The Sareeta Domingo Prize is now open for submissions

Before you hit submit, ask yourself these 4 questions:

Have you read your work lately?

If you’re submitting an old piece of work, have you read it through recently? If not, read it like you’re a reader who has spent their hard-earned money on what you’re about to submit. Be honest with yourself, is this your best work? Would you read the rest of the novel if someone gave it to you? Don’t be afraid to tweak your work as necessary.

Have you rewritten the first 3 pages at least twice?

When I’ve finished a book (I’ve written 24 now), I always always go back and rewrite the first 3 pages several times. They are the most important pages of your whole novel. They are the pages that someone is going to read either in submission or on the shelf, and decide whether they will finish your book or not. Trust me. Once you’ve written your 5,000 words, go back and rewrite the first 3 pages so they are as compelling as possible.

Is this the book you really want to write?

The Sareeta Domingo Prize is for any genre of book. Want to write about sexy dragons? Go right ahead. Want to create the next great literary tome? Be our guest. Want to wow us with a killer-twist thriller? Yes please. Want to tell the next great love story? Our hearts are ready. Historical fiction your thing? Get going already. The only rule when it comes to genre is to write the story you want to write, not the one you think you should. Black and Global Majority writers are always expected to write serious stuff, don’t be afraid to step out of that and tell the story you’re longing to. We can always tell if you’re not writing from the heart, so write what you want instead of what you think you should.

Are you aiming for your best or perfection?

We want to see your best work. Yes, read it over, do a spellcheck, check how it sounds to you as a reader, but please don’t tie yourself up in knots trying to make your submission publication perfect – we want to see the best you can do right now. So write your words, write your synopsis and send your submission to us before 21^st September 2026.

What Do You Need To Submit?

Entrants must be unagented and previously unpublished, aged 18 or over, resident in the UK and from a Black or Global Majority background.

Submission criteria:

The first 5,000 words of the novel in progress

A full synopsis of the novel (up to 750 words) including the ending.

What Is The Prize?

The winner will receive £2,500 prize money plus:

12 months of writing coaching from Dorothy Koomson

A place on the Goldsboro Writing Academy Write Your Novel With Us course

An offer of literary representation from literary agency David Higham Associates (with no obligation to accept)

The winner’s entry will also be taken forward to Orion’s acquisitions meeting and considered for full publication with a competitive advance against royalties. Orion does not guarantee that the winner will be offered a publishing contract and if offered an agreement there will be no obligation to accept

A copy of each of the four titles published on Sareeta’s List at Jacaranda Books

A highly commended entrant will receive £1,500 prize money plus:

A place on the Goldsboro Writing Academy Write Your Novel With Us course

A one-hour follow-up online editorial session with a senior Orion editor

A one-hour consultation with an agent at DHA

A copy of each of the four titles published on Sareeta’s List at Jacaranda Books

Shortlisted Entrants will receive:

A 1000-word piece of editorial feedback from an Orion editor

A one-hour consultation with an agent at DHA

A copy of one of the titles published on Sareeta’s List at Jacaranda Books

All longlisted entrants will receive a one-hour consultation with an agent at DHA with advice on what to do next with their writing.

Terms & Conditions here: Find out more

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People regularly ask me how I stay motivated when it comes to writing. And the short answer is: ‘because this is my job and I need to do it. I have a goal – usually in the shape of a deadline when the book needs to be delivered – and I have to get on with it.’

I have a goal. A specific goal.

Because when I talk about goal setting here, I’m not talking big ethereal goals such as ‘get a publishing deal’, ‘have my books optioned for TV’, ‘see my book in a book shop’ goals – those are good goals, don’t get me wrong. I’m talking specific, solid goals that nail you down to do the actual hard yards.

For me, noting down a goal in a detailed way allows me to see what I’m working towards in the short- and medium-term, which frees up a lot of head space for long-term plans and projects.

Especially for you, I’ve created a Setting Writing Goals Worksheet to help kickstart you actually sitting down and doing the writing.

The purpose of the worksheet is for you to set out your intentions for yourself. Don’t use it as a stick to beat yourself up with – no negative self-talk allowed or necessary. Use it as a jumping off point, the place where you say to yourself, right, this is what I want to do and this is how I’m going to do it. Make that commitment to yourself and get going. You can do it.

You can download the Setting Writing Goals Worksheet here.

Dorothy x

 How to complete the SETTING WRITING GOALS WORKSHEET

My Writing Goal:

Keep your goal short – no more than two sentences. For eg. ‘I want to finish this short story I started. It will be no more than 7,500 words and form part of my short story collection.’ Or, ‘I want to finish this chapter on emotions in business – it will be the backbone of my non-fiction book and be no longer than 7,500 words.’

Why have I chosen this goal?

Be honest about why you’re setting this goal – no one will see it. For eg. ‘This will be the lynchpin to my collection of short stories. I need to get it done so I can get on with other stories’. Or ‘This chapter will let me know if this non-fiction book will work or not.’

What 3 things do I need to achieve this goal?

Again, be honest with yourself about what you need.

For eg.

1. Time away from other things I do.
2. Self-belief that I can finish it and that it is any good.
3. Nail down the plot/ending.

What challenges might I encounter?

Be honest, but don’t talk yourself into a fear spiral. For eg.

1. Not finding time to write
2. Not loving the story
3. Not enjoying the writing process
4. Self-doubt about my writing abilities

How will I overcome those challenges?

Be realistic but positive here. For eg.

1. Write in my diary specific time work on that story and protect that time like a work meeting I can’t move – Monday 9pm and Wednesday 9pm.
2. Finish the story and then decide how I feel about it.
3. Focus on the end goal of writing the story and see how I feel about it.
4. Read the positive words section to remind myself I can do this.

My writing goal completion date:

Be very realistic but challenge yourself. For eg. ‘3 weeks from now, writing at least 1000 words each Monday 9pm and Wednesday at 9pm every week. More if I get more time.’

Milestones:

Break your goal up into smaller chunks. It’ll be easier to stick to it if you hit more than one milestone before you get to the big goal. For eg.

Milestone 1: 2000 words

Milestone 2: 4,000 words

Milestone 3: 6,000 words

Milestone 4: 7,500 words

Positive words I need to remind myself to keep going.

Be your own cheerleader here. You need one and you’re the best one out there. Banish all negative thoughts in this section, just focus on cheering yourself on. For eg.

• I can do this.
• I’ve done more difficult things.
• I don’t need to worry about anything other than finishing the story.
• I CAN DO THIS.
• This is a story that needs to be told by me.

Now you have the sheet and you have the ways to fill it in, what are you waiting for? Go get ’em, tiger (as they say in original Spiderman).

As I’m sure I’ve told you before, as well as being a bestselling author, I am a HUGE reader and I love nothing better than to share the book love. So here I am, sharing the love with The Big Reveal Book Club.

Last time the majority of you who answered the poll said you would love to have online book club meetings, yay! Our first one would be at 7pm on Tuesday 5th November. Hope you can make it.

Let’s get down to business, eh?

I really enjoyed this TBR Book Club selection, so do let me know on hello@dorothykoomson.co.uk if you’ve read the book and what you thought. And, as always, do send me other book suggestions that you think other people need to know about.

Talk to you soon.

Dorothy x

The Big Reveal Book Club Choice:

The Binding Room by Nadine Matheson

TBRBC Headline: A gripping, mesmerising version of a well-loved book genre that will keep you hooked until the end.

My thoughts: I love a good police procedural (a story that takes us on the journey of investigating a crime) where the characters are relatable because they’re flawed but not so messed up that they annoy me. And this is where The Binding Room enters the group chat.

We were introduced to The Binding Room’s main police characters in the first book in this series, The Jigsaw Man, and in this novel we get to see how everyone is recovering (or not) after the explosive events of the first story.

Detective Inspector Angelica Henley of the South London-based Serial Crimes Unit is called in when the wealthy pastor of a super church is murdered. There seems to be a lot of controversy around the pastor, his ministry and his family. As Henley is looking around the church premises, she comes across a hidden room where there is the emaciated body of a young man bound to a bed. The young man, despite his condition and evident signs of torture, is still alive.

So now the hunt is now on to find out not only who killed the pastor but who the young man is and who did that to him.

At first glance, The Binding Room seems like a simple detective whodunnit, but there are so many layers within the story beyond the main mystery. One of the elements that I found particularly interesting was the exploration of religion and how people use it to try to explain and ‘cure’ mental health problems. Nadine, the author, also writes about exploitation and trauma following the loss of someone close to you.

Henley is an interesting character because while I was rooting for her, I also found her hard to like at certain points – always the sign of great storytelling when my emotions are pulling in opposite directions. One of the scenes that stuck out for me is how Henley treats the pastor’s wife and her reaction when the pastor’s wife calls her out on it. There are some gruesome bits to the book and I did find myself almost reading through my fingers, but there’s not too much of that.

Nadine is a criminal barrister and still teaches ‘baby lawyers’ as she calls them, so it’s interesting to see her write about the world of crime from perspective of the police rather than the legal profession.

I’ve downloaded the next book in the Henley mystery series– The Kill List – on my Kindle but haven’t started it yet. Am very much looking forward to it, though. And don’t worry if you haven’t read The Jigsaw Man, you can get away with it if you want to jump right into the world of the Serial Crimes Unit with this banger of a book. However, if you want to get to know Henley that bit better and understand why she does some of the things she does, do start with book one.

TBRBC verdict: The Binding Room is a compelling and thought-provoking read that will make you think about the ways we deal with different types of mental illness when it shows up in our lives. Definitely worth a read.

Buy the book: Buy The Binding Room  or eBook: Buy The Binding Room eBook

Want to sign up for the Big Reveal Book Club newsletter? Go here: Sign up for the newsletter

As well as being a bestselling author, I am a HUGE reader and I love nothing better than to share when I find a book I adore. So here I am, sharing the book love with you via The Big Reveal Book Club.

This book club is all about helping you to find your next favourite read, so I’ll be recommending all sorts of things from the books I read.

Along with these recommendations, I’m thinking of starting a Facebook page for the book club and I’m hoping to get a monthly online meeting going so we can properly discuss the chosen books.

Also, do let me know via the contact me page, if you’ve read the book and what you thought. And I would absolutely love it if you sent some other book suggestions my way.

That’s it for now folks, all that’s left is to introduce you to the book choice.

Talk to you soon.

Dorothy x

The Big Reveal Book Club Choice:
Anansi’s Gold by Yepoka Yeebo

TBRBC Headline: It’s wonderful. Brilliant, clever and eye-opening.

My thoughts: I don’t normally read non-fiction and/or historical non-fiction unless it’s for research, but this book captured my imagination in a very special way. It doesn’t read like a historical, fact-filled book at all – it’s written in a compulsive, page-turning style that grabs you and won’t let you go.

Anansi’s Gold tells the story of John Ackah Blay-Miezah who managed to convince people across the globe that before he died, Ghana’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah, had amassed a stash of wealth – gold, jewels, money – and Blay-Miezah was the only person who knew where that treasure was stored. And, he told them, if they helped him out financially, he would give them access to these riches.

Except he knew nothing of the sort – the whole thing was one big con.

Kwame Nkrumah was famously uncorruptable, if he did amass a fortune, it would have been for the good of the Ghanaian people. But just as there was no evidence he had built a massive nest egg, there was none at all that he had anything to do with Blay-Miezah.

However . . . as Yepoka outlines so brilliantly in the book, there is a lot of missing, unaccounted-for wealth from Ghana. A lot of it was stolen by successive British governments who went to extraordinary – and well documented – lengths to make sure the Ghanaian people would never get it back. But even taking that into account, there is still a vast amount of gold that no one can locate, so maybe, just maybe, Blay-Miezah did know something other people didn’t. . .

Blay-Miezah was a very charming conman and some parts of Anansi’s Gold read like caper episodes of Hustle, but some parts are gut-wrenching when you consider the false hope he gave to the people of Ghana who needed the money to repair their country after being colonised for so long.

I spoke to Yepoka recently about her book for Hay Festival book club and she explained how she talked to Blay-Miezah’s ex-wife and children, as well as people who knew him. Her extensive research is there on every page, everything she says is backed up, which makes for eye-opening reading when you learn about various governments’ tactics to keep subjugating African and other colonised peoples.

There is also a lot of insight into the psychology of the con and how people often continue to fall for the con even after it has been exposed.

I had an added affection for this book because my parents are from Ghana, which is why I often throw in a mention of the country in my books.

As I said, this is a wonderful book about a fascinating, flawed man and the history of Ghana. Do pick it up if you can.

TBRBC verdict: Anansi’s Gold is an interesting, intricately researched, page-turning read that will open your eyes to a part of history you probably didn’t know existed.

Buy Anansi’s Gold

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