2009 TOUCHED BY LOVE CONTEST RULES
Deadline: Entry Form, nonrefundable fee (checks made out to FHL or by paid by Paypal) and manuscript must be received no later than Midnight, April 1, 2009. Entries and fees received after contest is officially closed will not be accepted.
Eligibility: Contest is open to all unpublished authors and to any author not published in the past threeyears. All work must be the author's original work. Entrant must retain all rights to the entry and not have granted any of them to a publisher other party by the contest entry deadline.
Definition of an inspirational romance: Stories written by writers whose worldview, influenced by their faith in the God of the Bible, is woven into the fabric of the book or manuscript. Entries in FHL’s contest should not include inappropriate or gratuitous demonstration of sin, whether in language, violence, or sexual situations.
Inspirational Romance Categories: Contemporary (under 75, 000 words), Contemporary (over 75,000 words) and Historical.
Entry fee: $20.00 for members of the Faith, Hope and Love (FHL) chapter. $25.00 for non-FHLmembers. Non-members can elect to join FHL and pay the member entry fee. Any checks must be made out to the FHL Chapter of RWA.
ENTRY FORMAT:
An entry consists of up to the first 30 pages of an unpublished manuscript and an unjudged synopsis (no more than two pages double-spaced).
The entry should have at least one inch margins all around with exactly 25 lines per page. A standard professional font should be used with at least a 12 point font size. Entry and synopsis must be double-spaced using the same font.
The header must have manuscript title and projected or approximate word count on the left and page number on right.
Example:
| Love’s Journey/ 60,000 words | Page 1 |
Optional: You may include your target publisher in the header to assist the judges in evaluating your manuscript.
Example: If you are writing a Short Contemporary targeted for Steeple Hill Love Inspire line your header would look like this:
| Love’s Journey/60,000 words, Steeple Hill: Love Inspired | Page 1 |
The author’s name should not appear anywhere on the manuscript. Remove all personal information from the document.
Chapter Headers: (Chapter One, Chapter Two….) to begin 1/3 to 1/2 way down the page.
EMAIL INSTRUCTIONS:
Entrant may complete an entry form online and pay entry fee using Paypal OR mail an entry form and a check to the appropriate category coordinator. (mailing instructions for entry forms and checks are on the entry Form)
Address the email to the appropriate Category Coordinator. Please put TBL Contest and the contest category in the subject line.
In the email body include the author's name, phone number, email address, mailing address, manuscript title, projected length, and category entered. Your name appears only in the email body, which is kept by the contest coordinator.
Attach to the email a copy of entry and synopsis in one file in .doc or .rtf format only. The synopsis should be placed at the end of the manuscript pages.
The file name should contain the title of the manuscript. Send the email and attached file to the appropriate category coordinator before the deadline. Follow formatting guidelines listed above.
**The total attached submission is to be no more than 32 double-spaced pages
with up to 30 pages of the beginning of the manuscript
and a synopsis of not more than two pages. (synopsis is not judged)**
Email each entry as an attached document in .rtf or .doc format to:
Historical Romance Entries to Kelly Riley: RileyK1@aol.com
Short Contemporary Romance (under 75,000 words) to Gina Welborn: gina@gabcrush.com
Long Contemporary Romance (over 75,000 words) to Gina Welborn: gina@gabcrush.com
Enter as many manuscripts as you wish. For each entry, the entrant must complete an online entry form and pay the entry fee with Paypal OR send an entry form and check to the appropriate contest coordinator. (Mailing information is on entry form)
Each entry should be emailed separately.
**Entrants who do not comply with the above rules
will be disqualified and entry fee will be forfeited.**
JUDGING:
Preliminary judging begins April 10, 2009. All manuscripts will be judged by three judges, one of which will be published or PRO. The highest two scores will be averaged for the preliminary score. The lowest score will be dropped.
Barring unforeseen circumstances, finalists will be notified no later than May 16, 2009. Finalist scores must be in the top 25% with an overall possible point total of 155.
Finalists will receive the opportunity to have their entry judged by five published inspirational authors. Scores will be averaged in order to establish a winner. The winner will be announced at the 2009 RWA National Conference. There will be three finalists in the three categories. There will be a winner in each category and an overall winner from the three categories.
The overall winner chosen from the three winners of the categories will receive a critique of their entry by an editor and $100 toward any writing related expense paid within one year of the end of the TBL contest. The remaining two First place category winners will receive $75 toward any writing related expense paid within one year of the end of the TBL contest. Second place winners will receive $50 toward any writing related expense paid within one year of the end of the TBL contest. Third place winners will receive $25 toward any writing related expense paid within one year of the end of the TBL contest. Writing expenses include the Golden Heart or other writing contest entry fee, conference fees, National RWA dues, etc. Receipts are required for reimbursement.
Any questions, contact contest coordinators Kelly Ann Riley at RileyK1@aol.com or Gina Welborn at gina@gabcrush.com
