Charlie Higson has launched a competition to make the official trailer for his new book The Fallen, the latest in his The Enemy zombie series. This isn't a one for fainting types, though - a key criteria is "plenty of gore".

Higson has acquired a reputation for devising unusual trailers for his books. He wrote and directed the most recent, which was Penguin's most ambitious trailer for a book yet, and casted it with schoolchildren and 30 bloodspattered zombie-mad adults he recruited via Twitter. Previous trailers for the series have had more than 100,000 combined viewings on YouTube.

There are three categories in the competition: under 16s, 16-24s and 25 year-olds and over. Higson will choose a winner from each category alongside a judging panel from Penguin Books and the BFI.

The winner of the under-16s category will be exclusively unveiled here, on the Guardian children's books site, first.

An overall winner will be chosen as the official trailer for The Fallen, and will be announced at BFI Southbank London on Saturday 7 September. There will be prizes for all winning entries, including £350 vouchers for film making equipment, BFI membership, signed copies of The Enemy series and a ticket to the BFI Future Film event on 7 September.

According to Higson, "it doesn't matter how you make it or what equipment you've got, whether you've got a 3D 35 mm camera or just your phone. What we're looking for is great ideas, imagination, loads of atmosphere and plenty of gore."

Further details including information on how to enter and a brief story arc to be used as a narrative guideline can be found at www.the-enemy.co.uk.