As an early Christmas treat to aspiring writers and to celebrate its tenth year, Chicken House are extending the deadline for this year’s Times/Chicken House Children’s Fiction Competition to Wednesday 20th December 2017. The annual competition – the UK’s most valuable for children’s writers – offers unpublished and unagented writers all over the world the chance to submit their work to Chicken House’s team of readers. One talented writer will win a worldwide publishing contract with Chicken House with a royalty advance of £10,000. We are on the lookout for original ideas, a fresh voice and a story that children will love! To enter, writers must have written a completed full-length novel suitable for children or young adults aged somewhere between 7 and 18 years. We ask that manuscripts are a minimum of 30,000 and maximum of 80,000 words in length. Entrants can submit either online or via post. The competition has sparked the careers of many successful children’s authors, such as Sophia Bennett (author of eight children’s books, including her 2009 winning novel Threads), Tom Ellen and Lucy Ivison (authors of Lobsters, shortlisted for the inaugural YA book prize and a 2013 competition shortlistee), and Anna Day (author of The Fandom, Chicken House’s fastest-ever-selling foreign rights title and a version of which was shortlisted for the 2014 competition). Judges last year included Chicken House’s MD Barry Cunningham (known for discovering J.K. Rowling), Times Arts Editor Alex O’Connell, Waterstones children’s buyer Florentyna Martin, and children’s authors Kate Saunders and Katherine Woodfine. ‘Since 2014, we've had three books published, seen them translated into more than ten languages, and spoken at literary events from Hay-on-Wye to Utrecht, and it is basically all thanks to the Times/Chicken House competition.’ – Tom Ellen, co-author of Lobsters and Freshers ‘Entering this competition is one of the best decisions I ever made. I was unpublished, unagented, unheard of, and now I've just sold my 25th licence … and I didn't even win!’ – Anna Day, author of The Fandom FAQs and full terms and conditions of the competition can be found at www.chickenhousebooks.com/submissions For more information, please contact Jazz Bartlett: jasmine@chickenhousebooks.com