1. The Scriptor Pen to Prose Book Award contest is open to any author who has published their book with Scriptor Publishing Group. *All entrants must be 18 years or older.

2. Each entrant understands and accepts that the Scriptor Pen to Prose Award Contest is a competition, therefore an award is not guaranteed; you are competing against other entrants, entry fees are non-refundable, and by making payment and submitting your book, you agree to the terms of use.

3. If an entrant pays for entrance into the contest and fails to submit a Mobi, ePub, PDF, or Word doc of their complete book, the entry will be disqualified, and the entry fee will be forfeited by the author. (We will make every effort to contact entrants to let them know if we did not receive their file, or if there was a problem with it, so they can send us an acceptable file.)

4. Each entrant is responsible for adding our email address to their contacts in order to bypass their email spam filter. We may need to contact an entrant to verify their address, or about issues regarding their entry. In the event that we are unable to contact an entrant, their entry may be disqualified and no refunds will be given. Our email address is info@scriptorpublishinggroup.com.

5. We accept Kindle Mobi, ePub, PDF, Word Doc, or Docx file formats of your complete novel. We do not convert files for entrants. (For PDF: Single page only. No double-facing page, book-block versions. Too often, this renders the text so tiny that the judges struggle to read it.) We do not accept watermarked books; a watermarked document is too hard on the eyes of the judges.

6. If there are no viable books (books written well enough to achieve award status) in a particular category, we reserve the right not to present an award for that specific category. Awards are given to books that score high enough based on our judging protocol. This is true for every category. No matter how many entries are received in any given category, if no book garners the high score needed to win the category, then no award will be given for that respective category, and no refunds will be given to the entrants of that category. Our goal is to award high-quality writing, and we strive to improve our award as much as possible.

7. We award books based on our criteria and at our discretion, not at the discretion of any other entity.

8. Due to the high cost of shipping outside the United States, physical awards may not be shipped to winners that live outside the United States. In lieu of a trophy or plaque, the winner will receive digital award emblems. We will, however, do all we can to ensure winners receive their trophies. (To date, all of our winners have received the physical trophy or plaque.) Some countries charge the recipient a customs fee. This is beyond our control, and we do not reimburse entrants for those customs fees.

9. Your book rights remain your own. The Scriptor Pen to Prose is a contest. By entering, you are not signing a publishing agreement.

10. You may enter more than one book in the contest, but each entry must be accompanied by the entry fee. Entry fees are non-refundable. If you enter a collection of full-length novels or novellas sold under one cover, you must pay the entry fee X 3. (The exception to this Term is short story collections or poetry collections.) Your Trilogy will be judged in the genre under which it is sold.

11. All judges in the contest will remain anonymous. There are no exceptions to this rule. In addition, entrant information is kept strictly confidential. This means that we do not sell your information to any third party.

12. No information will be given regarding the number of books entered in the contest or who entered. (With the exception of announcing the winners.)

13. We do not provide non-winning authors with judging notes, comments, or placement information about exactly where their books ranked in the contest. We do not offer detailed feedback as to why a book did not make it to the finals or to winner status. As we want our authors to compete with their conventionally published peers, we do expect authors to study, learn and hone their craft. A contest is a competition, not a full-time writing coaching service.

14. Entries will be judged based on multiple writing skills, which include story-telling ability, author’s ability to engage the reader, hooks, transitions, point-of-view, pacing, movement of the story, author’s skill with voice, character, dialogue, narrative, grammar, and punctuation.

15. If you submit an entry without payment, your entry will be deleted within 24 hours of submission and will not be judged.

16. We maintain the right to move a book to the correct category without notice if we feel it was entered in the wrong genre.

17. If after due diligence we are unable to contact a winner, we reserve the right to disqualify said winner, and if possible, award the title to another author in that category. No refunds are given. (We make two attempts via email. The author has 10 days to respond to the first email.)

18. We ask that authors white-list us so that our emails do not end up in spam folders. Despite our efforts, we cannot guarantee delivery of any email. There are forces beyond our control wherein we must rely on the entrants to do their part to ensure that they receive our emails.

19. All entries must be original work.

20. It is your responsibility to send us the best version of the book you are entering in the Scriptor Pen to Prose. Because our judging process begins within a few hours of you submitting your book, we cannot, and do not, accept additional upgraded, re-edited versions of your book after the fact. We will only judge the copy that you originally submitted.

21. By entering, you grant us the right to use your likeness, book cover, book description, links to the book, website, social media accounts, and any other information necessary to promote any book that wins the Scriptor Pen to Prose Award.

22. All book files we receive are kept strictly confidential. Only our judges will have access, and the files are deleted from our system upon completion of the contest. We do not sell, or give, any entrant’s personal information to third parties.

23. Entering the Scriptor Publishing Group Pen to Prose contest does not guarantee a win. We are a legitimate competition; books must fit our judging criteria in order to win an award.

24. No books with multiple authors are accepted.

25. We reserve the right to change these terms at any time without prior notice.

26. By entering, you, the entrant, agree to all these terms, and you agree that every term is binding. You understand that this is a competition and no refunds are given for any reason.