Rules and Regulations
Valley Forge Romance Writers
The Sheila 2010 – Rules and Regulations
ELIGIBILITY:
Participation is open to all RWA members, published and unpublished, who have not published in the category entered at the time of the contest deadline and within the past five years.
Previous first place winners may not re-enter the winning entry, even in edited format. They may, however, enter another work.
Enter as many different manuscripts as you wish, but each entry must be entered and submitted separately.
The same manuscript may not be entered in more than one category. Choose the best category for any single work.
Any entries received after the deadline will be returned, and the entry fee forfeited.
DEADLINE:
All submissions must be received electronically by 11:59 p.m. (eastern standard time), February 13, 2010. Entries received after the deadline will be returned and the entry fee will be forfeited.
NOTE: If less than 10 entries are received for a category, that category will be eliminated and the author given the choice of switching the entry to another category or having the entry and fees returned.
CATEGORIES AND FINAL JUDGES:
Single Title Romance:
Emily Ohanjanians, HQN
Historical (short or long and Regencies):
Leis Pederson, Berkeley/Penguin
Fantasy/Futuristic/Paranormal:
Alicia Condon, Kensington
Women’s Fiction with Romantic Elements/Chick Lit:
Alex Logan, Grand Central
Romantic Suspense:
Holly Blanck, St. Martin’s Press
ENTRY FEE:
$25 for all VFRW members / $30 for all non-VFRW members
Electronic entry fees must be paid via PayPal. For non-electronic payment methods, please contact the contest chair at contest@vfrw.com before February 1, 2010. Please note that only money orders will be accepted.
All entry fees must be received by VFRW before the contest deadline or the entry will be disqualified and any fees forfeited. All entry fees are non-refundable except in the case of category cancellation, as stated above.
ENTRY FORMAT:
- The online entry form must be completed at http://www.vfrw.com.
- Entry fee must be paid using PayPal. For alternate payment methods, please email contest@vfrw.com no later than February 1, 2010.
- One .doc or .rtf formatted document emailed to the category coordinator (see below for addresses) including title page, beginning of manuscript, and synopsis (up to 5 pages). The manuscript and synopsis may not exceed 35 total pages.
- The title page should list the author’s name, RWA Number, mailing address, email address, telephone number, title of entry, category entered, targeted publisher/line, and approximate word count.
- Entries must be presented in standard manuscript format: double-spaced with one inch margins using any generally accepted manuscript font (such as Courier or TNR, 12-point or larger). Both synopsis and manuscript pages must be double-spaced with one inch margins all around and no more than 25 lines per page.
- Manuscript headers should include the title of the entry and category in the upper left corner and the page number in the upper right corner only. The author’s name may not appear anywhere on the entry other than the title page.
Entrants who do not comply with the above rules will be contacted and given until the contest deadline to correct the infraction. Failure to comply by the deadline will disqualify the entrant. The fee will be forfeited.
Upon completion of the online registration forms, please email entries to the individual category coordinators as follows:
Single Title Contemporary: Sheila_stc@vfrw.com
Historical: Sheila_hist@vfrw.com
Paranormal: Sheila_para@vfrw.com
Romantic Suspense: Sheila_rs@vfrw.com
Women’s Fiction w/Rom. Elements & Chick Lit: Sheila_wfre@vfrw.com
JUDGING:
Entrants will receive a detailed score sheet from four qualified judges. The lowest score will be dropped before determining the final score. Judges will be encouraged to comment on the score sheet, but VFRW cannot guarantee that all judges will comply with this suggestion. The top five entries in each category will advance to the finals. A minimum combined score of 240 points (out of possible 300) is required to become a finalist. If there are not five entries which meet this minimum, only the entries that do will advance.
View the score sheets:
- General Score Sheet (all categories except Women’s Fiction)
- Women’s Fiction Score Sheet
FINALISTS:
Barring unforeseen circumstances, finalists will be notified by phone and/or email no later than April 17, 2010. Upon notification of finalist status, each finalist will have until April 26, 2010 to submit a revised manuscript to contest@vfrw.com so that they can put their “best foot forward” with the final round judges. If a finalist does not resubmit a revised manuscript by April 26th, the original entry will be submitted to the final round judge for that category.
NOTIFICATION:
Barring unforeseen circumstances, all finalists will be notified of final placement by phone and/or email no later than June 13, 2010.
AWARDS:
All finalists will receive certificates. First through fourth place winners will have their names printed in RWR Magazine. All decisions of the judges are final.
QUESTIONS:
Contact Carla Kempert, Contest Chair, at contest@vfrw.com.