The Crime Writers’ Association is well known for the prestigious Dagger awards it gives out each year. Yesterday, the organisation opened its Debut Dagger competition, which aims to support new crime authors (and chimes very nicely with our themed month, New Talent November).

The Debut Dagger is open to entries until 2 February 2012, and it’s for authors who’ve never previously had a commercial novel published. Shortlisted entries will be revealed at CrimeFest in Bristol, and the winner will be announced at the CWA Awards in July. To enter, you need to produce the first 3000 words of your novel and synopsis of a further 500-1000 words telling the judges what the novel is about. It costs £25 to enter.

The winner will receive a £700 prize. The Debut Dagger is also a prestigious award in the eyes of publishers and past winners have gone on to considerable success. Belinda Bauer was Highly Commended in the competition in 2008 and her novel Badlands went on to win the CWA Gold Dagger in 2010. Allan Guthrie, Joolz Denby and Barbara Cleverly are all previous Debut Dagger winners. The 2012 winner was Sandy Gingras for her novel Beached.

All the shortlisted authors in 2013 will be given a free Manuscript Assessment from the CWA. Crime fiction experts at the CWA will critique your book for you, providing detailed feedback on how to hone your writing in a way that may help you get your novel published.

Click here to find out more about the Debut Dagger.