The 2025 Prize

The prize is open to writers in the UK, Ireland, US and now Canada, calling for fast-paced and filmic stories in one of three categories: YOUNG FICTION for 6-8 years (such as Dave Pigeon), GRAPHIC NOVELS for 6-14 years (such as Peng & Spanners) and ACTION ADVENTURE for 9-12 years (such as Alex Rider and the Gone series). The winner will receive a publishing offer, and Faber will consider offering publishing deals to runners up, depending on the submissions.

Two guest judges join Eddie Gamarra and the Faber team this year: John Baker from Bell Lomax Moreton Agency and Dee Stevens from Tiger Aspect.

Entry Guidelines

Entries need to feature a diverse cast of fully rounded characters in one of the following categories:

• Dave Pigeon style young humour (6-8 years).
• Alex Rider style action adventure (9-12 years).
• Graphic novels (6-14 years).

For young humour and action adventure entries we require the first 5,000 words and a single paragraph synopsis in one document. For graphic novel entries we require the complete text, a single paragraph synopsis and ten pages of full colour art in one document.

Please include a short biography.

Prizes:

FIRST PRIZE – A worldwide publishing offer from Faber (subject to contract).
SECOND PRIZE – Editorial feedback from the Judges.

Eligibility:

Entrants must be human, not AI and over 18 at time of submission. Creators must be resident in the UK, Ireland, the US or Canada. You can be published and agented. We actively welcome unpublished and unagented authors, all genders and ethnicities. We are an inclusive publisher.

Entries open: 9th Jan 2026

Closing date for entries: 27th Feb 2026

UPDATE – deadline extended to 8th March 2026

Winners announcement: 14th April 2026

To enter: 

Please check the Terms and Conditions on the Faber website and then submit your entry and any queries to: [email protected]

Terms & Conditions

In the unlikely event that the judges determine that no entry is suitable for a worldwide publishing offer, or appropriate for the specified readership, the judges shall nonetheless select the best entry in accordance with these terms and conditions, and award an alternative cash prize, such prize to be determined at the sole discretion of Faber. The prize is not negotiable or transferable. The decision of the judges will be final and no correspondence or discussion will be entered into.

Entrants must be 18 years or over, and your submission must be a work of human endeavour, not AI, and entrants must be resident within the UK, US or Canada. Faber reserves the right to disqualify any entry that does not meet these criteria.

This prize is not open to employees or contractors of Faber, their immediate families, nor to any other person connected with the Prize.

Entries are limited to one entry per person and must be submitted via email only either as a Word document or as a PDF to [email protected]. Please use your surname in the file name.

By entering this competition entrants agree to abide by and be bound by these terms and conditions. Faber reserves the right to amend these terms and conditions at any time as well as to exclude entrants or withhold prizes for any violation of these terms and conditions at Faber’s sole discretion.

Entrants retain all rights in their entries.

We actively welcome submissions from LGBTQ+ creatives.

The winning entry shall be offered a worldwide publishing deal, however there is no obligation on the winning entrant to accept the offer.

All offers and publishing agreements will be based on Faber’s standard terms.

By entering into this competition, the entrants confirm that they are entitled to do so and to enter into an agreement with Faber for the worldwide rights in their entry in all languages and all formats and such rights have not been previously assigned or pledged or otherwise encumbered. The entrants further confirm that their entry does not contain anything libellous or otherwise defamatory or obscene and does not infringe any copyright or any other proprietary right of any third party or any right of privacy or duty of confidentiality or any right of publicity or any moral right of any third party and that any and all statements in their entry purporting to be facts are true and that any recipe, formula, instruction or advice contained in their entry is not injurious to a user thereof and that their entry is not in any other way unlawful.

If the winner chooses to accept the competition prize and signs a publishing contract with Faber, they will retain the copyright to their works and shall licence the sole and exclusive rights in their entries to Faber throughout the world and in all forms and languages.

The winners will be contacted as soon as practicably possible after the deadline period ends. Faber will make reasonable efforts to contact the winners. If a winner cannot be contacted or is not available or has not claimed their prize within 30 days of the date above, we reserve the right to offer the prize to the next eligible entrant at our sole discretion.

Faber Privacy Policy here.

The Judges

Eddie Gamarra, CEO and Founder of Gamarra Media, is a Media Rights Specialist selling stories and building brands across publishing and entertainment. Prior he was VP, Literary Affairs where he scouted and acquired books and other IP for Paramount’s Nickelodeon and Awesomeness brands. Previously, he was a Literary Manager/Producer at The Gotham Group representing screenwriters, directors, animators, authors, illustrators and publishers. Clients included NYT best-selling storytellers as well as Oscar, Emmy, Annie, Caldecott, Newbery and Geisel winners/nominees. As Executive Producer, he worked on the Maze Runner trilogy, Jerry Spinelli’s iconic Stargirl for Disney+, and Jordan Peele’s Wendell & Wild for Netflix.

John Baker (he/him) joined Bell Lomax Moreton in 2019, cultivating a list shaped around his passion for exciting and escapist fiction for adults and children. John is searching for stories packed with action and adventure, be it contemporary, historical, science fiction, fantasy, or horror. John’s authors have won the Imagined Future’s Prize, the Future Worlds Prize, been featured on The Sunday Times bestseller charts, and have been adapted for cinematic release by Oscar-winning collaborators.

Dee Stevens is Development Producer at Tiger Aspect Kids & Family (part of Banijay Kids & Family), with a background in publishing and media. They have worked with 9 Story Brown Bag Films, Penguin Random House Children’s Books and Scholastic, bringing over twenty years of experience as a producer and publisher. Dee co-founded the inclusive publisher Knights Of and Brixton-based bookstore Round Table Books, winners of Children’s Publisher of the Year 2022 and Children’s Bookshop of the Year 2023.