Largs man and published writer Paul Carson is launching a brand-new competition for authors interested in writing stories about living in a dystopian society.

Paul runs the freelance editing business, Seminal Edits, and has been working with writers for over five years now.

Drawing on his own experience with writing and publishing, he helps writers evolve into professional-level authors putting out products on par with anything produced in the mainstream.

Writers can be budding authors or already published novelists.

“Think George Orwell's 1984, Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale or the movie The Matrix,” Paul said, adding: “Even the recent experience of life under Covid can provide fertile ground for story ideas.”

The competition winner will receive a choice of Pro Publisher writing courses plus a self-publishing course worth a combined total of £264. The winning entry will also be turned into an EPUB complete with custom cover, ready for uploading to Amazon and the other self-publishing platforms. Two runners-up each receive a Pro Publisher self-publishing course worth £97.

The courses on offer set out how to write and pace a novel as well as how to self-publish online. Entries will be judged by Paul, who is a successful freelance fiction editor, self-published author and experienced tutor. Paul put together the courses which can be viewed on his Pro Publisher platform.

Paul said: “The prizes are courses designed to help writers write novels that will shine in the world of self-publishing or help them stand out when submitting to traditional publishers.”

The deadline for submitting entries is October 1, 2023 and winners will be announced shortly afterwards. More information from seminaledits.com/dystopian-fiction-competition-2023.

Paul added: “Get those words on the page and sent to us."