The winner of the Evil Twin Manuscript Initiative will secure a $25k publication deal.
Attention, thrill-seekers. The Black List and Zando are teaming up on a mission to identify the next great horror novelist. Could it be you?
The inaugural Evil Twin Manuscript Initiative will select an unpublished or self-published horror novel for a $25,000 publishing deal with Evil Twin, a Zando imprint. Submissions will open shortly and close on November 20, 2026—so if your Obsessions inspired triptych needs polishing, you have a few months.
What’s more, the brief is wide for this genre contest. According to early press, Initiative readers are interested in “upmarket supernatural, gothic, psychological” fiction, or “any horror sub-genre that may intersect with thriller, suspense, science fiction, and fantasy.” Which covers a lot of sin.
Tropes are welcome, but fresh perspectives are necessary. The only real limit to one’s dark imagination is logistical—submitted manuscripts must not be under contract somewhere else. (But no agent required.)
