Authors' Club Best First Novel Award

The Authors' Club Best First Novel Award is awarded by the Authors' Club to the most promising first novel of the year, written by a British or Irish author and published in the UK during the calendar year preceding the year in which the award is presented. Inaugurated in 1954, the Authors' Club Best First Novel Award is the longest-running UK prize for debut fiction and – except for the James Tait Black and the Hawthornden – the oldest literary prize in Britain.

From the Wikipedia article “Authors' Club Best First Novel Award”, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Check the official rules of the Authors' Club Best First Novel Award for the current eligibility window, accepted formats, residency or language requirements and any entry fee. For most established prizes the publisher submits on the author's behalf, often with a limit on entries per imprint.

If you are self-published, look for an explicit statement that independently published books are accepted, and budget for entry fees and copies for judges.