Valley Forge Romance Writers
The Sheila 2012 – Rules and Regulations

ELIGIBILITY:

Participation is open to all RWA members, published and unpublished, who have not published a full-length novel (40K words or more) in the category entered at the time of the contest deadline and within the past five years.

Previous winners may not re-enter their 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), April 7, 2012. 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 ROUND JUDGES:

Single Title Romance:
Emilia Pisani, Gallery Books

Historical (short or long and Regencies):
Elizabeth Poteet, St. Martin’s Press

Fantasy/Futuristic/Paranormal:
Leah Hultenschmidt, SourceBooks

Women’s Fiction with Romantic Elements/Chick Lit:
Alex Logan, Grand Central

Romantic Suspense:
Katherine Pelz, The Berkley Publishing Group

Young Adult:
Wendy Loggia, Delacorte Press/Random House Children’s Books

ENTRY FEE:

$25 for all VFRW members / $30 for all non-VFRW members. (Non-RWA members are not eligible to enter.)

Electronic payment (via PayPal or credit card) is preferred. To pay by money order, you must contact the contest chair at contest@vfrw.com before April 1, 2012. Personal checks will not be accepted.

All entry fees must be received by VFRW by 11:59 pm on April 7, 2012, or the entry will be disqualified and the fee 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 here.
• The entry fee must be submitted to and received by VFRW prior to the contest deadline.
• One .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 either Courier or TNR, 12-point or larger. A4 will not be accepted. 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 form and submission of entry fee, 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 with Romantic Elements & Chick Lit:
Sheila_wfre@vfrw.com

Young Adult:
Sheila_ya@vfrw.com

JUDGING:

Entrants will receive a detailed score sheet from four qualified judges. Judges will be encouraged to comment on the score sheet, but VFRW cannot guarantee that all judges will comply with this suggestion.

Members of Valley Forge Romance Writers do not, and are not allowed, to judge a chapter mate’s contest entry. All entries submitted by members of VFRW are judged by volunteers outside the chapter.

The lowest score will be dropped before determining the final score. 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 less than five entries meet this minimum, only the entries that do will advance.

NOTIFICATION:

Barring unforeseen circumstances, finalists will be notified by phone and/or email no later than June 2, 2012.

Finalists will be notified of final placement by phone and/or email no later than August 4, 2012.

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 Jeannine Standen, Contest Chair, at contest@vfrw.com.

A printable version of these rules and regulations is available here.

Last updated on February 15, 2012 at 6:46 pm