The Smart Book Lovers SIG and the Creative Writing SIG are proud to bring you the 2010 Sharp Writ Book Awards!

 

2010 Sharp Writ Unpublished Book Awards: Nominations & Guidelines

Award Categories
Eligibility
Nomination Guidelines

Nomination Form
Judging Process

 

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Sharp Writ Unpublished Book Awards Categories

Nonfiction - Nonfiction books, including, but not limited to, history, biography, science, nature, and cookbooks. 

Fiction (except romance) - books written in any popular genre or style of fiction except romance and western. This includes, but is not limited to, Action and Adventure, Family Saga, Historic, Humor, Horror, Inspirational, Political, mystery, detective, Fantasy, Graphic novel and science fiction. We are not accepting romance or Western books this year. Any Romance or Western books submitted will be destroyed without notice since we do not have any qualified volunteers for judging these two sub-genres. 

Autobiography & Memoirs - books which are autobiographical in theme, or include personal memoirs, with or without imaginative reworking.

Young People's Literature - books written for teen audiences (fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and graphic novels are eligible).

Children’s Literature - picture books or easy-readers targeted towards children, which combine text and illustrations in telling the story (fiction, nonfiction, and poetry books are all eligible)


Eligibility

 

1.   To be eligible for the Sharp Writ Unpublished Book Awards, a manuscript must be complete, edited, and in a state ready for immediate publication. This includes manuscripts intended for self-publishing and distribution.

 

2.    Previously published books are not eligible, nor are anthologies by multiple authors.  

 

3.   Books which contain sections previously published are eligible as long as at least 50% of the content is new and never before published.

 

4.   The only exception to the 50% new content stipulation in Rule 4 is a collection of short stories, personal essays or poetry where the individual stories, essays or poems have been previously published in magazines one at a time over a period of time but the collection is being published for the first time – such collections are eligible. 

 

5.   Unpublished manuscripts may have been written in any country as long as the text is in English.

 

6.   Books translated to English from a foreign language as long as the English language translation is submitted and both the original book and the translations have been unpublished.

 

7.   For entries submitted from outside US, the entry fee must be paid via Paypal in United States Dollars (USD) or via a official check, cashier’s check or money order).

 

8.    Final determination of eligibility will be made by the Sharp Writ Book Awards.

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What’s in it for me?

The Award winners will receive the following benefits:

1.   One Grand winner across all categories will receive a BOOK PUBLISHING PACKAGE from Xlibris.com. The package includes being listed on Amazon.com for one year. The lucky author who wins this publishing package will retain all rights to his/her book, and can re-publish it anywhere else in the future. You can find out more details about their publishing packages at their website (www.xlibris.com).

2.   Runners-up across all categories will receive up to three hours of assistance from the Center of Artificial Imagination in getting a book published and distributed through Amazon.com using their state of the art print-on-demand technology, including one free copy of proof (participant pays for S&H and any additional proofs at wholesale/ production cost)

3.   Winner in each category (Fiction, Non-Fiction, Memoir/Autobiography, Children and Young adults will receive a certificate) 

4.   Prestige associated with the recognition of your book by Smart Book Lovers and Creative Writing SIG.

5.   Exposure of your book to worldwide members of Smart Book Lovers.

6.   An award/medal - there is a design competition being held among various designers who are working on alternate designs for the award.

7.   A featured author interview or article in Expressions, the quarterly newsletter of the Consortium of Arts and Entertainment Special Interest Groups.

8.   Winning books will be showcased in a special section at Genius-Mall.com, the online store operated by Smart Book Lovers.

9.   30% discount towards advertisement in Expressions and Smart Book Lovers' website.


Nomination Guidelines

 

          To submit your manuscript  

1.   Download a form by clicking here, fill it and fax it to 480 393 5591. 

2.   If your manuscript is in either Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) form or Microsoft Word (1997-2003) format, and the file size is less than 19.9 MB in size, email it to “manuscript-entries at book-lovers dot net” (click on the link or replace at by “@” and dot by “.”)

3.   For manuscripts with file size larger than 20MB, 4 CDs must be mailed in each containing a copy manuscript in Adobe Acrobat or Microsoft Word (1997-2003 compatibility format) must be submitted on CD, along with a copy of the Paypal payment (or a check for the Administrative Fee made out to “A&E SIGs”) to the address below.

4.   You can pay the Administrative fee by Paypal to “payments at book-lovers dot net”. (Replace at and dot by symbols “@” and “.”) If you do not have a Paypal account, but would like to pay by credit card, we can email you an invoice with a link to a webpage for payment by credit card. Please email us at “awards at book-lovers dot net” (replace at by “@” and dot by “.”) 

5.   You can also submit 4 printed copies of your manuscript – please note that there is a discount for submitting your manuscript electronically.

6.   CDs and print copies of manuscripts will not be returned to the author..

7.     The Administrative Fee for each title entered are as follows (Checks must be made out to “A&E SIGs”)

                                                         Administrative Fee 

Submission Date

Currency Type

USD

CND

GBP

EUR

ZAR

AUD

Before 6/30

50

50

40

42

360

60

7/1 to 8/15

60

60

43

50

430

70

8/16 to 9/15

70

70

47

58

500

80

Note: There is a $10 discount for submitting your manuscript via email & $5 for electronic payment by Paypal.

 

A notation should appear on each check or in the comment field for paypal payment indicating the title of the corresponding entry (or indicating the number of total submissions and titles, in the case of multiple entries). 

8.   Each book must be submitted in only one of the categories listed above.  Final determination of the appropriate category for each entry will be made by the Sharp Writ Unpublished Book Awards.

9.     To be eligible, Nomination Forms and Administration/Processing fees must be received by 11:59 p.m. by the dates given above.

10.  There will be a $50 (USD) Penalty Fee assessed for a check returned for insufficient funds, and the processing of your entry will be suspended until both the original Administration and the Penalty Fees are paid via Cashier’s Check. 

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Nomination Form

Click here to download the Sharp Writ Unpublished Book Awards Nomination Form

1.     A pop-up window will ask you whether you want to open the file or save it to your computer. Select the option that will save the document to your computer.

  1. Open your saved document, print it, fill it and fax it to 480 393 5591. Email your manuscript in Adobe Acrobat or Microsoft Word Format to email ID given above.
  2. OR you can mail four copies on 4 CDs, or 4 printed or typed copies of each manuscript. The copies must be received by 5 p.m. on the appropriate deadline for each Administrative Fee level addressed to the address below. (There is a $10 discount for electronic submission)
  3. Please pay the administrative fee by Paypal to the email address above.
  4. You can also mail a check (Paypal is preferred) separately or send it along with the CDs or printed manuscripts. Please note that there is a $5 discount for payment by paypal. Checks should be made out to “A&E SIGs.” Be sure to reference which title entry the payment applies to.

By Mail

By private courier/ parcel service (UPS, FEDEX, DHL etc.)

    Smart Book Lovers
    Attn: V. Chau/ Y. Talreja
    P.O. Box  501428
    San Diego, CA 92150 USA


 

Email us for an address for delivery by Courier.

Email:  author.queries@book-lovers.net

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Judging Process

Selection of the Sharp Writ Book Awards finalists and winners is made by panels of volunteer judges who are members of the Smart Book Lovers and have actively participated in the book reviews. Great care is given to ensure diversity of background and experience on the panels.

 

If you are a Member of Smart Book Lovers, and would like to be considered for one of the judging panels, please email your name, membership ID (must be current), a short bio and the genre you’re interested in judging to judges.query@book-lovers.net. 

The Book Awards judging process has two parts:

1. Preliminary Round: Selection of the finalists, culminating at the end of July.  Each of the award categories has a panel of judges.  The judges on these panels will select a finalist within each award category around mid August. Please check this website, or Sign up for the Sharp Writ monthly Newsletter to learn which books made it to the final round.

2. Final Round: Winners for each category and the winner and runners up of the grand prize will be announced around via the Sign up for the Sharp Writ monthly Newsletter around middle of September.

 

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The Sharp Writ Book Awards is organized by Smart Book Lovers. All judging is done by the volunteer judges carefully selected from Smart Book Lover’s tier-1 reviewers.

Click here to see the biographies of the members of the Judging Panel

 

Smart Book Lovers
author.queries@book-lovers.net

Fax: 480-393-5591