolreaders, Bedford Heights, Brickhill Drive, Bedford, MK41 7PH.

We would be very happy for any teachers to use the competition as an English exercise (more chances for your school to win!). 

Please register if you would like your school to become a Schoolreaders partner school and receive free reading volunteers to support your pupils.

All entries need to be submitted by 5pm on Saturday 30th September 2023.

To find out more about Schoolreaders and

our volunteers, please click here  or use these links

Terms and Conditions -  Full terms and conditions can be found here

The Competition is open to any child attending a UK school, who is in Key Stage 1 or Key Stage 2 on 6th June 2023.

• Entries must be submitted by 5pm on Saturday 30th September 2023.

Entries will be judged by members of the Schoolreaders Judging Panel. Our decision will be final and no correspondence will be entered into.

The winners will be announced and notified within four weeks of the closing date.

If a school chooses to use this competition as a class exercise they must seek parental/ guardian consent for each entry and, if requested by Schoolreaders, must provide written evidence of such consent.

By entering the book review competition, participants and their parent(s) or guardian(s) are deemed to have accepted and agreed to be bound by the Terms and Conditions.

Schoolreaders reserves the right to cancel or amend the Competition, and these Terms and Conditions.

Any changes will be notified to participants as soon as possible by Schoolreaders.

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NPR's top picks for 2022 fiction books

Summer Thomad

Natalie Escobar

Rommel Wood

Karen Grigsby Bates

Four NPR staffers recommend new novels in an early taste of our annual Books We Love round-up: "How High We Go in the Dark," "Vladimir," "Mecca" and "The Candy House."

ALINA SELYUKH, HOST:

A lot of you look forward to NPR's Books We Love at the end of each year. And that's because it's a great resource for what new books to read as recommended by our staff and contributors. But why wait? We have some suggestions right now. Today, some of the best fiction of 2022 so far. We start with Code Switch producer Summer Thomad and a spellbinding fantasy novel about death.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

SUMMER THOMAD, BYLINE: The book I'm recommending is "How High We Go In The Dark" by Sequoia Nagamatsu. It's about a world reeling from a climate catastrophe-driven plague. Sound familiar? From the earliest days of a pandemic to the impacts that linger centuries into the future, the plague forces humans to reckon with immeasurable grief and loss. But what I love most about this book is that despite all the doom and gloom, these stories are endlessly imaginative and rich with meaning. Though the world they're inhabiting is undeniably weak, Nagamatsu's characters maintain a sense of cosmic hope and humanity.

ROMMEL WOOD, BYLINE: My name is Rommel Wood, and I'm an associate producer in programming at NPR. I'm recommending the book "Vladimir," a novel by Julia May Jonas because when was the last time a book made you sit up from your couch and yell, what? Where is this going? This happened to me about three-quarters of the way into her debut novel. The book follows a nameless narrator, a 50-something tenured professor at a liberal arts college. She's married to a disgraced professor about to be drummed off campus due to a parade of former students coming forward with sexual misconduct allegations. But she isn't terribly concerned with his fate or the other women because she herself is infatuated with a new junior professor. In "Vladimir," Jonas carefully builds a house of matchsticks where our protagonist's desires safely live until she reaches a flash point that left me squirming and desperate to discover, how exactly is this going to end?

KAREN GRIGSBY BATES, BYLINE: I'm Karen Grigsby Bates. I'm the senior correspondent for Code Switch, NPR's podcast about race and identity. I selected "Mecca," a novel by Susan Straight. Straight writes a lot about the California we don't often see or hear about. The people she writes about are working-class refugees. They came west to escape racial violence and poverty from places like Texas, Mississippi and Oaxaca. And some come from communities who've even lived in the state for thousands of years. "Mecca" is a fine set of interwoven tales of these people. They're connected to each other by their love for the land, by their jobs, for each other, for all of those things. This Southern California is filled with desert highways and strip malls and small suburban houses where everyday people are sometimes faced with choices that are anything but. Straight's writing is both illuminous and sharp and bold. And these tales are told to richly layered family histories. Who'd love this book? People who suspect there's more to California than Kardashians, wildfires and serial killers.

NATALIE ESCOBAR, BYLINE: My name is Natalie Escobar, and I'm an associate editor on NPR's Culture Desk. I read "The Candy House" by Jennifer Egan. She is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "A Visit From The Goon Squad," and "The Candy House" is a follow up to her previous book. The basic premise is a little bit complicated. But there is this form of social media that basically allows users to upload all of their memories to something called the collective consciousness. And if they upload all their memories, they're also able to access all the memories of the users who have done the same. Each of the book's chapters is told through the eyes of different people whose lives are affected by this new technology that's so encompassing that it basically dictates a lot of how society runs. It's this sort of alternate universe type of book that really grapples with a lot of the questions of, what is technology, especially social media, doing to our lives in the way that we relate to each other as people? What would it look like to opt out of that? Is it possible? And because it's Jennifer Egan, it's a really beautifully written book. And I loved every moment of it.

SELYUKH: There you go. Glowing recommendations from NPR staff for "The Candy House," "Mecca," "Vladimir" and "How High We Go In The Dark." For more reading ideas, hop over to our Books We Love list at npr.org/bestbooks.

Copyright © 2022 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Freddie deBoer

Book Review Contest 2022!

Plus call for august subscriber writing.

Many of you have asked, and yes, the book review contest is back! And the prizes are going up. First prize will receive $1,000, a lifetime free subscription comp (if wanted), and the review will run on this newsletter. Two runners-up will each receive $500 and a year free subscription comp and, if they wish, I will publish their reviews to this website, though they will not be sent out to the email list but will be in the weekly digest post. I can distribute funds via Paypal or Venmo so please make sure you can access one of these if you plan to enter the competition.

There are not a lot of restrictions or rules here, though there are a few. I’ll accept reviews of any book provided that a) they are 2000 words long or less and b) were originally produced for this contest and not previously published anywhere else, even if it was on a low-traffic blog. Please don’t submit anything that exists elsewhere online, in whole or in part. There are no content restrictions on books and no preference for fiction or nonfiction, but use your head. (It would perhaps not be a great strategy to review Protocols of the Elders of Zion , and while submitting a very negative review of my book would be a ballsy move I must warn you that it would be unlikely to be successful.) My suggestion would be that you avoid books that I have reviewed in this space, but that is only a suggestion and I can certainly imagine rewarding a review like that. If you’re wondering what I’m looking for in a review, I’ve got you covered .

Please email your submission to [email protected] , and make sure that you do so with the email address associated with your account so that I can confirm that you’re a subscriber, or at least let me know your official subscriber email address. (This is important.) Attaching your submission as a Word document is strongly preferred but if you can’t do that I will work around it. Reviews will be anonymized by having someone assign numbers to each email address, and I’ll read the submissions blind so that I’m not influenced by who wrote each review. To facilitate this, please do not put the name of the book in the filename or in the text of the email (so that I don’t match the book with your name just by opening the email), and don’t put your own name in the file itself . (Self-references to your job, experiences, expertise, etc. is fine.) The filename bookreviewcontext.docx and the subject line “book review contest” are fine. Winners can be identified by pseudonyms if desired, both the winner and runners-up will be invited to link to a personal website and/or social media, and once the winners have been declared everyone is of course free to publish their entries wherever else they would like. You retain all copyright rights (copyrights?) aside from my right to host your essay here.

I will accept submissions until 10:00 PM EST on Saturday, October 1st. I hope to announce the winners two weeks later, but I reserve the right to extend the review period if the number of submissions is more than I can handle in that timeframe. I certainly hope to announce winners by Halloween, but these might be famous last words. If after the contest submitted reviews are posted elsewhere online I would be happy to post links to them in a Weekly Digest post.

Also, it’s time for August subscriber writing. Please see here for details and make sure to email me at [email protected] if you do submit to make my life easier. Deadline for this month is Monday, August 29th! Also, please use the following format in your submission if you can remember to:

Your Preferred Name , Your Piece of Writing's Title with Hyperlink

one-sentence synopsis of your piece

That really makes my life much easier. If I messed up previously and promised to include your entry this month, please email to remind me! And if you don’t use the [email protected] address, I have no sympathy if I fail to include you. I look forward to seeing what you come up with, and I’m dedicated to having fewer mistakes than last time.

Finally, I want to highlight again that I’ve written a free ebook on being a freelance writer, which you can find on my website in pdf, epub, and mobi formats. I’ve got two Big Five book contracts and most every major newspaper and website I can think of in my list of credits, so I know of what I speak. So check it out if interested.

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2022 Rules & Eligibility

The 2022 Goodreads Choice Awards have two rounds of voting open to all registered Goodreads members. Winners will be announced December 08, 2022.

Opening Round: Nov 15 - 27

In the first round there are 20 books in each of the 15 categories, and members can vote for one book in each category.

Final Round: Nov 29 - Dec 04

The field narrows to the top 10 books in each category, and members have one last chance to vote!

2022 Eligibility

Books published in the United States in English, including works in translation and other significant rereleases, between November 17, 2021, and November 15, 2022, are eligible for the 2022 Goodreads Choice Awards. Books published between November 16, 2022, and November 12, 2023, will be eligible for the 2023 awards.

We analyze statistics from the millions of books added, rated, and reviewed on Goodreads to nominate 20 books in each category. Opening round official nominees must have an average rating of 3.50 or higher at the time of launch. A book may be nominated in no more than one genre category, but can also be nominated in the Debut Novel category. Only one book in a series may be nominated per category. An author may receive multiple nominations within a single category if he or she has more than one eligible series or more than one eligible stand-alone book. Learn more

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Pacific Book Awards Contest

Pacific book awards.

2023 Winners & Finalists

Here is the List for Winners & Finalist

2022 Winners & Finalists 

2021 Winners & Finalists

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LET THE WORLD KNOW YOU’RE A WINNER OR FINALIST!

Who can enter.

We accept manuscripts, published and unpublished books, ebooks and audio books.  No publication date requirement and no word count restriction. English language entries are accepted worldwide.

Dear Nicole, Thank you for selecting my book as a winner in the 2014 Pacific Book Review Writer’s Awards. I am very honored to have been part of your selection process and to have been involved with a group of people who have contributed so much to the book industry. I would like to thank you, your staff, and reviewers for your encouragement and for setting such an inspirational example in your devotion to books.I would also like to thank you for your many past kindnesses despite what is obviously a very busy schedule. Thank you again for this honor. Sincerely, Jan Surasky

Hello Nicole, I just wanted to thank you and Pacific Book Review for the honorable award. I have been proud to place it on media-related materials and I have already participated in events in which mentioning the award has been a wonderful bonus to my presentation. I have nothing but great things to say. This award has been a huge boost in my confidence as a writer. Thank you to everyone at Pacific Book Review for your professionalism and and great customer service.  I will definitely be using your services in the future. Veronica Stich (Ronnie Stich)

Dear Ms. Sorkin, Thank you very much for the awards that were given to the titles Human Natures, of Animal and Spiritual (Philosophy), and Reel to Real (Poetry). I am grateful to all who were involved in the process of choosing my books to be among this year’s Pacific Book Review Writer’s Awards Winners and Finalists. This awards program and other possibilities that you and your company have created to provide greater opportunity for independent authors and publishers to promote their work are well appreciated. Best regards, Carroll Blair

ENTRY FEE & DEADLINE

$75.00 per entry/per category –

Open for submissions 

ENTER NOW $75 Entry Fee

Please Note:    Immediately after payment completion you will be rerouted to our Book Questionnaire form. Please make sure to fill out the form and click the submit button at the bottom.  Make sure to specify that you’re entering your book in the Pacific Book Awards Contest. The Pacific Book Awards selection committee reserves the right to determine the eligibility of any book.  If for some reason you don’t receive the form here is the link.    Entry Form

Benefits of Winning the Pacific Book Award

Being a winner in a prestigious book awards contest gives your book a Seal of Excellence unequaled by other forms of media exposure.

Winners and Finalists will receive National Media & Industry Exposure!

Prominent display on Pacific Book Review.

Special Illustration Award competition.

An image of the custom Pacific Book Award winner seals to use on website/marketing materials/reprints of books.

Announcements and online listings of winning titles.

Lifetime full-featured listing on Pacific Book Review, an exclusive website dedicated to getting your award-winning book noticed by readers, agents, publishers and journalists.

Results tweeted & re-tweeted and psoted on all our social media sites.

If your book has been reviewed by Pacific Book Review, we will add our award logo to your review page and or author spotlight page.

Results emailed to our database of authors, agents and publishers. Results announced through a high distribution press release. Enhanced prospects for sales.

Results announced to 100,000 booksellers, publishers, public and acedemic librarians, wholesalers, distributors, agents through Publishers Weekly.

Why Are Book Awards So Important?

Book awards increase books sales. If you want to sell more books, having an award seal on the front cover gives a book instant credibility and an advantage over other books in the same genre.

As a winner or finalist you can highlight your award on your marketing materials. You can also both download the seal to print on your book and order stickers to put on each book you have already printed. Award stickers will be available for purchase.

The Pacific Book Award judges recognize winning books that demonstrate a wide scope of criteria that makes for an excellent overall presentation.

Whether you are entering a print book or an e-book (electronic book) category, we recommend that you complete the preliminary entry online to save you time and to ease the entry process. You can submit an online entry by following the guidelines below.

What steps are required to submit an online entry?

There are three simple steps to complete your online entry:

1. Pay the entry fee(s) at the bottom of this page – all major credit cards accepted including checks. Please note that if you pay by credit card the charge on your credit card statement will show up as Pacific Communication Group. You can also mail as a check at: Pacific Book Awards, Attn: Nicole Sorkin, 2363 Dondero Court, Sparks, NV 89434

2. Fill out and the Entry Form

3. Mail a copy of your book or books to: Pacific Book Awards, Attn: Nicole Sorkin, 2363 Dondero Court, Sparks, NV 89434

Note: Shortly after you submit your online entry for the Pacific Book Awards, we will send you a confirmation email. To ensure that you receive the email.

Click here to read the entry guidelines           Click here to see categories

Judging Process

Judging will be based on content, originality and overall readability, with emphasis on innovation and creativity. Our judging panel includes experts from the fields of editing, reviewing, bookselling and publishing, as well as industry experts in specific fields. Every entry will be read by the judges, whose decisions are final. Top award winners will be notified on May 20, 2020.

Important Dates

Deadline:   April 22, 2024

Winners and Finalists announced on  May 20, 2024.

Winners in each category will be notified by e-mail and on our website.

Please send one copy of the book per category entered. You will need to fill out the submission form per book title. Published books from anywhere in the world are eligible as long as they are in English and able to be purchased in the United States.

Pacific Book Review is the recipient of the “Honoring Excellence” and “Best Websites for Authors” awards by the Association of Independent Authors, and are members of the National Book Critics Circle and the National Education Association.

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The Award-Winning Novels of 2022

The books that took home this year's biggest literary prizes.

Awards ceremonies are back, baby.

Yes, for the first time since 2019, your favorite writers actually got to dress up and attend a fancy party or two this year. From the Pulitzer to the Booker, the Nebula to the Edgar, here are the winners of the biggest book prizes of 2022.

Congratulations to all!

PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION

Awarded for distinguished fiction published in book form during the year by an American author, preferably dealing with American life.

Prize money: $15,000

The Netanyahus: An Account of a Minor and Ultimately Even Negligible Episode in the History of a Very Famous Family by Joshua Cohen (New York Review of Books)

“Cohen has performed a literary miracle of sorts, transforming the shadowy, dour figure of Benzion Netanyahu into the protagonist of an uproariously funny book. In its skewering of the small-mindedness of academic culture, The Netanyahus conjures up the hilarity of David Lodge, and in its piercing gaze and over-the-top, transgressive moves, it evokes the late Philip Roth, who ripped open the soul of the American Jewish parvenu—and that figure’s grinding quest for respectability—like no one else …

It is striking how much Cohen gets right about Netanyahu’s scholarship, the historiographical traditions against which he pushed, and the milieux in which he was formed, particularly the distinctive academic culture of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem … Cohen’s narrator captures something essential about the actual Netanyahu … Cohen lays out the twists and consequences of Netanyahu’s argument with exceptional acuity. But he is equally exceptional in tacking back to the comic.”

–David N. Myers ( The Los Angeles Review of Books )

Finalists: Francisco Goldman, Monkey Boy (Grove) · Gayl Jones, Palmares (Beacon)

* NATIONAL BOOK AWARD

Recognizes an outstanding work of literary fiction by a United States citizen.

Prize money: $10,000

The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty (Knopf)

“The aspect of unreality—albeit carefully constructed unreality—is central to Ms. Gunty’s presentation of American malaise, which occupies an unstable realm between portraiture and allegory. It is never altogether clear whether her characters are in the grip of some transformative religious awakening or simply suffering from untreated mental illness. The ambiguity is the source of this novel’s remarkable nervous energy. A feeling of genuine crisis—unrooted but ferociously tangible—propels the narrative through its many twists to the catharsis of its bizarre ending …

The tension is not uniformly unflagging. An extended middle section recounting Blandine’s doomed love affair with her high-school music teacher is out of proportion in both length and tone, seeming to belong to a more realistic coming-of-age debut. But this does little to offset the unnerving vision and conviction of the most promising first novel I’ve read this year.”

–Sam Sacks ( The Wall Street Journal )

Finalists: Gayl Jones, The Birdcatcher (Beacon) · Jamil Jan Kochai, The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories (Viking) · Sarah Thankam Mathews, All This Could Be Different (Viking) · Alejandro Varela, The Town of Babylon (Astra House)

* BOOKER PRIZE

Awarded for the best original novel written in the English language and published in the UK.

Prize money: £50,000

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka (W. W. Norton & Company)

“By striking contrast, and even if the title promises book-club exotica, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida is preternaturally irreverent about the manifold brutalities in Sri Lanka during its 26-year civil war … Karunatilaka’s novel breaks with conventional modes of storytelling to reveal humanness in a strange, sprawling, tragic situation … Karunatilaka’s book is supremely confident in its literary heterodoxy, and likewise in offering idiosyncratic particularities of ordinary Sri Lankan life well beyond the serious matters of politics, history, religion and mythology … But readers everywhere will find in such demanding specificity what we all seek from great books: the exciting if overwhelming fullness of an otherwise unknown world told on its own terms, and that frisson of unexpected identification and understanding that comes from working to stay in it.”

–Randy Boyagoda ( The New York Times Book Review )

Finalists: NoViolet Bulawayo, Glory (Viking) · Percival Everett, The Trees (Graywolf) · Alan Garner, Treacle Walker (HarperCollins) · Claire Keegan, Small Things Like These (Grove) · Elizabeth Strout, Oh William! (Random House)

* INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE

Awarded for a single book in English translation published in the UK.

Prize money: £50,000, divided equally between the author and the translator

Tomb of Sand by Geetanjali Shree, tr. from Hindi by Daisy Rockwell  (HarperVia)

“There is no one quite like Ma in contemporary literature, which is perhaps one reason why Shree, along with her translator, Daisy Rockwell, won this year’s International Booker prize … Indeed, in its boldness and experimentation—and in its likelihood of influencing a new generation of authors—this breakthrough novel recalls Shree’s fellow Indian-born Booker laureates, Arundhati Roy in The God of Small Things (1997) and Salman Rushdie in Midnight’s Children (1981) … Geetanjali Shree’s novel—which thoroughly deserves its Booker triumph—also seeks to ask who India belongs to.”

–Sonia Faleiro ( Times Literary Supplement )

Finalists: Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung, tr. from Korean by Anton Hur (Algonquin) · A New Name: Septology VI-VII by Jon Fosse, tr. from Norwegian by Damion Searls (Transit) · Heaven by Mieko Kawakami, tr. from Japanese by Sam Bett and David Boyd (Europa Editions) · Elena Knows by Claudia Piñeiro, tr. from Spanish by Frances Riddle (Charco Press) · The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk, tr. from Polish by Jennifer Croft (Knopf)

* NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD

Given annually to honor outstanding writing and to foster a national conversation about reading, criticism, and literature. Judged by the volunteer directors of the NBCC who are 24 members serving rotating three-year terms, with eight elected annually by the voting members, namely “professional book review editors and book reviewers.”

The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers (Harper)

“[A] sweeping, masterly debut novel … Jeffers has deftly crafted a tale of a family whose heritage includes free Blacks, enslaved peoples and Scottish and other white colonialists … Jeffers is an award-winning poet, and she is never doing just one thing with her text … Class and colorism are constant tensions in the novel, and Jeffers expertly renders a world of elite African Americans … The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois is quite simply the best book that I have read in a very, very long time. I will avoid the cliché of calling it ‘a great American novel.’ Maybe the truest thing I could say is that this is an epic tale of adventure that brings to mind characters you never forget …

The sign of a great novel is that the author creates a world and when she moves her hands away, the world is still in motion. The idea being that, in the very best novels, every important detail is so lovingly attended to that the novelist’s intention is as invisible and powerful as gravity. The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois is such a world.”

–Veronica Chambers ( The New York Times Book Review )

Finalists: Colson Whitehead, Harlem Shuffle (Doubleday) · Joshua Cohen, The Netanyahus (New York Review of Books) · Rachel Cusk, Second Place (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) · Sarah Hall, Burntcoat (Custom House)

* KIRKUS PRIZE

Chosen from books reviewed by  Kirkus Reviews that earned the Kirkus Star.

Prize money: $50,000

Trust by Hernan Diaz (Riverhead)

[An] enthralling tour de force … Each story talks to the others, and the conversation is both combative and revelatory … As an American epic, Trust gives The Great Gatsby a run for its money … Diaz’s debut, In the Distance , was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award. Trust fulfills that book’s promise, and then some … Wordplay is Trust ’s currency … In Diaz’s accomplished hands we circle ever closer to the black hole at the core of Trust … Trust is a glorious novel about empires and erasures, husbands and wives, staggering fortunes and unspeakable misery … He spins a larger parable, then, plumbing sex and power, causation and complicity. Mostly, though, Trust is a literary page-turner, with a wealth of puns and elegant prose, fun as hell to read.”

–Hamilton Cain ( Oprah Daily )

Finalists: Michelle de Kretser, Scary Monsters (Catapult) · Arinze Ifeakandu, God’s Children Are Little Broken Things (Public Space Books) · Susan Straight, Mecca (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) · Yoko Tawada, Scattered All Over the Earth (New Directions) · Olga Tokarczuk, The Books of Jacob (Riverhead)

* WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION

Awarded to a female author of any nationality for the best original full-length novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom.

The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki (Viking)

“… [an] ambitious and ingenious novel that presents a stinging exploration of grief, a reflection on our relationship to objects, a potent testament to the importance of reading, writing, and books … The most endearing aspect of Ozeki’s novel is its unabashed celebration of words, writing, and reading. A library is one of the novel’s most enchanted settings, at once a refuge from the cacophony of objects that overwhelms Benny at home and in school and a magical portal to a world of self-discovery and unexpected connections …

The Book of Form and Emptiness is charming and warm, dynamic and filled with love, but over-full and a bit undisciplined. It meanders and digresses … But its heart, its ardent, beating heart, is huge. Ozeki’s playfulness and zaniness, her compassion and boundless curiosity, prevent the novel from ever feeling stiff or pretentious. Clever without being arch, metafictional without being arcane, dark without being nihilistic, The Book of Form and Emptiness is an exuberant delight.”

–Pricilla Gilman ( The Boston Globe )

Finalists: Lisa Allen-Agostini, The Bread the Devil Knead (Myriad Editions) · Louise Erdrich, The Sentence (Harper) Meg Mason, Sorrow and Bliss (Harper Perennial) · Elif Shafak, The Island of Missing Trees (Bloomsbury) · Maggie Shipstead, Great Circle (Knopf) · Morowa Yejidé, Creatures of Passage (Akashic)

* PEN/FAULKNER AWARD

Awarded to the author of the year’s best work of fiction by a living American citizen.

The Wrong End of the Telescope by Rabih Alameddine (Grove)

“Alameddine’s spectacular novel is rendered through the refreshingly honest lens of Dr. Mina … Dr. Mina is the storyteller the refugees deserve: respected by the Europeans, but steeped in their traditions and history … This is the first novel I’ve read that gives ample room to the ugliness of certain camp volunteers (the bored, the coddled, those battling pangs of uselessness) and the many humiliations some inflict on the displaced. But calling out anyone who gave up a vacation to meet boats seems ungrateful, so the refugees smile for their rescuers’ camera-phones and keep quiet … Alameddine’s irreverent prose evokes the old master storytellers from my own Middle Eastern home, their observations toothy and full of wit, returning always to human absurdity …

Again and again, Dr. Mina cracks open the strange, funny and cruel social mores of East and West. She shows us that acceptance and rejection exist across borders and often manifest in surprising ways … Throughout the book, Dr. Mina addresses a blocked and disillusioned Lebanese writer who, having seen too much displacement and horror, finally breaks. I found this mysterious unnamed listener deeply poignant.”

–Dina Nayeri ( The New York Times Book Review )

Finalists: Nawaaz Ahmed, Radiant Fugitives · Carolyn Ferrell, Dear Miss Metropolitan · Imbolo Mbue, How Beautiful We Were · Carolina de Robertis, The President and the Frog

* PEN/ROBERT W. BINGHAM PRIZE FOR DEBUT FICTION

Awarded to an exceptionally talented fiction writer whose debut work represents distinguished literary achievement and suggests great promise.

Prize money: $25,000

Skinship by Yoon Choi (Knopf)

“The impossibility of fully knowing someone else, or indeed oneself (the inevitable lacunae!), is an eternal theme of fiction, framed in infinite ways. The immigrant experience, in which multicultural characters necessarily navigate these gaps, is one such frame, and Yoon Choi’s beautiful debut story collection Skinship (Knopf, $26) uses it to bring a rich and engaging new voice to contemporary American letters. With refreshing amplitude, patience, and (dare I say) wisdom, Choi’s stories explore the complexities of her characters’ diverse experiences … In each story, Choi evokes a world entire, an endeavor that extends beyond content into form.”

–Claire Messud ( Harper’s )

Finalists: Carribean Fragoza, Eat the Mouth That Feeds You (City Lights Books) · Dantiel W. Moniz, Milk Blood Heat (Grove Press) · Clare Sestanovich, Objects of Desire: Stories (Knopf) · Chris Stuck, Give My Love to the Savages: Stories (Amistad Press)

* ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN FICTION

Awards established in 2012 to recognize the best fiction and nonfiction books for adult readers published in the U.S. in the previous year. Administered by the American Library Association.

Prize money: $5,000 (winner), $1,500 (finalists)

The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu by Tom Lin (Little Brown and Company)

“… addictively gruesome … manages to enhance a wild, wild western with Odyssean devotion, magic realism and historical racism, to create quite the unlikely love story gone awry … Ming’s story of denial becomes Lin’s ingenious assertion of his own Chinese American heritage, his fiction a literal projection of the Chinese American experience onto the page. Lin cleverly reclaims the language as he marks each of the story’s three parts with untranslated Chinese characters … With dexterous agility, Lin showcases Ming’s multi-faceted identity as a native-born American, a builder of transcontinental railroads, a rebel against racist laws, a killer of injustice–and maybe even a hero who might finally get the girl.”

–Terry Hong ( Shelf-Awareness )

Finalists: Kirsten Valdez Quade, The Five Wounds (W. W. Norton & Company) · Lauren Groff, Matrix (Riverhead)

* International DUBLIN Literary Award

An international literary award presented each year for a novel written in English or translated into English.

Prize money: €100,000

The Art of Losing by Alice Zeniter (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

“Zeniter has used fiction to demystify the war, its evolution and its fallout through an enthralling saga of three generations of a family from Algeria’s mountainous Kabylia region who left the country in 1962 and moved to France … Ms. Zeniter’s extraordinary achievement is to transform a complicated conflict into a compelling family chronicle, rich in visual detail and lustrous in language. Her storytelling, splendidly translated by Frank Wynne, carries the reader through different generations, cities, cultures, and mindsets without breaking its spell … Ms. Zeniter shows fiction’s power as a hedge against loss of the past: the art of regaining.”

–Liesl Schillinger ( The Wall Street Journal )

Finalists: Catherine Chidgey, Remote Sympathy (Europa Editions) · David Diop, At Night All Blood Is Black (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) · Akwaeke Emezi, The Death of Vivek Oji (Riverhead) · Danielle McLaughlin, The Art of Falling (Random House) · Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies (University of Minnesota Press)

* CENTER FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE

An annual award presented by The Center for Fiction, a non-profit organization in New York City, for the best debut novel.

The Five Wounds by Kirsten Valdez Quade (W. W. Norton & Company)

“In three parts that unfold over the course of a year in the aptly named New Mexico town of Las Penas, The Five Wounds is a knife-sharp study of what happens to a family when accountability to other people goes out the window. Quade’s characters are experts at pushing love away, especially when intimate connection is most necessary … As each member of the Padilla family battles their personal demons, hope shimmers like a mirage over everyday life, a sweet what-if that Quade expertly suspends above the text …

It is a treat to see the author’s exceptional command of pacing on display in a novel. Proof that what you say is just as important as how you say it, her precise lines are wanting in neither substance nor style, and her darkly hilarious, tender, gorgeous use of language is one of the crowning pleasures of the novel … an irreverent 21st-century meditation on the restorative powers of empathy.”

–Elena Britos ( BookPage )

Finalists: Priyanka Champaneri, The City of Good Death (Restless Books) · Linda Rui Feng, Swimming Back to Trout River (Simon & Schuster) · Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois (Harper) · Violet Kupersmith, Build Your House Around My Body (Random House) · Patricia Lockwood, No One Is Talking About This (Riverhead) · Jackie Polzin, Brood (Doubleday)

* Los Angeles Times Book Prize

Recognizes outstanding literary works as well as champions new writers.

Prize money: $1,000

(Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction)

Brood by Jackie Polzin (Doubleday)

“Shortly after I started reading Brood, the debut novel from St. Paul writer Jackie Polzin, I dashed off a note to a poet friend who used to keep a flock of Rhode Island Reds in her backyard. You will love this book, I told her, the voice is wry and rare and old-fashioned in a good way, reminds me of E.B. White’s essays about his farm. And so funny! … the sprightliness of the voice had me so snowed that it took a while to realize that Brood is actually a story of unremitting loss … Has anyone ever described chickens better than Jackie Polzin? It seems unlikely … This little book was acquired by Doubleday in a two-day, nine-house bidding war, which is saying a lot for a skinny debut novel about raising chickens. But as Polzin points out, ‘A chicken’s life is full of magic. Lo and behold.’”

–Marion Winik ( The Star Tribune )

Finalists: Natasha Brown, Assembly (Little Brown and Company) · Thomas Grattan, The Recent East (MCD) · Jocelyn Nicole Johnson, My Monticello (Henry Holt) · Benjamín Labatut, When We Cease to Understand the World (New York Review of Books)

In the Company of Men by Véronique Tadjo (Other Press)

“I was captivated by the book’s multiple points of view, though I may have approached the work more like a collection of stories than a novel. Each chapter presented a different account of the Ebola outbreak, so the chapters felt more like varying personal stories, occurring simultaneously in a time of ceaseless crisis. Formally, I found the mythos of the trees centered and grounded the true-to-life narrative work in and beyond pure fiction. Indeed, the mythical turn creates a stake in poetics …

The essayistic voice of each account is quite poetic … the sentence-level overturning of words all in all shows a commitment to language and interest in repetition; the recurring sentence patterns mimic how thoughts overturn in the mind and shift to progress a beating heart forward … Tadjo’s book…weaves poetry and music into the everyday experiences of healthcare workers, so its soul is rich.”

–Kara Laurene Pernicano ( Full Stop )

Finalists: Mariana Enriquez, The Dangers of Smoking In Bed (Hogarth) · Saïd Sayrafiezadeh, American Estrangement (W. W. Norton) · Claire Vaye Watkins, I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness (Riverhead) · Joy Williams, Harrow (Knopf)

* Edgar Award

Presented by the Mystery Writers of America, honoring the best in crime and mystery fiction.

(Best Novel)

Five Decembers by James Kestrel (Hard Case Crime)

“Some of my favorite crime novels juxtapose individual murders against the backdrop of wartime mass carnage. This is tough to pull off; it takes a skilled writer to keep the horror of such crimes vivid and stark when they’re surrounded by so much other death. In Five Decembers , James Kestrel, a pseudonym for the horror and suspense novelist Jonathan Moore, does this very, very well … War, imprisonment, torture, romance, foreign language and culture are all explored with genuine feeling. The novel has an almost operatic symmetry, and Kestrel turns a beautiful phrase, too.”

–Sarah Weinman ( The New York Times Book Review )

Finalists: Rhys Bowen, The Venice Sketchbook (Lake Union) · S.A. Cosby, Razorblade Tears (Flatiron) · Will Leitch, How Lucky (Harper) · Kat Rosenfield, No One Will Miss Her (William Morrow)

* (Best First Novel)

Deer Season by Erin Flanagan (University of Nebraska Press)

“Flanagan balances the mystery and its surprising resolution with her emotionally rich character explorations. This is a standout novel of small-town life, powered by the characters’ consequential determination to protect their loved ones at any cost.”

–Publishers Weekly

Finalists: Vera Kurian, Never Saw Me Coming (Park Row) · Fabian Nicieza, Suburban Dicks (G.P. Putnam’s Sons) · JoAnn Tompkins, What Comes After (Riverhead) · Caitlin Wahrer, The Damage (Pamela Dorman Books)

* NEBULA AWARD

Given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America for the best science fiction or fantasy novel.

A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark (Tordotcom)

“Clark deftly explores colonialism and the history of Cairo with an immersive setting that acts as another character in this delightful combination of mystery, fantasy, and romance. Give this to alternate history enthusiasts and mystery readers who enjoy a dose of the magical. Fans of S. A. Chakraborty, Martha Wells, and Zen Cho should be particularly pleased.”

–Anna Mickelsen ( Booklist )

Finalists: C. L. Clark, The Unbroken (Orbit US) · S.B. Divya, Machinehood (Gallery / Saga) · Arkady Martine, A Desolation called Peace (Tor) · Jason Sanford, Plague Birds (Apex)

* HUGO AWARD

Awarded for the best science fiction or fantasy story of 40,000 words or more published in English or translated in the prior calendar year.

A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine (Tor)

“… themes have evolved in complexity, diving deeper into an intrigue about the very nature of life and death. The central cast is as appealing as ever, and the cats..are a delightful addition … Martine’s debut showcased her consummate skill and perfect blend of narrative, humor and world-building; her second effort highlights her thematic ambition, and her abilities as a writer are more than equal to the task. Desolation is the kind of book that crouches in your mind, waiting for a quiet moment. It is hard to read slowly, but demands to be savored, lest you miss some of the cleverest and most elegant foreshadowing in modern science fiction … carries its own distinctive melody … Arkady Martine’s first book was a deserving Hugo winner. Her second might eclipse it.”

–Noah Fram ( BookPage )

Finalists: Becky Chambers, The Galaxy, and the Ground Within (Harper Voyager) · Ryka Aoki, Light From Uncommon Stars (Tor Books) · P. Djèlí Clark, A Master of Djinn (Tordotcom) · Andy Weir, Project Hail Mary (Ballantine) · Shelley Parker-Chan, She Who Became the Sun (Tor Books)

* BRAM STOKER AWARD

Presented by the Horror Writers Association for “superior achievement” in horror writing for novels.

My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones (Gallery / Saga)

“Jones’s My Heart Is a Chainsaw is such an accomplishment; it makes me want to watch all the horror. This novel is a paean to slasher films, a devotional about an acolyte written by an obsessive. And it’s a lot of fun … Jade’s awkwardness and insecurities, her intractable obstinacy, her refusal to behave in a socially acceptable manner, all make her a believable nuisance to the adults in her life…She’s respectful and patient, with an irrepressible sense of humor to balance our her sense of horror. We’re so much on her side we find ourselves hoping for the worst … When things get going, they really go gonzo, and we’re scrabbling to hang on by our fingernails throughout the climax. Everything promised in the first act is gleefully delivered in the third with comedy, pathos and a machete clutched in the hands of an unforgettable character.”

–Ellen Morton ( The Washington Post )

Finalists: V. Castro, The Queen of the Cicadas (Flame Tree Press) · Grady Hendrix, The Final Girl Support Group (Berkley) · Cynthia Pelayo, Children of Chicago (Agora Books) · Chuck Wendig, The Book of Accidents (Del Rey)

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Astral Codex Ten

Book Review Contest Rules 2022

Okay, we’re officially doing this again.

Write a review of a book. There’s no official word count requirement, but last year’s finalists and winners were often between 2,000 and 10,000 words. There’s no official recommended style, but check the style of last year’s finalists and winners or my ACX book reviews ( 1 , 2 , 3 ) if you need inspiration. Please limit yourself to one entry per person or team.

Then send me your review through this Google Form . The form will ask for your name, email, the title of the book, and a link to a Google Doc. The Google Doc should have your review exactly as you want me to post it if you’re a finalist. DON’T INCLUDE YOUR NAME OR ANY HINT ABOUT YOUR IDENTITY IN THE GOOGLE DOC ITSELF, ONLY IN THE FORM. I want to make this contest as blinded as possible, so I’m going to hide that column in the form immediately and try to judge your docs on their merit.

(does this mean you can’t say something like “This book about war reminded me of my own experiences as a soldier” because that gives a hint about your identity? My rule of thumb is - if I don’t know who you are, and the average ACX reader doesn’t know who you are, you’re fine. I just want to prevent my friends / other judges’ friends / Internet semi-famous people from having an advantage. If you’re in one of those categories and think your personal experience would give it away, please don’t write about your personal experience.)

PLEASE MAKE SURE THE GOOGLE DOC IS UNLOCKED AND I CAN READ IT. By default, nobody can read Google Docs except the original author. You’ll have to go to Share, then on the bottom of the popup click on “Restricted” and change to “Anyone with the link”. If you send me a document I can’t read, I will probably disqualify you, sorry.

First prize will get at least $2,500, second prize at least $1,000, third prize at least $500; I might increase these numbers later on. All winners and finalists will get free publicity (including links to any other works you want me to link to) and free ACX subscriptions. And all winners will get the right to pitch me new articles if they want (nobody ever takes me up on this).

Your due date is April 5th. Good luck! If you have any questions, ask them in the comments. And remember, the form for submitting entries is here .

Ready for more?

Fantastic Books: A Book Review Contest 2022

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The Book Review Contest was first presented to our community in 2014, and since then it has served as a constant reminder to embrace the love of reading that we'd all like to see instilled in everyone. We all agree that books are the treasure of the world. The more we immerse ourselves in reading, the more we learn to use the human experience as signposts to chart the terrain toward the direction we choose. We hope that this contest will remind you to read a little more every day so that you can have the treasure of the world to carry you through hard times. The stronger you become, the better the future we can see for our community. To make the event richer and more certain, we hope you will participate with us.

In this year's contest, you are to read a book and give us your thoughts about the book with a 60-second video. The book must be in English and available at RMIT Vietnam Library, either in print or electronic.

Thank you to our sponsors Asia Books and Fahasa; and partners RMIT Saigon and Hanoi Dance Club and SEUP for making this event a success.

You can join both challenges:

Main Challenge: #FantasticThings about your Favorite Book  

Create a video to share with us about your book of choice

Side Challenge: #The Book Song (Optional) 

 Follow the dance tutorial for the Book Song and name your favorite book

Event Timeline

14 - 18 November 2022

Online Games and Booth Activities

21 November - 09 December 2022

Contest Submission and Workshops

14 and 16 December 2022

Closing Ceremony and Shortlist Showcase

Get the best out of the contest by joining our workshops to learn more

Workshop 1: Get to know the Contest

22 November, 10:00am - 10:45am

Workshop 2: Reading for Change

24 November, 10am - 10:45am 

Workshop 3: Talk about Reading​​​​​​​

24 November, 2pm - 2:45pm

Who can join

• All RMIT students, staff, alumni from both campuses (HN & SGS)

How to join

• Read a book and give us your feelings on the book with a video (no longer than 60 seconds). The book must be available at RMIT Vietnam Library, either in print or electronic
• Only English books are acceptable. Comics, magazines, and textbooks are excluded
• There is no limit to the number of participations per contestant. You can apply multiple times by reviewing different books. Only the 'PUBLIC' posting will be evaluated
• The submission must be the contestant's original work, not have been published, released, or distributed in any form nor have won any prize; and not infringe the copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity, or other personal or proprietary rights of any person or entity. The submission that may infringe or infringe the rights of the third party may be excluded from the prize without notice after deliberation
• The author's legitimate interests should not be unfairly harmed, such as unauthorized modification of the original work or translation or including content that damages the reputation of the author
• By participating in this Contest, contestants agree to be bound by these conditions, and all decisions by the Organiser are final and binding. The Organiser reserves the right to change, amend, add or delete any of these terms and conditions without prior notice at any time and contestants shall be bound by such changes. The Organiser is not obligated to give any reasons on any matter in the contest

Applicable language

• English. The application can be accompanied by a written essay of no longer than 300 words
• The Contest is open from 0:00:00am on 14 November 2022 to 0:00:00am on 09 December 2022 (the “Contest Period”)
• The Organiser reserves the absolute right to amend the Contest Period if deemed necessary without any notice
• Each person is only entitled to one special prize. We will have 3 special prizes; 3 impressive prizes; 20 shortlists and 2 lucky draws
• The Organiser reserves the right to substitute any one of the prizes with items of equivalent value at any time without prior notice
•  In case copyright infringement or other problem incurs, the prize may be cancelled even after it is confirmed
• The contestants are encouraged to check the website and our Facebook and Instagram constantly. The Organiser will not be held responsible for any failure, technical difficulty or delay in the winners’ announcement
• All prizes must be claimed from the Organiser personally by the Winners within ONE (1) month after the Contest end date (00:00:00, 10 December 2022). Any unclaimed prize shall be withdrawn by the Organiser and the Winner(s) shall no longer be entitled to claim any prize in any form. The Organiser reserves the right to withdraw the prizes if the winners do not comply with the contest terms and conditions

Marking Rubrics

• Upload your video on social media and submit posting links on the Application Form
• Applicable social media: Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, and Tiktok
• Required to include these hashtags in both challenges: #BookReview2022 #RMITVietnamLibrary #FantasticBooks #VideoContest 

Upcoming events

Book Swap 2024

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Total KDP Select Author Earnings

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MEET THE OXFORD BIG READ GLOBAL 2023/24 WINNERS

Inspired by reading.

This year, student champions participating in Oxford Big Read selected books of their choice from lists of qualifying OUP readers. The students’ reading selections reflect both classic and contemporary themes. Winning submissions demonstrated thoughtful design, well-crafted essays, and critical thinking.

Participating offices of  Oxford University Press  including Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, India , and  Pakistan , received thousands of submissions through participating schools and institutions . The winners became semi-finalists in the regional Oxford Big Read Global Campaign. Below, you will meet the winners of our fifth annual regional campaign!

CATEGORIES FOR PARTICIPATION

CATEGORY 1: DESIGN A NEW BOOK JACKET

* For those aged 5 years old to 8 years old at the time of entry

All participants read an OUP book and then designed a new cover.

CATEGORY 2: TELL US WHAT YOU FOUND INTERESTING ABOUT THE BOOK OR WHAT YOU WOULD CHANGE

* For those aged 9 years old to 12 years old at the time of entry

All participants read an OUP book and wrote a response describing what they found interesting or what they would change about the book.

CATEGORY 3: WRITE A CRITICAL REVIEW OF AN OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS BOOK

* For those aged 13 years old to 15 years old at the time of entry

All participants read an OUP book and wrote a critical review describing the theme, plot, and characters.

Awards and Prizes

Three winners will each receive:.

- an Apple iPad - an Official Award Certificate

Three Runners-up will each receive:

- a Cash Award or Gift Certificate (equivalent to £100.00 GBP) - an Official Award Certificate

Announcing the official GLOBAL winners of the 2023/24

Congratulations to all our champion artists and scholars!

Design a New Book Jacket

Winner ages 5-8.

Name:  Hannah Fathima

Entry: Jungle Book Stories by Rudyard Kipling

Country:  India

This is wonderful! It’s careful, comprehensive, detailed and engaging, and you’ve included all the elements. The blurb is effective and covers the main elements really well. Your design is beautifully consistent throughout – front, back and spine – and the placement of elements on the front is clever and stylish, using perspective with assurance, and drawing the eye to different elements, especially in the framing and in the contrast between the silhouettes in the background and the gorgeous portrait of the tiger in the foreground. Lovely!

Runner-up Ages 5-8

Name: Aisha Abdul Nasir

Entry: Hala’s Window by Farida Mirza

Country: Pakistan

You’ve used colour and detail really well here, and I like the way you have included much more in the window than the publisher used on the “real” cover. I also like the girl’s expression and pigtails! You can see how she feels and what she’s thinking.  Well done!

TELL US WHAT YOU FOUND INTERESTING ABOUT THE BOOK OR WHAT YOU WOULD CHANGE

Winner ages 9-12.

Name:  Ian De Rodt 

Entry: Wizard of Oz  by L. Frank Baum

Country: Chile

Well done on this excellent review! It was obvious that you loved this story, identified with the characters and felt (and thought) deeply about its moral dimension. You have the makings of a fine book reviewer – keep up the great work! 

Runner-up Ages 9-12

Name:  Alicia Duque y Guzman Ortiz

Entry: The Heron and the Hummingbird  by Rachel Bladon

Country: Colombia  

I found your review original, enthusiastic and very charming! I especially enjoyed your suggestion of changing the story into a play, and thought that the reasons you gave were excellent! Well done, and keep up the good work!  

WRITE A CRITICAL REVIEW OF AN OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS BOOK

Winner ages 13-15.

Name:  M Ayyan Amjad

Entry: Journey to the Centre of the Earth  by Jules Verne

Your review really encouraged me to pick up this book. I enjoyed the adjectives and verbs you chose to use, as they helped me visualise the scenes portrayed in the book. You also describe the characters well, including their weaknesses. It was helpful to read something of the context in which the book was written. Finally you make a fair judgement of the book, weighing up its positives and negatives. I found your review very readable. Well done! 

Runner-up Ages 13-15

Name:  Arayna

Entry:   Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Country: India

You have a very impressive command of language so I’m glad that you chose to review a book which deals with such complex human themes. This has allowed your understanding of the novel to shine through. You show that you understand the social conditions of the time in which it is set, the motivations of Jane Austen in writing it, and how these issues are still relevant today. In some places, your words are not used correctly so you should take extra care in future when composing sentences. But overall this is a deeply insightful review that drew me in to the storyline, characters and themes. Congratulations!

2022 Novel Excerpt Contest Shortlist!

Drumroll, please… Our editorial team has (finally) narrowed down our expansive Novel Excerpt Contest submission pool to these final fifteen, who are now being read and considered by our guest judge, Charmaine Craig. The winning three excerpts will be announced by the end of April. Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, for all of your terrific submissions, and congratulations to the final fifteen!

The Torch Bearer by Emilie Pascale Beck

Life Hack by Patricia Callahan

Armored Saints by Shayla Frandsen

After We Drowned by Jill Yonit Goldberg

Adults Are Also Afraid of the Dark by Jenny Halper

The Blood Hustle by Alice Hatcher

Small Town Echoes of Metallic Minds by David Hudacek

Calling Out by Robyn Jefferson

PURVS by Svetlana Kitto

Copycat by Susan Sanford Blades

Our Aunt of the West by Basia Winograd

Salt for a Dog by Arturo Vidich

Negatives by Cassandra Verhaegen

Play Rewind by John Vurro

Book Review: Chlorine by Jade Song

Getting unstuck: endings.

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2022 Award Finalists

Official 2022 kindle book awards.

Congrats 2022 Finalists!

Finalists are listed in no particular order: Contact [email protected] to claim your badge.

Horror/Suspense (Finalist listed in red in no particular order, followed by semifinalists)

• Reclamation by Ashley Fontainne 
• The Devil of Misty Lake by JP Barnett   
• Devilish Dust by Erik Dean
• Gateway by David Cassidy
• Final Track by Julie Hiner  
• What Lurks in the Shadows by S.C. Shannon
• Pretty/Ugly by Jennifer Anne Gordon
• HORDE (Zombie Apocalypse: The Chad Halverson Book 6) by Bryan Cassiday
• Crawlies by Ellie Douglas
• Descent of a Broken Man by Ashon Ruffins 
• The Spirit of Shy Moon Lake by Reina Lisa Menasche
• Distorted Perception by Trish Arrowsmith 
• Gate of Betrayal by VC Marello 
• Halloween in Hannibal by Lara Bernhardt   
•  How a Monster is Made by RaShell Lashbrook
•  Telephone Road by Ann Swann
•  Rave by Konn Lavery   
•  The Ghosts We Know by William Dean
•  Sometimes we Ran 4: Survival by Stephen Drivick 
•  Chimera Island by Martin Roy-Hill 

Young Adult (Finalist listed in red in no particular order, followed by semifinalists)

• Pushing Pawns: The Chess Club Book One by Dima Novak
• Life of a Firefly by Sandra Brown Lindstedt
• Urbantasm: The Darkest Road by Connor Coyne
• Sangre Cove by Gina Castillo
• Blood and Silver by Vali Benson
• Bittersweet by Tayla Jean Grossberg
• The Moonstone Girls by Brooke Skipstone
• Soul Heist – The Missing Mentor by Volker Breuer
• The Lightness of Water by Toni Cabell
• The Lost Link by Michelle Bryan
• The Three Kingdoms: The Sown Seed by Mark Musser
• Year 1: Renegade by Tamara Heiner
• Royal Decoy (Fate of Eyrinthia Book 1) by Heather Frost
• Acceptance in Ice by Karina Brown
• Illusions: Ravens of Darkness by Elle Preston
• An Oath of Blood and Secrets:  She Will Rise by C.A. Masterson
• Perchance to Dream by Tamara Belko
• The Twin Stars by Bridgette Portman
• Yeah But I Didn’t by  Ann Swann
• The Mayfly and the Methuselah Tree by Bob Zaslow and Robert Askew

Romance (Finalist listed in red in no particular order, followed by semifinalists)

• The Splendid Hour by Kathryn Le VeQue
• High Meadow by Freya Barker 
• Runaway Groom by Ellie Rhodes
• Alaska Inferno by LoLo Paige
• Checkmate: An Opposites Attract Romance by Angela Taylor
• Those We Trust by Marie Jones 
• Wolfeblade by Kathryn Le VeQue
• The Way you Look at Me by EeJay Enekwa
• Land of Heroes by Dorothy Wiley
• The Dragon Ring by Fil Reid 
• Promise of the Heart by Susan Berry
• Topanga Canyon by Elizabeth Sumner Wafler
• Casey’s Charade by Susan Jean Ricci 
• Broken by KM Harding 
• Lure (Jesse & Hawk) by W.L. Hawkins 
• Defending Sophie by Desiree Holt
• Time will Tell by Annette G. Anders
• Wild Heart: An Equestrian Romance by Carolyn Haley
• Beauty for Ashes by Karen Baney 
• Shining Knight by Elizabeth Johns 

Mystery/Thriller (Finalist listed in red in no particular order, followed by semifinalists)

• The Prisoner’s Apprentice by Cheyenne Richards
• Fatal Infraction by Kevin G. Chapman
• Forgotten Creek by Susan Clayton-Goldner
• The Kimono Tattoo by Rebecca Copeland
• Ways to Die in Tokyo by Thomas Ran Garver
• Stolen Butterfly by Paty Jager 
• Terror’s Sword by Kevin Kuhens
• Stealing Gold by Michael Balkind
• Dior or Die by Laura E. Akers
• Bollywood by Priya Khajuria
• Enemies of Doves by Shanessa Gluhm 
• Death by Poison by Abigail Keam
• The Perilous Road to Her by NL Blandford
• The Death Mask Murders by Gabriel Farago 
• Capone’s Keys by Sally Ling  
• Pearlized by BK Sweeting 
• Absolution by Henry Hack 
• If These Flames Could Talk by Michael Burnham 
• Buried Lies by Andrew Cunningham  
• Codename Mermaid by Michael James Emberger  and  Kristina Rothe

Non-Fiction (Finalist listed in red in no particular order, followed by semifinalists)

• Midnight Calling: A Memoir of a Drug Smuggler’s Daughter by Lynn Walker
• but, he spit in my coffee: A reads-like-fiction memoir about adopting a child with Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) by Keri Williams
• An Impossible Life: The Inspiring True Story of a Woman’s Struggle from Within by Rachael Siddoway and Sonja Wasden
• Womb of Diamonds: A True Adventure From Child Bride Of Syria To Celebrity Businesswoman Of Japan by Ezra Choueke
• Swipe Write by Lindsay Taylor Dellinger
• Homeschooling and Working While Raising Amazing Kids by LM Preston
• Cries of the Savanna: An adventure. An awakening. A journey to understanding African Wildlife conservation by Sue Tidwell
• Finding the Missing Peace by Chris Duffy-Wentzel
• Into Dark Corridors: A Tale of Hands, Heart, and Home by Constance Hood
• Box Lunch Lifestyle: Using Your Lunch Break to Win Back the Life You Deserve by Cheryl Johnson 
• The Road Back to Me: 9 Principles for Navigating Life’s Unexpected Twists & Turns by Adena Sampson
• Travels with Geoffrey; If It Can Go Wrong, It Will by Sharon Hayhurst
• Thrive: 10 Commandments for 20-Somethings to Live the Best-Life-Possible by Jeffrey Froh
• Black, White, And Gray All Over; a Black Man’s Odyssey in Life and Law Enforcement by Frederick Reynolds
• Monkeys on the Road: One family’s vanlife adventure from the USA to South America in search of a simpler life by Mary Hollendoner
• EPIC Begins With 1 Step Forward: How To Plan, Achieve, and Enjoy The Journey by Zander Sprague
• Wheels of Injustice: Saving My Child from the Child Savers by Susan Louise Gabriel
• The Heroic and Exceptional Minority: A Guide to Mythological Self-Awareness and Growth by Gregory Diehl
• Your Next Big Idea: Improve Your Creativity and Problem-Solving by Samuel Sanders
• TBI or CTE: What the Hell is Wrong with Me? by Mark Tullius

Literary Fiction  (Finalist listed in red in no particular order, followed by semifinalists)

• Time Stamps by KL Kreig 
• Moss by Joe Pace
• In Light of Recent Events by Amy Klinger
• The Birdhouse Man by Rick DeStafanis
• Year of the Firefly by Malcolm Ivey
• Like Feathers of a Wing by Diane Olsen
• The Willow Rise Six by Alan Leuth 
• When Secrets Come to Light by George Hopkins 
• Strung by Roske
• Shadows of the Taj by Lara Bernhardt 
• The Puppet Maker’s Daughter by Karla M Jay 
• Dangerous Conjectures by Brian Finney
• Over the Hedge by Paulette Mahurin 
• Small Forgotten Moments by Annalisa Crawford
• No Names to be Given by Julia Brewer Daily 
• The Consequence of Anna by Kate Birkin 
• Agave Blues by Ruthie Marlenee
• The Secrets we Conceal by SR Fabrico 
• Touch by Rebecca Miller 
• Make America Beautiful Again by Bo Bancroft 

Sci-Fi/Fantasy (Finalist listed in red in no particular order, followed by semifinalists)

• Biding Time by Lyn Gardner 
• S.I.B.s: The Society of Intellectual Beings by Iris Bolling
• A Merry Life by Sarah Branson 
• The Wild Court by EG Radcliff 
• The Ferryman and the Sea Witch by D. Wallace Peach
• Sting of the Scorpion by Evelyn Puerto 
• Northern Echoes by Melody Ash 
• The Warrior with Broken Wings by Thorsten Brandl 
• Daughter of Ethos by LM Lacee
• The Girl Forged by Fate by Brittany Czarnecki
• The Savage Deeps by Timothy S. Johnston  
• Followed by Fire by McKenzie Austin 
• Kingbreaker by Jocelyn Fox
• Zak: The Hew-Man by Mat Labotka 
• Miss Bennet’s Dragon by M. Verant 
• Chene: Book One by D.C. McElroy 
• And the Creek Don’t Rise by R.M. Gilmore
• Asylum by Susy Smith
• Hell Holes by Donald Firesmith 
• The Unmasked Everblade by RM Schulz

Book Cover:  (Finalist enlarged in no particular order, followed by semifinalists)

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Rabindranath Tagore Literary Prize

TagorePrize

BOOK REVIEW CONTEST

      We are proud to announce that Rabindranath Tagore Literary Prize is launching a monthly book review contest.

     The most compelling review of a work in poetry, fiction and drama will be awarded  US $100 and will be posted on our Facebook and website. The works reviewed can be written in any of the Indian official languages. Review, however, has to be submitted in English and should not be longer than 2500, or shorter than 1500 words.

     By creating the book review contest, we are not only encouraging readers to share impressions and recommend works they found admirable and captivating, but are addressing the issue of rediscovering works that may have become neglected, forgotten or marginalized in the digital age. A compelling review can inspire people to pick books they may not have chosen on the basis of their usual searching preferences. An inspiring review can become a literary design in itself, a new and intimate link between the content and the reader.

     Works whose reviews were awarded will become candidates for our monthly book club, that will  commence within the next few months.

     For our monthly winner announcements follow us on Facebook @tagoreprize .

      Please click here or directly Submission Form (on a main menu) to send us your reviews.

“On rare occasions there comes along a profound original, an odd little book that appears out of nowhere,

from the pen of some obscure storyteller, and once you have read it, you will never go completely back to

where you were before. The kind of book you might hesitate to lend for fear you might miss its company. The

kind of book that echoes from the heart of some ancient knowing, and whispers from time’s forgotten cave that

life may be more than it seems, and less.”

E.J. Banfield

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Best Novel Writing Contests in 2024

Showing 47 contests that match your search.

Best Indie Book Award

Genres: Crime, Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Humor, Mystery, Novel, Novella, Poetry, Romance, Science Fiction, Short Story, Thriller, and Young Adult

The annual Best Indie Book Award® (or BIBA®) is an international literary awards contest recognizing self-published and independently published authors from all over the world. Entries are limited to independently (indie) published books, including those from small presses, e-book publishers, and self-published authors.

💰 Entry fee: $65

📅 Deadline: August 15, 2024

Chapter One Prize

Gutsy Great Novelist

Genres: Fiction, Novel, Young Adult, Crime, Fantasy, Horror, Humor, Mystery, Romance, Science Fiction, and Thriller

The Gutsy Great Novelist Chapter One Prize is awarded for an outstanding first chapter of an unpublished novel. The prize is open internationally to anyone over 18 writing a novel in English in any genre for adult or YA readers. Winners will be announced March 29, 2024.

Additional prizes:

2nd: $500 |3rd: $250

💰 Entry fee: $20

📅 Deadline: March 01, 2024 (Expired)

The Book of the Year Awards

The Independent Author Network

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Humor, Memoir, Mystery, Non-fiction, Novel, Novella, Poetry, Romance, Science Fiction, Science Writing, Thriller, Young Adult, Crime, and Short Story

The Independent Author Network presents the 10th Annual IAN Book of the Year Awards, an international contest open to all authors with 55 fiction and non-fiction categories. Winners are eligible to receive a share of cash prizes of $6,000 USD. Open to all English language print and eBooks available for sale, including small presses, mid-size independent publishers, university presses, and self-published authors.

$6,000.00 USD in total cash prizes

💰 Entry fee: $49

📅 Deadline: August 16, 2024

Craft your masterpiece in Reedsy Studio

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Best First Traditional Mystery Novel Competition

Minotaur Books & Malice Domestic

Genres: Mystery and Novel

Welcome to the Tony Hillerman Prize for Best First Mystery Set in the Southwest Competition! The Competition is open to any writer, regardless of nationality, aged 18 or older, who has never been the author of any Published Mystery Novel (including self-published works and ebooks), as defined by the guidelines below, and is not under contract with a publisher for publication of a mystery novel.

$10,000 advance

Contract with Minotaur Books

📅 Deadline: November 30, 2021 (Expired)

Clash of the Query Letters

Darling Axe Editing

Genres: Fiction, Memoir, Non-fiction, Novel, Crime, Fantasy, Horror, Humor, Mystery, Novella, Romance, Science Fiction, Thriller, and Young Adult

Our judge, Michelle Barker, will be asking herself one question: does this query letter convince me that I'm in the hands of an adept novelist with a unique and engaging story to tell?

CAD $200 for 2nd place, $100 for 3rd place

💰 Entry fee: $4

📅 Deadline: January 31, 2024 (Expired)

New Deal Writing Competition

New Deal Museum

Genres: Christian, Crime, Fantasy, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Horror, Humor, LGBTQ, Mystery, Novel, Novella, Poetry, Romance, Science Fiction, Short Story, Thriller, and Travel

GVCA is excited to announce the ninth annual New Deal Writing Competition! This competition challenges writers to use a painting chosen by the staff at GVCA as inspiration for a short story. This year’s painting is “Playtime” by Fred Ross.

Publication in newsletter

💰 Entry fee: $5

📅 Deadline: March 15, 2024 (Expired)

Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award

Killer Nashville

Genres: Crime, Essay, Fantasy, Fiction, Humor, Memoir, Mystery, Non-fiction, Novel, Poetry, Science Fiction, Script Writing, Short Story, and Thriller

The Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award is committed to discovering new writers, as well as superlative books by established authors and, upon discovery, sharing those writers and their works with new readers. There are a large number of both fiction and non-fiction categories you can enter.

💰 Entry fee: $79

📅 Deadline: June 15, 2024

Maggie Award for Published Writers

Georgia Romance Writers

Genres: Novel and Romance

The purpose of the Published Maggie Award for Excellence is to recognize the achievements of published authors of romantic fiction. The Maggie Award is a symbol of achievement given by the Georgia Romance Writers (GRW) to bring special attention to these authors. The Maggie, a silver medallion commissioned by GRW, receives national attention. Books will be ranked by librarians, booksellers, and other professionals in the publishing industry.​​

💰 Entry fee: $40

📅 Deadline: April 05, 2024 (Expired)

Nimrod Literary Awards

Nimrold International Journal of Prose and Poetry

Genres: Fiction, Poetry, Short Story, and Novel

All finalists in fiction and poetry will be published and paid at our standard publication rate. Semi-finalists in poetry will also be published and paid at our standard publication rate.

$2000 + Publication

2nd: $1000 + Publication

📅 Deadline: April 01, 2024 (Expired)

Annual Novel Opening Competition

Genres: Fiction and Novel

We are looking for an opening chapter up to 3,000 words, plus a one page synopsis outlining the balance of your story of any genre, so long as it's unpublished.

2nd Place: £200

💰 Entry fee: $13

📅 Deadline: October 31, 2024

The Adventure Writers Competition

Adventure Writers

Genres: Fiction, Novel, Thriller, and Mystery

Any novels between 50,000 and 200,000 words that are in the realm of action/adventure/thriller/mystery - and chocked-full of adventure - are welcome. New and previously published books welcome, though you must have sold or given away less than 10,000 books of the title(s) you enter. We do not accept sci-fi, fantasy, horror or young children's books. See our website for info on rules and entering.

Two AWC Finalist Awards: $500

💰 Entry fee: $50

📅 Deadline: April 30, 2024

Storytrade Book Awards

Genres: Crime, Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Humor, Memoir, Mystery, Non-fiction, Novel, Poetry, Romance, Science Fiction, Science Writing, Script Writing, Short Story, Thriller, and Young Adult

The Storytrade Book Awards recognizes excellence in small and independent publishing. Open to all indie authors and publishers including self-published authors, university presses, and small or independent presses, our annual awards program spotlights outstanding books in a number of fiction and nonfiction categories.

Medal, Book Stickers, Digital Seal

💰 Entry fee: $75

📅 Deadline: June 30, 2024

The Rubery Prize

Rubery Book Awards

Genres: Crime, Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Humor, Memoir, Mystery, Non-fiction, Novel, Novella, Science Fiction, Thriller, Young Adult, and Romance

The Rubery Prize is a prestigious international book award seeking the best books by indie writers, self published authors and books published by independent presses, judged by reputable judges. Through our reputation of finding quality and outstanding books we aim to bring recognition to the works that win and heighten an author's profile.

£200, a write-up

💰 Entry fee: $60

📅 Deadline: March 31, 2024 (Expired)

Work-In-Progress (WIP) Contest

Unleash Press

Genres: Crime, Essay, Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Humor, Memoir, Mystery, Non-fiction, Novel, Novella, Poetry, Science Fiction, Science Writing, and Young Adult

We aim to assist writers in the completion of an important literary project and vision. The Unleash WIP Award offers writers support in the amount of $500 to supplement costs to aid in the completion of a book-length work of fiction, nonfiction, or poetry. Writers will also receive editorial feedback, coaching meetings, and an excerpt/interview feature in Unleash Lit.

Coaching, interview, and editorial support

💰 Entry fee: $35

📅 Deadline: July 15, 2024

The 2022 First Chapter Book Contest

TheNextBigWriter, LLC

Genres: Crime, Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Humor, Memoir, Mystery, Novel, Science Fiction, Thriller, and Young Adult

Have a book or a novel idea you've been noodling? Enter your first chapter into the Booksie First Chapter Contest and see how it does. You don't need to have finished the book. You don't even need more than the first chapter. We're looking for a start that will grab our attention, that is original, that is well written, and that makes us want to beg you to see what comes next. And for those we find, we'll provide some awards to inspire you to finish writing the book or, if finished, to help get it published.

Gold contest badge.

📅 Deadline: May 14, 2022 (Expired)

Goldilocks Zone

Sunspot Literary Journal

Genres: Essay, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Memoir, Non-fiction, Novel, Novella, Poetry, Script Writing, and Short Story

Sunspot Lit is looking for the perfect combination of craft and appeal in stories, CNF, novel or novella excerpts, artwork, graphic novels, poems, scripts/screenplays. Literary and genre accepted. Enter through Submittable or Duotrope.

Publication

💰 Entry fee: $10

Passionate Plume

Passionate Ink

Genres: Fiction, Novel, Novella, Romance, and Short Story

The 2024 Passionate Plume celebrates the best in erotic fiction, both long and short, and features a special category for emerging authors.

Engraved award

Publication in the Passionate Ink Charity Anthology

📅 Deadline: March 21, 2024 (Expired)

Reader Views Literary Awards

Reader Views

Genres: Crime, Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Humor, Memoir, Non-fiction, Novel, Novella, Poetry, Romance, Science Fiction, Science Writing, Short Story, Thriller, and Young Adult

The Reader Views Literary Awards program helps level the playing field for self-published authors, recognizing the most creative and exciting new books in the industry. Our awards program is recognized industry-wide as one of the top literary awards programs for independent authors.

Several marketing prizes (e.g. book review)

💰 Entry fee: $89

📅 Deadline: December 15, 2024

Rigel 2024: $500 for Prose, Poetry, Art, or Graphic Novel

Literary or genre works accepted. Winner receives $500 plus publication, while runners-up and finalists are offered publication. No restrictions on theme or category. Closes: February 29. Entry fee: $12.50. Enter as many times as you like through Submittable or Duotrope

$500 + publication

Runners-up and finalists are offered publication

💰 Entry fee: $12

📅 Deadline: February 29, 2024 (Expired)

The Times/Chicken House Children's Fiction Competition

Chicken House Books

Genres: Fiction, Novel, Novella, Science Fiction, Science Writing, and Young Adult

We're looking for original ideas, a fresh voice, a diverse range of entries and stories that children will love! To enter, you must have written a full-length novel suitable for children/young adults aged between 7 and 18 years. We suggest a minimum of 30,000 words and ask that manuscripts do not exceed 80,000 words. The IET 150 Award will be awarded to a manuscript that celebrates Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths.

A worldwide publishing contract with Chicken House & royalty advance of £10,000

An offer of representation from a top literary agent

💰 Entry fee: $25

📅 Deadline: June 01, 2024

The Letter Review Prize for Unpublished Books

The Letter Review

Genres: Crime, Essay, Fantasy, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Horror, Humor, Memoir, Mystery, Non-fiction, Novel, Novella, Poetry, Romance, Science Fiction, Science Writing, Short Story, Thriller, and Young Adult

Free to enter. Seeking 0-5000 word (poetry: 15 pgs) excerpts of unpublished books (Fiction, Poetry, Nonfiction), including most self-published and indie-published works. 2-4 Winners (publication of extract is optional). We Shortlist 10-20 writers. Open to writers from anywhere in the world, with no theme or genre restrictions. Judged blind.

Optional Publication of Excerpt, Letter of Recommendation

AWP Prize for the Novel

Association of Writers & Writing Programs

AWP sponsors the Award Series, an annual competition for the publication of excellent new book-length works. The competition is open to all authors writing in English regardless of nationality or residence, and is available to published and unpublished authors alike.

Publication by New Issues Press

💰 Entry fee: $30

📅 Deadline: February 28, 2024 (Expired)

Goldfinch Books Novel Award

Goldfinch Books

Genres: Crime, Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Humor, Mystery, Novel, Romance, Science Fiction, Thriller, and Young Adult

Goldfinch Books, an independent bookshop, café and event space in Alton, Hampshire, UK has announced a UK nationwide literary competition to coincide with the inaugural Alton Arts Festival. The Goldfinch Novel Award 2024 is a prize for emerging authors (aged 16+) with completed young adult or adult novels. This competition is open to authors in the UK and will have a prize of £300 for the winning novel, chosen by judge Kiya Evans, Associate Literary Agent at Mushens Entertainment.

Goldfinch Membership

💰 Entry fee: $14

📅 Deadline: May 15, 2024

Novel Fair 2025

Irish Writers Centre

Now in its 13th year, the Novel Fair is an annual competition initiated by the Irish Writers Centre. Described by The Irish Times as ‘A Dragons’ Den for writers’, each year the Fair introduces twelve up-and-coming writers to top publishers and literary agents, giving novelists the opportunity to bypass the slush pile, pitch their ideas and place their synopsis and sample chapters directly into the hands of industry professionals.

Present your novel to leading publishers and agents at the Irish Writers Centre

💰 Entry fee: $59

📅 Deadline: September 30, 2024

Jim Duggins, PhD Outstanding Mid-Career Novelist Prize

Lambda Literary

Genres: Fiction, LGBTQ, and Novel

Dedicated to the memory of author and journalist Jim Duggins, this prize honors LGBTQ-identified authors who have published multiple novels, built a strong reputation and following, and show promise to continue publishing high quality work for years to come.

📅 Deadline: February 16, 2024 (Expired)

Debut Dagger

Crime Writer's Association

Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Novel, Novella, Suspense, and Thriller

The Debut Dagger is a competition for the opening of a crime novel by a writer who isn’t represented by an agent by the time the competition closes, and who has never had a traditional contract for any novel of any length, or who has never self-published any novel of any length in the last 5 years. Writers submit their opening 3,000 words and a 1,500 word synopsis. Entries from shortlisted writers are sent to UK literary agents and publishers. Every year, authors find representation this way.

💰 Entry fee: $41

Claymore Award

Genres: Crime, Fantasy, Horror, Mystery, Novel, Science Fiction, and Thriller

Created in 2009, the Killer Nashville Claymore Award assists new and rebranding English-language fiction authors to get published, including possible agent representation, book advances, editor deals, and movie and television sales. The contest is limited to only the first 50 double-spaced pages of unpublished English-language manuscripts containing elements of thriller, mystery, crime, or suspense NOT currently under contract.

Possible contract with Mystery Writers of America

📅 Deadline: April 01, 2023 (Expired)

Dzanc Books Prize for Fiction

Dzanc Books

The Dzanc Books Prize for Fiction recognizes daring, original, and innovative novels (generally over 40,000 words, but there is no hard minimum). A $5,000 advance and publication by Dzanc Books will be awarded to the winner. Finalists will be compiled in-house and passed along for evaluation to this year’s judges: Alan Michael Parker, Chika Unigwe, and Sarah Yahm, author of The Moveables, which was chosen as the winner of last year’s Prize for Fiction.

The Big Moose Prize

Black Lawrence Press

Genres: Fiction, Novel, Poetry, and Short Story

Each year Black Lawrence Press will award The Big Moose Prize for an unpublished novel. The prize is open to new, emerging, and established writers. The winner of this contest will receive book publication, a $1,000 cash award, and ten copies of the book. Prizes will be awarded on publication. The Big Moose Prize is open to traditional novels as well as novels-in-stories, novels-in-poems, and other hybrid forms that contain within them the spirit of a novel.

Publication, 10 copies of your book

💰 Entry fee: $27

Bridport Novel Award

Bridport Arts Centre

Your novel doesn't have to be finished. We initially need only 5,000 to 8,000 words plus a 300 word synopsis. If you're long listed we'll ask for a total of 15,000 words, including your original word count. Shortlisted? Then we need a total 30,000 words, again including your original entry and long listed word count. It all adds up to an incredible opportunity.

£750 for the runner up and three prizes of £150

💰 Entry fee: $29

📅 Deadline: May 31, 2024

Randall Kenan Prize for Black LGBTQ Fiction

Genres: LGBTQ and Novel

The Randall Kenan Prize for Black LGBTQ Fiction, in memory of the celebrated author Randall Kenan, honors Black LGBTQ writers of fiction. The award will go to a Black LGBTQ writer whose fiction explores themes of Black LGBTQ life, culture, and/or history. To be eligible, the winner of the prize must have published at least one book and show promise in continuing to produce groundbreaking work.

The Killer Nashville Claymore Award

Every year, the Killer Nashville Claymore Award assists new and rebranding English-language fiction authors get published, including possible agent representation, book advances, editor deals, and movie and television sales. While we cannot guarantee that winners and finalists of this award will receive publication, dozens of winners & runners-up of the Claymore award have gone on to find great success in their careers and many of them attribute that success to this award.

Publishing contract

Discounted admission to Killer Nashville, introductions to agents/editors

The Masters Review Novel Excerpt Contest

The Masters Review

Each fall, The Masters Review hosts a call for novel excerpts! Writing a novel can be an arduous and lonely process, but we’re here to champion the great work being produced. Whether your book is not quite finished or ready to pitch, we want to read your words. For this contest, we’re looking for self-contained excerpts that display a strong voice, compelling characters, and carefully constructed narrative arcs. You may submit an excerpt from any section of your completed or in-progress novel, but choose wisely: a synopsis should not be required for understanding the excerpt. As always, we have no limitations on genre, though we are primarily interested in literary fiction.

2nd: $300, online publication | 3rd: $200, online publication

📅 Deadline: November 12, 2023 (Expired)

Maggie Award for Prepublished Writers

Genres: Fiction, Novel, and Romance

The purpose of the Prepublished Maggie Award for Excellence is to encourage, recognize, and reward the mastery of romance writing by Prepublished authors of romantic fiction. The Maggie Award is a symbol of achievement given by the Georgia Romance Writers (GRW) to bring special attention to these writers. The Maggie Award, a silver medallion commissioned by GRW, receives national attention.

📅 Deadline: April 21, 2024

Self-Publishing Literary Awards

Black Caucus

Genres: Fiction, Non-fiction, Novel, and Poetry

Through this contest, the BCALA honors the best self-published ebooks by an African American author in the U.S. in both fiction and poetry genres. These awards acknowledge outstanding achievement in the presentation of the cultural, historical and sociopolitical aspects of the Black Diaspora. The purpose is to encourage the artistic expression of the African American experience via literature and scholarly research including biographical, historical, and social history treatments by African Americans.

Discover the finest writing contests of 2024 for fiction and non-fiction authors — including short story competitions, essay writing competitions, poetry contests, and many more. Updated weekly, these contests are vetted by Reedsy to weed out the scammers and time-wasters. If you’re looking to stick to free writing contests, simply use our filters as you browse.

Why you should submit to writing contests

Submitting to poetry competitions and free writing contests in 2024 is absolutely worth your while as an aspiring author: just as your qualifications matter when you apply for a new job, a writing portfolio that boasts published works and award-winning pieces is a great way to give your writing career a boost. And not to mention the bonus of cash prizes!

That being said, we understand that taking part in writing contests can be tough for emerging writers. First, there’s the same affliction all writers face: lack of time or inspiration. Entering writing contests is a time commitment, and many people decide to forego this endeavor in order to work on their larger projects instead — like a full-length book. Second, for many writers, the chance of rejection is enough to steer them clear of writing contests. 

But we’re here to tell you that two of the great benefits of entering writing contests happen to be the same as those two reasons to avoid them.

When it comes to the time commitment: yes, you will need to expend time and effort in order to submit a quality piece of writing to competitions. That being said, having a hard deadline to meet is a great motivator for developing a solid writing routine.

Think of entering contests as a training session to become a writer who will need to meet deadlines in order to have a successful career. If there’s a contest you have your eye on, and the deadline is in one month, sit down and realistically plan how many words you’ll need to write per day in order to meet that due date — and don’t forget to also factor in the time you’ll need to edit your story!

For tips on setting up a realistic writing plan, check out this free, ten-day course: How to Build a Rock-Solid Writing Routine.

In regards to the fear of rejection, the truth is that any writer aspiring to become a published author needs to develop relatively thick skin. If one of your goals is to have a book traditionally published, you will absolutely need to learn how to deal with rejection, as traditional book deals are notoriously hard to score. If you’re an indie author, you will need to adopt the hardy determination required to slowly build up a readership.

The good news is that there’s a fairly simple trick for learning to deal with rejection: use it as a chance to explore how you might be able to improve your writing.

In an ideal world, each rejection from a publisher or contest would come with a detailed letter, offering construction feedback and pointing out specific tips for improvement. And while this is sometimes the case, it’s the exception and not the rule.

Still, you can use the writing contests you don’t win as a chance to provide yourself with this feedback. Take a look at the winning and shortlisted stories and highlight their strong suits: do they have fully realized characters, a knack for showing instead of telling, a well-developed but subtly conveyed theme, a particularly satisfying denouement?

The idea isn’t to replicate what makes those stories tick in your own writing. But most examples of excellent writing share a number of basic craft principles. Try and see if there are ways for you to translate those stories’ strong points into your own unique writing.

Finally, there are the more obvious benefits of entering writing contests: prize and publication. Not to mention the potential to build up your readership, connect with editors, and gain exposure.

Resources to help you win writing competitions in 2024

Every writing contest has its own set of submission rules. Whether those rules are dense or sparing, ensure that you follow them to a T. Disregarding the guidelines will not sway the judges’ opinion in your favor — and might disqualify you from the contest altogether. 

Aside from ensuring you follow the rules, here are a few resources that will help you perfect your submissions.

Free online courses

On Writing:

How to Craft a Killer Short Story

The Non-Sexy Business of Writing Non-Fiction

How to Write a Novel

Understanding Point of View

Developing Characters That Your Readers Will Love

Writing Dialogue That Develops Plot and Character

Stop Procrastinating! Build a Solid Writing Routine

On Editing:

Story Editing for Authors

How to Self-Edit Like a Pro

Novel Revision: Practical Tips for Rewrites

How to Write a Short Story in 7 Steps

How to Write a Novel in 15 Steps

Literary Devices and Terms — 35+ Definitions With Examples

10 Essential Fiction Writing Tips to Improve Your Craft

How to Write Dialogue: 8 Simple Rules and Exercises

8 Character Development Exercises to Help You Nail Your Character

Bonus resources

200+ Short Story Ideas

600+ Writing Prompts to Inspire You

100+ Creative Writing Exercises for Fiction Authors

Story Title Generator

Pen Name Generator

Character Name Generator

After you submit to a writing competition in 2024

It’s exciting to send a piece of writing off to a contest. However, once the initial excitement wears off, you may be left waiting for a while. Some writing contests will contact all entrants after the judging period — whether or not they’ve won. Other writing competitions will only contact the winners. 

Here are a few things to keep in mind after you submit:

Many writing competitions don’t have time to respond to each entrant with feedback on their story. However, it never hurts to ask! Feel free to politely reach out requesting feedback — but wait until after the selection period is over.

If you’ve submitted the same work to more than one writing competition or literary magazine, remember to withdraw your submission if it ends up winning elsewhere.

After you send a submission, don’t follow it up with a rewritten or revised version. Instead, ensure that your first version is thoroughly proofread and edited. If not, wait until the next edition of the contest or submit the revised version to other writing contests.

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Salman Rushdie Reflects on His Stabbing in a New Memoir

“Knife” is an account of the writer’s brush with death in 2022, and the long recovery that followed.

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By Dwight Garner

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KNIFE: Meditations After an Attempted Murder , by Salman Rushdie

“So it’s you,” Salman Rushdie remembers thinking on the morning of Aug. 12, 2022, as a black-clad man, a “squat missile,” sprinted toward him on an auditorium stage in Chautauqua, N.Y. Rushdie thought: “Here you are.”

Thirty-three years had passed since the former supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa ordering the deaths of Rushdie and everyone involved in the publication of his 1988 novel, “The Satanic Verses.” It had been at least two decades since Rushdie stopped running. He had been living an almost normal life in New York City. Socially, he had become a giraffe, eating leaves from the tops of the highest trees, but he was seen in dive bars too.

The black-clad man was an apparition from an older, more punitive world, one Rushdie thought had largely forgotten about him.

It is among that August morning’s ironies that Rushdie was in Chautauqua to participate in a discussion about keeping the world’s writers safe from harm. His attacker had piranhic energy. He also had a knife. Too stunned to try to protect himself, Rushdie only raised his left hand. At first, some in the audience thought the scuffle was performance art.

In his candid, plain-spoken and gripping new memoir, “Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder,” Rushdie describes what happened next. The black-clad man, stabbing wildly, had 27 seconds alone with him. That is long enough, Rushdie points out, to read one of Shakespeare’s sonnets, including his favorite, No. 130. He does not print the poem, but I will, to provide a sense of the interminable horror. This is 27 seconds:

My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun; Coral is far more red than her lips’ red; If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. I have seen roses damasked, red and white, But no such roses see I in her cheeks; And in some perfumes is there more delight Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. I love to hear her speak, yet well I know That music hath a far more pleasing sound; I grant I never saw a goddess go; My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground. And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare As any she belied with false compare.

His attacker was at last subdued. Blood was everywhere, pooling. Rushdie’s clothes were cut off him. His legs were raised to keep what blood he had left flowing to his heart. He remembers feeling humiliated. “In the presence of serious injuries, your body’s privacy ceases to exist,” he writes. The reader considers it a good sign, for Rushdie’s health and for the tone of this humane and often witty book, that among his first thoughts was, “Oh, my nice Ralph Lauren suit.”

A member of his surgery team later tells him, “When they brought you in from the helicopter, we didn’t think we could save you.” Rushdie describes the appalling damage:

There was the deep knife wound in my left hand, which severed all the tendons and most of the nerves. There were at least two more deep stab wounds in my neck — one slash right across it and more on the right side — and another farther up my face, also on the right. If I look at my chest now, I see a line of wounds down the center, two more slashes on the lower right side, and a cut on my upper right thigh. And there’s a wound on the left side of my mouth, and there was one along my hairline too. And there was the knife in the eye. That was the cruelest blow, and it was a deep wound. The blade went in all the way to the optic nerve, which meant there would be no possibility of saving the vision. It was gone.

As bad as this was, he had been fortunate. A doctor says, “You’re lucky that the man who attacked you had no idea how to kill a man with a knife.”

This is Rushdie’s second memoir. His first, “Joseph Anton” — the title refers to the pseudonym he used when in hiding — was published in 2012. “Joseph Anton” is a sophisticated and multilayered book that recounts his years on the lam. It’s a book about friendship, about the many people who took him in. It was also a book about divorce. He was in the process of separating from his second wife, the novelist Marianne Wiggins, when the fatwa was announced, and during the book his third marriage, to Elizabeth West, falls apart as well.

“Knife,” on the other hand, contains a love story. Rushdie recounts meeting, wooing and marrying the American poet and novelist Rachel Eliza Griffiths, three decades his junior. She is now Lady Rushdie; her husband was knighted in 2007 for services to literature. Their story adds buoyancy to this memoir. But it takes a long time for that light to pour in. First there will be arduous recovery and rehab.

The poet John Berryman said an artist is lucky when “presented with the worst possible ordeal which will not actually kill him. At that point, he’s in business.” This is cynical but true. I’ve rarely read about worse physical trauma.

Rushdie is initially held together by staples. His ruined eye bulged out of its socket and hung down his face “like a large soft-boiled egg.” He spends time on ventilators. There were small bags attached to his body to gather a variety of leaking fluids. No one will permit him to look in a mirror. Mentally, he tortures himself. Why had he not defended himself? Was it that he was 75 and his attacker 24?

“On some days I’m embarrassed, even ashamed, by my failure to try to fight back,” he writes. “On other days I tell myself not to be stupid, what do I imagine I could have done? This is as close to understanding my inaction as I’ve been able to get: The targets of violence experience a crisis in their understanding of the real.”

This is not, it must be said, the most elegant book. It does not have the emotional, intellectual and philosophical richness of the journalist Philippe Lançon’s memoir “Disturbance” (2019), about surviving the 2015 Charlie Hebdo magazine attacks by thugs claiming allegiance to Al Qaeda. But Rushdie was wise to largely stick to the details and stay out of his story’s way. To paraphrase Roy Blount Jr., I put this book down only once or twice, to wipe off the sweat.

During Rushdie’s convalescence, his friend Martin Amis died. Another friend, the editor and food writer Bill Buford, nearly expired from heart problems. Another, Paul Auster, discovered he had cancer. “There have been many times since the attack,” Rushdie writes, “when I have thought that Death was hovering over the wrong people.”

His mind, a free-associating unit, is intact. The literary and film references in “Knife” run deep. Along the way we learn that Rushdie is a “Law & Order” fan, that against his better judgment he orders books from Amazon, and that he needed the Chautauqua check to pay for a new air conditioning system. And so on.

Humor bubbles up organically from pain. “Dear reader, if you have never had a catheter inserted into your genital organ, do your very best to keep that record intact,” he writes. He enjoys that one of his surgeons has “the improbably gastronomic name of James Beard.” His account of a prostate exam includes these lines: “Aaagh. Double aaagh. Even more aaagh.” He is self-deprecating about his weight, which was 240 at the time of the attack. He lost 55 pounds in the months that followed. He does not recommend his weight loss technique.

He no longer has any urge, he writes, to defend “The Satanic Verses” or himself, although renunciation is the last thing on his mind. “If anyone’s looking for remorse,” he writes early on, “you can stop reading right here.”

Near the end of this memoir there is a sharp pivot. Throughout, Rushdie has provided pellets of information about his hostile and ill-informed attacker, whom he chooses to refer to as “the A.,” instead of the less decorous label (the Ass) he would prefer to use. Before the attack, the A. had been in Chautauqua for several nights, sleeping rough, checking out the site. He carried a false ID, his fake name an amalgam of the names of well-known Shia Muslim extremists. He had been living in his mother’s basement in New Jersey, playing video games and watching Netflix. He’d been radicalized by YouTube videos and, his mother suspected, by a trip to Lebanon in 2018.

Rushdie decides against trying to speak to him face to face. Instead, he imagines an interview with him, a conversation that consumes 30 pages of this book. I will not give the contents of this imagined interview away, except to say that the topics include radicalization, the ruthlessness that comes with the blinkered conviction that your cause is just, translation, hatred, laughter, literacy, gym memberships, mothers and the New York Giants.

Rushdie is no Oriana Fallaci, and no Tom Stoppard. I am not sure this section entirely comes off, but I am still processing it. Their fictional exchange did put me in mind of a bitter line from Lançon’s book, uttered by the satirical cartoonist Stéphane Jean-Abel Michel Charbonnier, better known as Charb: “If we start respecting people who don’t respect us, we might as well close up shop.”

“Knife” is a clarifying book. It reminds us of the threats the free world faces. It reminds us of the things worth fighting for. Rushdie’s friend Christopher Hitchens, in the wake of the initial fatwa, eloquently explained the stakes. The affair drew a line between “everything I hated versus everything I loved,” he wrote. “In the hate column: dictatorship, religion, stupidity, demagogy, censorship, bullying and intimidation. In the love column: literature, irony, humor, the individual and the defense of free expression.” His words apply to this book.

Many questions are left at the close of “Knife.” It is uncertain if Rushdie will lose the sight in his remaining eye because of macular degeneration. It is unclear where Rushdie and Griffiths will choose to live. But the mood of this book is suggested by this line about going out to a restaurant for the first time since the attack: “After the angel of death, the angel of life.”

KNIFE : Meditations After an Attempted Murder | By Salman Rushdie | Random House | 209 pp. | $28

Dwight Garner has been a book critic for The Times since 2008, and before that was an editor at the Book Review for a decade. More about Dwight Garner

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In his new memoir, the celebrated novelist reflects on the 2022 stabbing that nearly took his life.

“Beauty is its own excuse for Being,” Emerson once wrote. In contrast, an interesting, unusual or disturbing experience is not always its own excuse for a memoir.

The venerable Salman Rushdie is a vibrant and vigorous (if uneven) novelist, but his latest work of autobiography, though occasioned by great suffering, is meandering and frequently trite. And although “ Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder ” treats a dramatic attempt on Rushdie’s life, it is also surprisingly boring.

It goes without saying that the novelist’s ordeal was harrowing. On Aug. 12, 2022, he found himself in the idyllic town of Chautauqua, N.Y., where he was slated to talk about “the importance of keeping writers safe from harm.” The subject is one he knows all too much about: Since Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for Rushdie’s death, pursuant to the publication of his virtuoso novel “The Satanic Verses” in 1988, the author has been in and out of hiding. It was only in 2000 that he decided to “remake a life of freedom,” as he puts it, in New York City. For 22 years, he lived in the United States unharmed.

But before Rushdie could begin his remarks in Chautauqua, a 24-year-old extremist from New Jersey named Hadi Matar rushed onto the stage and stabbed him repeatedly . His injuries, both physical and psychological, were extensive. “There was the deep knife wound in my left hand, which severed all the tendons and most of the nerves,” he writes in “Knife.” “There were at least two more deep stab wounds in my neck.” Worst of all was the injury to his eye. “The blade went in all the way to the optic nerve, which meant there would be no possibility of saving the vision.”

The road to recovery was tortuous. “In the presence of serious injuries, your body’s privacy ceases to exist,” Rushdie recalls. The self becomes an object for others to prod, poke and manipulate. “One of the knife wounds in my face had damaged the channel by which saliva reached my mouth,” he writes, “and the saliva was oozing out of my cheek. A young doctor came to attend to this.” Other doctors and nurses helped Rushdie use the bathroom; still others drained fluid from a leaky lung.

Fifteen days after his emergency surgery, during which doctors operated on multiple organs simultaneously, he was able to walk again; more than six weeks later, he returned to his home in Manhattan. But even then, he had to undergo physical therapy so as to relearn how to move his hand, and a severed nerve in his neck meant one side of his lower lip was permanently paralyzed.

In the first chapter of the book, Rushdie notes that his assailant, whom he refuses to name, had read very little of his work. “From this we can deduce that, whatever the attack was about, it wasn’t about ‘The Satanic Verses.’ I will try to understand what it was about in this book.”

In one extended sequence about the mental state of his attacker — a fictionalized dialogue between the novelist and the would-be assassin — he makes good on this promise. But this exchange is isolated (and somewhat jarring) in a book that otherwise contains only a handful of well-rehearsed meditations on the plight of persecuted writers — “if you are afraid of the consequences of what you say, then you are not free”; “when religion becomes politicized, even weaponized, then it’s everybody’s business, because of its capacity for harm.”

What, then, is the preponderance of “Knife” about? For the most part, the book is dryly documentary, an unembellished diary. Rushdie blacks out in the hospital; he plots his return to New York, then his journey from hospital to apartment; he enjoys his first significant nonmedical excursion, a Valentine’s Day date with his wife, the accomplished poet Rachel Eliza Griffiths.

Rushdie is a fount of erudite references — he alludes to Henry James, Elias Canetti and John Berryman, among others — but his own writing in “Knife” can veer into cliché. His friends’ supportive words in the wake of the attack were “comforting and strengthening”; when he revisits the site of the incident, he is “making my peace with what had happened, making peace with my life.” On the night he met Griffiths, he “felt like Ali Baba learning the magic words that opened a treasure cave — Open, Sesame — and there, its light dazzling the eye, was the treasure, and it was her.” Most cloyingly of all, he confesses: “I have always believed that love is a force, that in its most potent form it can move mountains. It can change the world.”

On the occasions when Rushdie attempts more experimental sorties, he falters. His halfhearted riffing on the idea and image of the knife does not always land, particularly in the mortifying sequence when the blade narrates its own misdeeds: “Here I am, you bastard … I’ve been waiting for you. You see me? I’m right in front of your face, I’m plunging my assassin sharpness into your neck.”

The best passages in “Knife” probe the emotional fallout of the attack — and double as considerations of brutality more broadly. “The targets of violence experience a crisis in their understanding of the real,” Rushdie writes. An assault like the one he weathered “smashes” the usual niceties. “Reality dissolves and is replaced by the incomprehensible.” Indeed, the motives of Rushdie’s attacker were so thin as to strike him as entirely unreal. Matar reported that he committed his crime because he regarded its victim as “disingenuous.” That would be an “unconvincing motive if one were to use it in crime fiction,” Rushdie wryly remarks. Hence the author’s fascinating choice to imagine a conversation with a more interesting adversary.

But thoughts on violence, reality and fiction are few and far between. For the most part, “Knife” sticks to the facts: the stabbing, the suffering, the recuperation. It is not that Rushdie has no larger points to make: It is only that these points are by now familiar and bear little relevance to the rest of his narrative. He is prone, for instance, to hectoring lectures on in the inanity of younger generations. “Something strange has happened to the idea of privacy in our surreal time,” he complains. “Instead of being cherished, it appears to have become, for many people in the West, especially young people, a valueless quality — actually undesirable. If a thing is not made public, it doesn’t really exist.” Later, he admonishes the “bien-pensant left,” noting that its emphasis on protecting minority rights has eroded “freedom of speech.” He neglects to explain what, if anything, the “bien-pensant left” has to do with his decidedly reactionary attacker. These polemics are not sustained or even germane arguments so much as drive-by scoldings.

Unfortunately, perhaps even unjustly, the most acute agony does not always produce the most profound writing. Raw suffering must be reshaped, renovated into something more than itself. Rushdie’s memories as presented here are as unrefined and muddled as a casual conversation. “Knife” is not worthy of his best work or the pain that occasioned it, though his desire to memorialize his anguish is of course understandable.

Becca Rothfeld is the nonfiction book critic for The Washington Post.

Meditations After an Attempted Murder

By Salman Rushdie

Random House. 209 pp. $28

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Status review of nickel phosphides for hybrid supercapacitors

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a Thin Film Materials Laboratory, Department of Physics, Shivaji University, Kolhapur 416 004, M.S., India E-mail: [email protected] Fax: +91-231-2691533 Tel: +91-231-2609229

Transition metal phosphides are a new class of materials that have attracted enormous attention as a potential electrode for supercapacitors (SCs) compared to metal oxides/hydroxides and metal sulfides due to their strong redox-active behaviour, good electrical conductivity, layered structure, low cost, and high chemical and thermal stability. Recently, several efforts have been made to develop nickel phosphides (Ni x P y ) (NPs) for high-performance SCs. The electrochemical properties of NPs can be easily tuned by several innovative approaches, such as heteroatom doping, defect engineering, and developing a hollow architecture. The prospects of NPs as a positive electrode in hybrid SCs are summarized to understand the material's practical relevance. Finally, the challenges and perspectives are provided for the development of high-performance NPs for SCs. The thorough elucidation of the structure–property–performance relationship offers a guide for developing NP-based next-generation energy-storage devices.

• This article is part of the themed collection: Recent Review Articles

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India: Decoding India's Digital Competition Bill 2024: Navigating Market Regulation In Comparison To The EU's Digital Markets Act

1. Background of Digital Competition Bill 2024 :

In the month of December 2022, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance proposed the introduction of a new ex-ante legislation known as the Digital Competition Act (DCA). Following this, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) established the Committee on Digital Competition Law (CDCL Committee) to evaluate the necessity and practicality of an ex-ante regulatory framework and to formulate a draft DCA. This gave rise to the report ('the Report') by the Committee advocating for an ex-ante framework to govern digital markets, alongside the Draft Digital Competition Bill 2024 ('DCB/the Bill'), that aimed specifically at regulating large digital enterprises termed as Systemically Significant Digital Enterprises (SSDEs).

The Committee initially reviewed the existing competition framework and its inadequacies in addressing the unique aspects of the digital economy. Subsequently, the Committee evaluated the suitability of the following instruments for addressing Anti-Competitive Practices (ACPs) by digital enterprises:

• Foreign Direct Investment Policy and Foreign Exchange Management (Non-debt Instruments) Rules, 2019 (FDI Policy);
• Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (IT Rules) and Information Technology (Reasonable security practices and procedures and sensitive personal data or information) Rules, 2011 (SPDI Rules);
• Consumer Protection Act, 2019 (CPA 2019), Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020 and Consumer Protection (Direct Selling) Rules, 2021;
• Proposed Digital India Act (DIA);
• Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDP Act);
• Draft National Data Governance Framework Policy (Draft NDGFP);
• Draft E-Commerce Policy, 2019 (Draft E-Commerce Policy);
• Reserve Bank of India Master Directions on Prepaid Payment Instruments, 2021 (RBI PPI Master Direction);
• Guidelines on volume cap for Third Party App Providers (TPAPs) in UPI issued by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI UPI Guidelines).

The Standing Committee Report essentially identified Ten Anti-Competitive Practices ("the ACPs") undertaken by large digital enterprises to abuse and consolidate their position in digital markets mentioned below : 1

TABLE 1 : Defining the Anti-Competitive Practices -

In response to concerns about anti-competitive practices by major tech companies, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance released a report on December 22, 2022, outlining ten prevalent anti-competitive behaviours in the digital sector. This report prompted the formation of the Committee on Digital Competition Law (CDCL), charged with assessing the adequacy of existing legislation and proposing solutions tailored to the challenges of the digital economy. As part of its mandate, the CDCL drafted the Digital Competition Bill, 2024 (DCB), which was made available for public feedback until April 15, 2024.

2. Introduction to the Digital Competition Bill:

Amidst the dynamic currents of Corporate India, a conversation is brewing that is capturing the attention of the business world: the preliminary draft Digital Competition Bill, 2024, proposed by the government. This legislative initiative, which is still in its early stages following the report from the inter-ministerial committee, holds the potential to significantly alter India's digital landscape. The ramifications of this bill are immense, as it seeks to redefine the future of digital dominance and competition within India's market. It is said that by 2025-26, the projected digital economy in India is anticipated to reach a staggering $1 trillion. 2

The recently published report by the Committee on Digital Competition Law 3 in India suggests that India should adopt ex-ante regulations, which refer to proactive measures implemented pre-emptively to prevent potential issues, particularly in digital competition for fair competition, data protection, fostering innovation and ensuring a level playing field, similar to those in the European Union, to address major digital competition issues. Aligned with global regulatory trends in tackling antitrust practices in digital markets, the Committee also introduced the draft Digital Competition Bill, 2024. However, it has been observed that India's approach appears to lean more towards favouring platforms over individual customers in terms of data perspective.

The rationale behind this proposed bill stems from the fact that existing competition enforcement is purportedly slow and inadequate for the rapidly evolving digital landscape of today. The core of this proposed legislation lies in its proactive approach, utilizing ex-ante measures to anticipate and prevent anti-competitive behaviour before it emerges. This sets a precedent for promoting fairness in the digital landscape.

3. Insights into India's Digital Competition Report and Bill:

3.1 scope and applicability:.

The Committee proposes that the Draft Digital Competition Bill (DCB) should pertain to a pre-determined list of Core Digital Services, with the Central Government having the authority to update the list periodically. The proposed list encompasses online search engines, online social networking services, video-sharing platforms, interpersonal communications services, operating systems, web browsers, cloud services, advertising services, and online intermediation services.

3.2 Regulation of Digital Enterprises with significant presence:

The Committee suggests regulating the enterprises showcasing a 'significant presence' in providing a Core Digital Service in India and influencing the Indian digital market. These enterprises would be designated as 'Systemically Significant Digital Enterprises' (SSDEs). The measures relate to both Qualitative criteria which may include factors such as market dominance, network effects, and impact on competition, while quantitative criteria may involve metrics like turnover, market capitalization, and user base size.

3.3 Thresholds and Criteria for SSDEs:

A dual test for demonstrating "significant presence" is proposed: 4

• The "significant financial strength" test comprising quantitative proxies of economic power, including the India-specific turnover, global turnover, global market capitalization, and gross merchandise value;
• The "significant spread" test evaluating the extent of presence of enterprise in providing a Core Digital Service in India based on the number of end-users and business users. Enterprises are proposed to self-assess their fulfilment of the above thresholds and report to the Competition Commission India (CCI). Additionally, the CCI may designate certain enterprises as SSDEs based on qualitative criteria, even if they do not meet quantitative thresholds, but have the potential to significantly influence the market.

3.4 Associate Digital Enterprises:

Designation may extend beyond one enterprise in the group. The Committee envisions scenarios where:

• The holding enterprise is designated as an SSDE, and other group enterprises involved in providing the same Core Digital Services, directly or indirectly involved, are designated as Associate Digital Enterprises (ADEs) to the SSDE.
• A non-holding enterprise primarily involved in providing the Core Digital Service is designated as an SSDE, with its holding enterprise and other group entities involved in providing the same Core Digital Services designated as its ADEs. The CCI is recommended to have flexibility in identifying appropriate enterprises for SSDE and ADE designations.

3.5 Obligations:

Specific obligations applicable to each Core Digital Service would be outlined through regulations drafted by the CCI. Regulations may provide for differential obligations depending on factors such as business models and size of user base of SSDEs and ADEs.

3.6 Exemptions:

Grounds for exemption from ex-ante obligations should be provided in the statute itself, with features specified through CCI-framed regulations considering particular Core Digital Service and related business models of SSDEs and ADEs. The Committee recommends the power to exempt certain classes of enterprises from applicability of the statute.

3.7 Enforcement:

CCI would be responsible to enforce the provisions. Strengthening the capacity of its Digital Markets and Data Unit with technology experts is advised by the Committee. Additionally, constituting a separate bench within the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal for timely disposal of appeals against CCI orders, particularly those relating to digital markets, is recommended.

3.8 Remedies:

Monetary penalties for non-compliance with ex-ante obligations may extend up to 10% of the SSDE's global turnover, calculated in relation to the turnover of the entire group. The precise penalty quantum is to be determined by the CCI, considering penalty guidelines under the Draft DCB. Separate penalties are provided for incorrect reporting contraventions and liability of key managerial persons.

The proposed legislation grants authority to the CCI to conduct inquiries, issue orders, and impose penalties for non-compliance. Additionally, it enables aggrieved parties to seek compensation. The draft legislation prohibits evading the designation criteria and provides the government powers to exempt certain enterprises, modify the list of regulated services, and issue directions to the CCI. 5

4. The Role and need for Ex Ante Rules in Shaping Digital Competition:

The Committee noted that the current ex-post framework (intervening after an event occurs) under the Competition Act, 2002, lacks the capacity for prompt resolution of anti-competitive practices by digital enterprises. It was observed that the framework may not effectively address the irreversible market shifts favouring large digital enterprises, leading to their permanent dominance in relevant markets. The Committee proposed the enactment of the Digital Competition Act to empower the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to selectively regulate large digital enterprises in an ex-ante manner (intervening before an event occurs). 6

Ex-ante regulations are so designed to prevent anti-competitive behaviour from occurring, as opposed to the current ex-post framework under the Competition Act, 2002, wherein the CCI intervenes after the occurrence of anti-competitive conduct. The proposed legislation aims to regulate only those enterprises with substantial presence and influence in the Indian digital market. This could alter the market dynamics, ultimately resulting in consumer benefits.

TABLE 2 : Key inputs and recommendations of the stakeholders with regards to the need to introduce ex-ante competition framework for digital markets: 7

5. Evaluating the EU's Digital Market Act alongside India's Digital Competition Bill 2024:

5.1 decoding the the digital markets act (dma) 8 :.

In Europe, The Digital Markets Act (DMA) is a landmark that aims to rein in the dominance of tech companies that "gatekeep" access to their users, and diversify access to their platforms.

As per the definition outlined in Article 2(1) of the DMA 9 , a gatekeeper is an entity that offers core platform services and has been formally designated under Article 3 of the DMA. Therefore, the central concept emphasized throughout the regulation is inherently tied to the provision of Core Platform Services (CPS). The existence of a gatekeeper is contingent upon its involvement in delivering a core platform service.

In addition to offering a CPS, which serves as an important gateway for business users to reach end users, it also must have "a significant impact on the internal market" and "enjoy an entrenched and durable position, in its operations or it is foreseeable that it will enjoy such a position in the near future according to Article 3(1) of the DMA". 10

The "gatekeepers" - Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta, and Microsoft are told to comply with the rules by March 6 2024. 11

TABLE 3 - Gatekeepers and their core platforms: 12

As of today, businesses operating within the EU and relying on services provided by the six gatekeepers will encounter fresh opportunities. For instance:

• They will benefit from equitable treatment and equal chances when competing with gatekeeper services on their platforms.
• They can request interoperability with gatekeepers' services to introduce innovative offerings.
• They have the option to distribute their apps through channels other than the gatekeeper's app stores.
• They can access data generated by their activities on gatekeepers' platforms.
• They can promote deals and finalize agreements with customers outside of the gatekeeper's platform.

Furthermore, end-users will encounter increased options and innovation in the European digital landscape. They will be empowered to:

• Regain the freedom to choose independently and avoid being limited to gatekeepers' default options, such as selecting alternative app stores and services.
• Exercise enhanced control over their data by determining whether the gatekeepers can link their accounts and aggregate personal data across various services.
• Seamlessly acquire, transfer, and utilize data from one service or app to another, facilitating smooth data backups and transitions between different services.
• Utilize alternative electronic identification or in-app payment services.

Gatekeepers failing to comply may encounter penalties of up to 20% of their total worldwide annual turnover, or even structural measures like divesting certain business segments. Additionally, the European Commission has the authority to impose periodic penalty payments of up to 5% of the company's total worldwide daily turnover in the previous financial year. Repeated violations could result in temporary prohibitions of business mergers. 13

5.2 Updates on Big Tech Firms' Post DMA 2024 :

5.2.1 Google has introduced various changes to its products and services, including:

• Requesting user consent to share personalized data across its platforms and providing the option to unlink services in their Google Account.
• Allowing users to choose their default search engine or browser when setting up a new device.
• Testing a new Data Portability API to facilitate easy data transfer from Google platforms.
• Strengthening measures to combat misinformation about politics.

5.2.2 YouTube will implement changes such as content labels for "altered or synthetic content" generated using AI. 14

5.2.3 Apple is granting access to non-Apple payment processing, app stores, and web browsers for its users. Merchants will need to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of these changes on a case-by-case basis due to varying fees based on download volume and payment processing choice.

Merchants with apps have the option to adhere to the new rules or retain the old ones. Apple device users in the EU will gain access to third-party technology, including non-Apple apps and payment options, through the iOS 17.4 software update.

As of March 2024, merchants can opt for an external payment service provider (PSP) for app payments on Apple devices. Apple's commission on in-app transactions for digital goods and services is reduced to 17% (or 10% for apps earning under $1 million per year). Alternatively, using Apple's App Store payment processing incurs a 3% fee.

Apple device owners can select a different contactless payment app or third-party app marketplace as their default. Third-party mobile wallet apps can now function for payments in physical stores outside the European Economic Area (EEA). 15

5.2.4 Microsoft has announced updates to its Windows 10 and Windows 11 operating systems to comply with DMA regulation deadlines. It has clarified the labelling of operating system components separate from system apps.

Microsoft has added the option to uninstall certain programs from its Windows PC operating system, including Camera, Photos, Edge (browser) in the EEA, Bing (search engine) in the EEA, and Cortana (discontinued voice assistant).

EEA users of Windows Search can now utilize alternative search engines like Yahoo or DuckDuckGo instead of Microsoft Bing Search. 16

5.2.5 After being designated as a gatekeeper, Meta introduced an ad-free paid subscription offer for European Facebook and Instagram users. While Meta supports an ad-supported internet, it provides user controls for opting into or out of data sharing for personalized ads.

Meta offered Instagram and Facebook users in the EU, EEA, and Switzerland the option to unlink data sharing across Meta platforms in early 2024. 17

Both India and Europe address concerns related to data dominance in digital markets through legislative measures. In contrast to the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA), India's proposed legislation includes provisions outlining specific circumstances in which digital firms, particularly Big Tech companies, may be exempted from compliance of such laws. These exemptions include economic viability, prevention of fraud, cybersecurity risks, protection against unlawful infringement of Intellectual Property Rights, and other related factors.

While India's approach focuses on restricting SSDEs' actions to prevent unfair competition, Europe's Digital Markets Act places obligations on gatekeepers to ensure fairer data practices, including transparency and access for business users. Despite differences in implementation, both regions aim to foster competition and protect consumer interests in the digital realm.

6. Impact and review of the Bill on Large Corporations and MSMEs:

Major corporations such as Apple, Google, Amazon, Meta, Uber, and Flipkart have criticized the draft bill, citing a dearth of successful global precedents for ex-ante regulations.

Indian companies hold a dominant position in digital sectors such as food delivery, ticket booking, and travel aggregation. Many of these firms may fall under the purview of the draft bill as providers of online intermediary services. However, certain obligations outlined in the bill pose significant challenges to their business models. For instance, one provision prohibits SSDEs from preventing businesses on their platforms by directing users to their own services. This shall mean that a restaurant listed on a food delivery platform can redirect customers to its own website for transactions, bypassing the platform's fees. However, food delivery platforms heavily rely on these fees for their sustenance. Allowing restaurants to access consumers through the platforms for free is not only unfair but also jeopardizes the platforms' viability. Although the draft bill includes a provision allowing platforms to restrict such bypassing if it's crucial to their operations, the final decision on what qualifies as 'integral' lies with the Competition Commission of India. This leaves the fate of many major Indian platforms uncertain. 18

Another provision with negative implications for consumers and companies involves the limitation on SSDEs promoting bundled products. This regulation may restrict SSDEs from offering consumers a package of applications akin to those included with mobile or computer operating systems. Essentially, users would need to download basic apps separately, potentially complicating the process and reducing accessibility to online services for a significant segment of India's internet users, especially those less proficient with technology.

Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) often face resource constraints, posing challenges for their entry and competitiveness across various markets. Hence, digital platforms are known to significantly alleviate these market entry barriers for MSMEs, enabling them to optimize resources by providing access to order fulfilment through their infrastructure or targeted advertising. Any restriction imposed on SSDE regarding targeted advertising is bound to create challenges for those who heavily rely on this to generate revenue to attract customers. Consequently, the prospective law may dampen the competition in various sectors where MSMEs previously flourished due to their access to such SSDEs. 19

The Bill is expected to trigger a surge in cases of Cyber fraud, as platforms shall lose control over its business and consumer interactions. This will transform India's formidable 800 million-strong internet user base into 800 million individual vulnerabilities for malicious fraudsters of exploitation. Moreover, the bill might create hurdles for MSMEs to penetrate and compete across various markets, despite being the backbone of the Indian economy.

The Bill may also inadvertently create opportunities for fraud and cybercrimes through various channels such as:

• Data Accessibility: The bill may necessitate increased sharing of data among companies or government agencies, potentially enlarging the pool of data vulnerable to breaches and unauthorized access by cybercriminals.
• Complex Regulatory Framework: The intricate regulations introduced by the bill could introduce loopholes that cybercriminals could exploit for fraudulent activities or to circumvent compliance measures.
• Resource Diversion: Companies may need to divert resources away from cybersecurity measures to ensure compliance with the bill, potentially leaving them more prone to cyberattacks and data breaches.
• Ambiguous Responsibilities: Unclear delineation of responsibilities and obligations among different stakeholders under the bill could create confusion and offer opportunities for fraudulent activities to go undetected.
• Interconnected Systems: The interconnected nature of digital platforms and services could amplify the impact of security vulnerabilities, enabling cybercriminals to exploit weaknesses in one system to gain access to others.
• Enforcement Challenges: Insufficient enforcement mechanisms or inadequate resources allocated for overseeing compliance with the bill could lead to a lack of accountability and lead to fraudulent behaviour. 20

7. Challenges and Perspectives of Big Firms :

Domestic companies such as Oyo, Zomato, and Swiggy have expressed reservations about the ex-ante framework, with Zomato advocating for provisions to align with the Indian context. Paytm and MakeMyTrip have shown greater support for such regulations. 21

According to Nasscom, the designation of enterprises for ex-ante obligations should be considered a blend of quantitative and qualitative factors. These obligations should not be mutually exclusive or have overriding effects. It also emphasized on the statutory obligation for the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to conduct market studies before identifying core digital services or specific obligations.

Several industry entities, including the All India Gaming Federation, Asia Travel Technology Industry Association, and Confederation of All India Traders, have endorsed the framework for Systemically Significant Digital Enterprises.

Microblogging platform X (formerly Twitter) supported the ex-ante regulations but suggested a careful consideration of the definition of Systemically Significant Digital Enterprises.

Apple India opposed ex-ante regulations, advocating instead for a light-touch regime that fosters innovation.

Meta, the owner of Facebook, expressed a preference for observing and conducting further research before rushing to adopt variations of the European Union's Digital Markets Act or other ex-ante frameworks currently under consideration. 22

In recent years, Indian internet companies, along with global counterparts, have contested the alleged monopoly imposed by major US players like Google and Apple. A notable development in this ongoing saga is the dispute between Google and several apps developed by ten Indian developers, including Bharat Matrimony and Shaadi.com, resulting in the temporary removal of these apps from the Play Store followed by their reinstatement.

Some large technology players such as Google, Apple and Meta are already facing probes by India's competition regulator for alleged abuse of fair-trade rules.

Google has said that it was not in favour of ex-ante regulation "except under certain conditions the new regime should promote competition and innovation, provide for evidence-based justifications (pro-competitive) for conduct under scrutiny, provide for separation of powers between rule-making bodies in charge of designation of SSDEs and bodies in charge of enforcement, etc.," it said in its suggestions.

Amazon claims that the ex-ante regulation for the e commerce sector "may be untimely and excessive" and may lead to "over-regulation".

Among Indian companies, Zomato has said if ex-ante regulation is sought to be introduced, it should be conducive to the growth of startups and should not stifle innovation or consumer interest.

Paytm has said that it had observed practices wherein large digital enterprises abused their dominance in the market. It claimed that bundling services of app store operators creates asymmetric pricing and binds app developers into only using their services. Further, app stores charged high commissions which affected business viability and increased customer costs. App stores use anti-steering provisions that restrict choices for developers and also have control over the app reviews and search algorithms, which could provide avenues for self-preference of their own apps at the expense of others, it added. 23

8. Balancing Act - Analysing Pros and Cons of the Bill:

Business growth often stems from various factors such as intellectual property rights (IPR), strategic initiatives, technological advancements, and more. However, companies may hesitate to disclose such sensitive information to the Competition Commission of India (CCI) due to potential risks and threats it could pose to their business operations.

If a company demonstrates that adhering to the law would result in economic losses, it's not bound to follow the law. Consumers choose to engage with a specific company due to its distinct qualities and if CCI's actions compromise these unique selling points, companies would bypass these regulations.

While the draft bill draws heavily from the Digital Markets Act of 2022, a regulation within the European Union, consideration shall be given to how it can be effectively applied to the Indian economy. This economy is notably more fragmented and serves a much larger target market as a whole.

It's noteworthy that the draft bill excludes these aspects, relying on the provisions of the Competition Act, which were considered sufficient. Apart from assessing the necessity of an ex-ante framework based on evidence and market impact, defining SSDEs becomes crucial. This entails deciding whether broad qualitative parameters should subjectively determine SSDEs or if quantitative measures should be prioritized. In terms of quantitative thresholds, drawing parallels with laws from developed jurisdictions may require appropriate indices for mapping volumes and user base in the Indian context. Introducing such a legislation in India would necessitate significant streamlining to avoid overlaps with existing laws. Additionally, it's important to evaluate the potential consumers and other benefits this law could bring to the Indian market and whether it would aid in ensuring fairness for startups and MSMEs.

At first glance, the incorporation of this provision in the Draft Digital Competition Bill seems to align with a similar objective. Nevertheless, it is imperative that this provision is not invoked to further protectionist sentiments by exempting government enterprises and local Indian enterprises eligible for designation as SSDEs. Such an exemption could result in the creation of uneven playing field. Currently, the government operates several digital platforms, including the Open Network for Digital Commerce, IRCTC, and E-NAM (National Agriculture Market).

Section 40 of the bill 24 outlines the government's authority to override decisions made by the CCI under extraordinary circumstances such as, if it finds out that the regulator is unable to discharge its functions etc. If by notification, the government decides to supersede the CCI, then the chairperson and members of CCI will have to vacate their offices. The government can supersede the CCI only upto a period of 6 months.

It is settled under law that the Executive cannot have unbridled power. The same was held by Supreme Court in Satwant Singh Sawhney vs D Ramarathnam 25 .On the face of it, the provision appears to promote ease of doing business and would have a positive impact. While the provision in question may seem to promote ease of conducting business and potentially yield positive outcomes, its judicious application is crucial to prevent excessive governmental intervention. Governmental powers, even those related to regulation and control, are subject to constitutional scrutiny and limitations.

9. Recommendations by the Committee:

TABLE 4: Recommendations of the Standing Committee and similar provisions in the other legislations 26

10. Conclusion: Moving Forward with the Digital Competition Bill

Considering the profound implications of enactment of this law on the development of Indian digital markets and economy, it is imperative to achieve a harmonious balance between the need for regulation and the realities of the Indian economy to avoid unintended consequences, so that the Indian consumers do not end up with a medicine that is worse than the disease.

The digital platforms in India are still in a developmental phase compared to those in the EU, and simply adopting regulations like the DMA may not be suitable for India's unique market characteristics. Despite India's significant economic growth in recent years, its access to advanced consumer and business technologies lags behind that of Europe and North America. Therefore, the focus should be on attracting and fostering investment rather than implementing regulations that could hinder the deployment of crucial infrastructure.

While the DMA aims to ensure fair distribution of benefits among platform users, such an approach could stifle innovation and reduce consumer benefits, especially in a market like India where the priority should be on introducing and maintaining innovative technology. Adopting a DMA-like approach could threaten domestic innovation, which has been central to initiatives like Digital India and Startup India. Such a regime would discourage growing companies and burden the government with extensive regulatory requirements. Moreover, implementing pre-emptive constraints without considering potential consumer benefits may hinder economic growth, technological progress, and investment in India's digital markets. 27

To ensure sustainable growth without unnecessary compliance burdens, India needs a nuanced approach to digital market regulation. It should avoid overly restrictive measures that could impede progress and instead focus on fostering an environment conducive to innovation and investment.

To mitigate cyber crime risks, policymakers must ensure that robust cybersecurity measures are integrated into the implementation of the Digital Competition Bill. This includes prioritizing data security, establishing clear guidelines for compliance and enhancing oversight mechanisms. Fostering a delicate equilibrium between innovation and safeguarding consumer welfare is paramount and only with the passage of time these measures would increase the consumer welfare or prove to be counter-intuitive by inadvertently chilling innovation and competition in the digital economy.

Overall, while the bill represents a bold attempt to regulate digital markets through ex-ante measures, its effectiveness and impact shall be evaluated. The success of such regulations may vary depending on various factors, including enforcement, adaptation by companies, and evolving market dynamics.

1. Ministry of Corporate Affairs, "Report of the Committee on Digital Competition Law" Feb. 27, 2024, available at: https://www.mca.gov.in/bin/dms/getdocument?mds=gzGtvSkE3zIVhAuBe2pbow%253D%253D&type=open .

2. Press Information Bureau, "Report on India's Trillion Dollar Digital Opportunity Release" Feb. 20, 2019, available at: https://pib.gov.in/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=1565669 .

3. Ministry of Corporate Affairs, "Report of the Committee on Digital Competition Law" Feb. 27, 2024, available at: https://www.mca.gov.in/bin/dms/getdocument?mds=gzGtvSkE3zIVhAuBe2pbow%253D%253D&type=open .

4. Sudipto, "Call For Inputs On Draft Digital Competition Bill, 2024, Mar. 26, 2024, available at: https://community.nasscom.in/communities/public-policy/call-inputs-draft-digital-competition-bill-2024 .

5. "CCI's Powers To Penalise On Global Turnover Basis To Deter Anti-Competitive Ways", The Economic Times, Mar. 10, 2024, available at: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/policy/ccis-powers-to-penalise-on-global-turnover-basis-to-deter-anti-competitive-ways/articleshow/108365906.cms?from=mdr .

6. Ministry of Corporate Affairs, "Report of the Committee on Digital Competition Law", Feb. 27, 2024, available at: https://www.mca.gov.in/bin/dms/getdocument?mds=gzGtvSkE3zIVhAuBe2pbow%253D%253D&type=open .

8. European Commission, Digital Markets Act, available at: https://digital-markets-act.ec.europa.eu/index_en .

9. Article 2, Digital Markets Act, https://www.eu-digital-markets-act.com/Digital_Markets_Act_Article_2.html .

11. Associated Press, "Europe's Digital Markets Act Is Forcing Tech Giants To Make Changes. Here's What That Will Look Like", The Financial Express, Mar. 6, 2024, available at https://www.financialexpress.com/business/digital-transformation-europes-digital-markets-act-is-forcing-tech-giants-to-make-changes-heres-what-that-will-look-like-3415298/ .

12. Alba Ribera Martínez , Kluwer Competition Law Blog, Sep. 11, 2023, https://competitionlawblog.kluwercompetitionlaw.com/2023/09/11/22-core-platform-services-for-6-gateekepers-the-european-commission-issues-its-preliminary-view-on-the-dmas-designation-process/ .

13. IANS, "EU Designates Six Big Tech Gatekeepers Under DMA, Introduces Provisions For Fines", The Economic Times, Sep. 06, 2023, available at: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/technology/eu-designates-six-big-tech-gatekeepers-under-dma-introduces-provisions-for-fines/articleshow/103431188.cms?from=mdr .

14. Banerjee, Ritarshi, "Youtube Unveils A New Tool For Disclosure Of Synthetic Media Usage By Creators", The Financial Express, available at: https://www.financialexpress.com/business/digital-transformation-youtube-unveils-a-new-tool-for-disclosure-of-synthetic-media-usage-by-creators-3431305/ .

15. Reuters, "Apple To Let Developers Distribute Apps Directly From Their Sites", The Economic Times, Mar. 12, 2024, available at: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/technology/apple-to-let-developers-distribute-apps-directly-from-their-sites/articleshow/108436930.cms?from=mdr .

16. Dougall, Sabrina, "EU Digital Markets Act Explained ", Checkout.com Blog, Mar. 8 2024, available at: https://www.checkout.com/blog/checkout-com-explains-the-eu-digital-markets-act .

17. Meta, "Facebook and Instagram to Offer Subscription for No Ads in Europe", Facebook Newsroom, Oct. 30, 2023, available at: https://about.fb.com/news/2023/10/facebook-and-instagram-to-offer-subscription-for-no-ads-in-europe/ .

18. Bal, Meghana, "The Draft Digital Competition Bill 2024 Wields A Sledgehammer Where A Scalpel Is Required", The Print, 18 Mar. 2024, available at: https://theprint.in/opinion/the-draft-digital-competition-bill-2024-wields-a-sledgehammer-where-a-scalpel-is-required/2004444/ .

20. Mathi, Sarvesh, " Summary: India's Draft Digital Competition Bill, 2024", Medianama, Mar. 14, 2024, available at: https://www.medianama.com/2024/03/223-summary-draft-digital-competition-bill-2024/ .

22. Sudipto, "Call For Inputs On Draft Digital Competition Bill, 2024", Mar. 26, 2024, available at: https://community.nasscom.in/communities/public-policy/call-inputs-draft-digital-competition-bill-2024 .

23. ET Bureau, " Big Tech, Few Indian Entities Oppose Ex-Ante Regulation Under New Law; Others Lend Their Support", The Economic Times, Mar. 13, 2024, available at: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/policy/big-tech-few-indian-entities-opposed-ex-ante-regulation-under-new-law-others-lend-their-support/articleshow/108447933.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst .

24. Ministry of Corporate Affairs, "Report of the Committee on Digital Competition Law", Feb. 27 2024, available at: https://www.mca.gov.in/bin/dms/getdocument?mds=gzGtvSkE3zIVhAuBe2pbow%253D%253D&type=open .

25. Satwant Singh Sawhney v. D. Ramarathnam , 1967 AIR 1836.

26. Ministry of Corporate Affairs, "Report of the Committee on Digital Competition Law" (Feb. 27 2024), available at: https://www.mca.gov.in/bin/dms/getdocument?mds=gzGtvSkE3zIVhAuBe2pbow%253D%253D&type=open .

27. Geoffrey A Manne , "European Union's Digital Markets Act not suitable for developing economies, including India", The Times of India , Feb. 14, 2023, available at: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/voices/european-unions-digital-markets-act-not-suitable-for-developing-economies-including-india/ .

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.

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