We want you to write a novel, where the reader will relate to the storyline because of their own lived experience.

But …

You need to be original in how you approach the ‘girl meets boy’ plot.

Your manuscript needs to be well-written and between 50 000 and 75 000 words.

Your story needs to be written in English.

The plot needs to unfold similar to a soapie/telenova plot (and not some ridiculous, happily-ever-after romance) – think Muvhango, Scandal, Generations, Isibaya, etc. It needs to be real, raw, convincing, and it needs to be set in South Africa.

There has to be a protagonist (your leading lady), and antagonists (the men she meets, the women standing in her way of success and happiness), and there should be ‘supporting characters’ (friends, colleagues, siblings, family).

The reader must be able to identify with the setting. For example: the location, the culture, the times that we live in, the aspirations and struggles of the protagonist, the pressures that we all experience, and the daily habits of the characters (shopping, eating, transport, lifestyle, interests).

Your story needs to be a page-turner. We want people who read a chapter, and despite saying to themselves, This is the last chapter I am reading tonight; I really need to go to sleep, find themselves reading five more chapters because they cannot wait to see what happens next!

Your plot and characters, ideally, should lend themselves to two more books (ie a trilogy). Think, while you are writing, about taking the main character forward in book number 2 and 3, killing off a few characters, expanding on the life of a sub-character, introducing some new people, introducing some new lived experiences.

You need to keep in mind who your ‘reading audience’ is:

• She is an upwardly mobile and aspirational black woman.
• In terms of typical South African readers, think of the people who currently read and devour Dudu Busani-Dube’s The Hlomu series, or Takalani M’s The Royal Mistress trilogy.
• She is between the ages of 18 and 40.

We will not be accepting previously self-published novels.

Writing a book is only 30% of the effort. The real effort comes after the book is written. Your book’s success depends on how you promote it, market it, and sell it!

We need you to have a dedicated social media following of your book, so that when it is published people will rush to either buy a copy from you, or from their local bookshop.

Have a look at Takalani M’s Facebook page to see how hard she works it: https://www.facebook.com/StoriesbyTakalaniM/

We need you to think about your writing as a business. If you sell 500 copies of your book, direct to your followers, you will make in the region of R43 000 profit (and you will also earn royalties on the books that are sold in bookshops, through Incwadi Yothando). And if you market both yourself and your book well, like you would any business that you owned, you could go on to sell thousands of copies.