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Brighid's Fire Books Newsletters
Brighid's Fire Bookstore News Fiction Contest Announcements |
Call for entries
Contest FAQ
The 2009 Brighid's Fire Books/LughnassadhBooks.com Fiction Manuscript Contest is officially underway and accepting entries.
Eligible writers can submit the first two chapters of their novel, the entry form, and their $25 entry fee. All entries must be postmarked no later than April 30, 2009.
That's a Thursday, so there should be no issues with post offices being closed.
The first round of judging will be completed and our 10 finalists announced on or before October 1, 2009. Our three winners will be announced on New Year's Day 2010. The complete rules are posted below.
Once again, do please read the rules before you submit your entry.
All book-length prose fiction categories except erotica/porn and children/young adult are eligible. This contest is open to English-language manuscripts only.
Only previously unpublished manuscripts by previously unpublished authors are eligible for the contest. A "previously unpublished author" is a writer who has never has a book-length work of fiction published by any entity in any form (including e-books) in the United States or Canada. Writers who have had their book-length non-fiction published are still eligible. Self-published authors are still eligible.
A "previously unpublished manuscript" is one that has never been published before, even if the work is self-published. If a portion of your manuscript has been previously published in short story form, that does not automatically disqualify the complete manuscript from the competition, provided that the previously published portion does not comprise more than one-third of the total manuscript. Collections of short stories and collections of poetry do not qualify.
In the event that a manuscript is entered into the contest and subsequently published prior to the conclusion of the contest, that entry will be automatically disqualified.
Entry into the contest requires that contestants join our Fiction Contest Announcements List, since that is how we will be making our contest announcements. There will be no emails sent out to the list except those that directly relate to this contest. Non-entrants are also welcome to join the list; subscribers can un-subscribe at any time.
The owners, shareholders and employees of Wahmpreneur Publishing, Inc., including Brighid's Fire Books or any of its other divisions, and LughnassadhBooks.com, and their immediate families, are prohibited from entering this contest.
Void where prohibited by law. This contest is not open to minors; you must be 18 or older in order to enter.
To enter, fill out this entry form (opens in a new window), print it and send it, along with your entry fee and the first two chapters of your manuscript (or the first 25 pages of your manuscript, if your novel isn't divided into traditional chapters; see the FAQ for more on acceptable length for entries), to:
(A note about the entry form: The entry form has been formatted as a web-based HTML form to allow you to fill it out in your browser [except the signature, obviously] before you print it. This will make it easier for you to fit the information into the form and it will make it much easier for us to read it. So we'd ask that you make everybody's life simpler; fill in the form before you print and send it. Thanks!)
The entry fee for this contest is $25.00. We accept payment by check, money order, credit card (MasterCard, Visa, American Express or Discover), or PayPal.
Please make checks or money orders payable to Wahmpreneur Publishing, Inc. There will be a non-refundable $25 fee charged for checks returned due to insufficient funds; all fees must be paid before entries can be considered final. Unpaid fees will result in disqualification of your entry.
Entrants wishing to use PayPal to pay their entry fee should make that selection on the entry form and provide the email address they wish to use for the transaction. Upon receipt of your entry package, we will forward a Request for Payment using the email address editor [at] wahmpreneur.com. The payment request will reflect a payment to Wahmpreneur Publishing, Inc.
Please do not send a PayPal payment until you have been requested to do so. We do not wish to be paid for entries that we have not received.
Entrants wishing to pay their entry fee by credit card should be sure that they (a) provide their billing address on their entry form and (b) sign the form. We will not be able to process the transaction without those two items. Again, your credit card statement will reflect a payment to Wahmpreneur Publishing, Inc.
Whichever payment method you choose, don't forget to include some form of payment with your entry. Contest entries received without the proper entry fee will be recycled.
Entries must be forwarded in hard copy, standard manuscript format, by regular mail postmarked on or before April 30, 2009. We will not accept any electronic manuscript partials for the initial phase of the contest (see FAQ). Brighid's Fire Books will confirm receipt of entry materials and entry status by email.
We will accept multiple entries from a single author, but each manuscript must be entered separately with a separate entry package, including a separate entry fee.
Ten finalists will be selected from among the contest entrants on or before October 1, 2009. Those ten authors will then be asked to submit their complete manuscripts for final judging. If we ask to see your entire novel, please be sure to send a completed, submission-ready manuscript of at least 50,000 words no later than October 15, 2009.
New for 2009! Each finalist who is not named as the first place winner will receive a brief critique, in the hope that this will help you to improve your work. There will be no additional charge for this new perk; we hope it proves another way we can serve our contest entrants.
Our three winners will be announced by 3:00 p.m. EST on New Year's Day, January 1, 2010. First place prize in the 2009 Fiction Manuscript Contest is a publishing contract with Brighid's Fire Books, a $1,000 advance, and a spot on our 2010 Spring List of title releases. There will also be two runners up, who will be awarded $250 (second place) and $125 (third place).
Wahmpreneur Publishing, Inc., the parent company of Brighid's Fire Books, reserves the right to terminate the contest if insufficient entries are received. In the event that the contest is terminated with no winner(s) named, all entry fees will be refunded.
Entrants may voluntarily withdraw their entries from the contest without prejudice at any time, but contest entry fees will not be returned due to a voluntary withdrawal from the contest or, in the case of finalists, the failure to provide requested materials.
Good luck!
It's time!
As usual, if you have any questions that are not addressed in these rules, please first visit the Contest FAQ page. If we still haven't answered your question there, feel free to send an email to contest@brighidsfirebooks.com.
2009 Contest Rules
Brighid's Fire Books
Fiction Manuscript Contest
P.O. Box 41
Sidney, NY 13838
If there's anything we haven't covered in here or if you have any questions, again please check the Contest FAQ before contacting us. We can be reached via email at contest@brighidsfirebooks.com. We will try to respond to your contest-related questions promptly.
Dawn Rivers Baker
Brighid's Fire Books
Derek Stafford
LughnassadhBooks.com
For information on other contests for writers, please visit the Proof Positive: Writing Contests listings.
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