Aurora Contest

Realm Makers' Contest for Unpublished Authors!

Why enter the Aurora Contest?

🔎 A FRESH TAKE: Get valuable feedback from  other writers and industry professionals about whether your opening pages have what it takes to catch a potential reader’s attention!

💓 START BUILDING NAME RECOGNITION: Judges for the contest could someday be your superfans–or your agent/editor! It’s never too soon to get on the radar.

➡️ ACTIONABLE SUGGESTIONS: Receive specific comments on where your strength shine and where you could focus some effort polishing.

📣 BRAGGING RIGHTS: Having a contest win under your belt when you begin your publishing journey never hurts!

Entries open August 1, 10 am (EDT) to 11:59 pm August 30 (EDT)

Winning Authors Receive:

  • Multiple rounds of feedback on what’s working and what’s not in their manuscript from readers and writing industry professionals
  • Commentary from professional editors and publishing house owners (for books that make it to the final round.)
  • Your name and book announced at the Realm Awards ceremony at the annual writers conference
  • A spiffy digital emblem to use in your social media and other online promotional efforts

Categories

Authors must choose a genre category AND an audience at the time of entry. Authors may opt to be judged in the genre category of their choosing, the audience category, or both. 

WINNERS WILL BE CHOSEN FOR EACH GENRE AND EACH AUDIENCE CATEGORY, UNLESS THE NUMBER OF ENTRIES RECEIVED REQUIRES US TO COMBINE CATEGORIES.

Genre Categories

Fantasy

A story with elements that do not occur in the real world, which may have magic, mythical creatures, races of intelligent beings besides humans, etc. Any setting or time period is permissible. Non-magic fantasy is permitted as well.

Science Fiction

Built upon scientific premises but goes beyond what our current scientific understanding explains. Any setting or time period is permissible.

Horror

Stories that include scary or macabre elements  Please be advised that because this is a Christian run and judged contest, gratuitous gore such as slasher-type horror will not qualify.

Paranormal

Paranormal stories are set in the real world and contain elements that occur outside the range of what is normal in our everyday experience: ghosts, monsters/cryptids, urban legends that prove to be real .

Supernatural

Supernatural stories embrace spiritual entities such as angels, demons, God, Satan, and spiritual warfare. End-times fiction would fit this genre as well.

Cross Genre

For those who write hard-to-pigeonhole stories, (e.g. science fantasy) we’re trying a new category this year. If you feel your story has significant elements of two or more genres, this may be the best option for you.

Audience Categories & Word Limits

The entry form will ask you to choose an audience (age group that your work is geared toward.) Each author can elect if he or she wants to enter that audience category. Here are the audience cut-offs as we define them.

Adult Fiction

Adult: Written for age 17 and up, containing intricate plots, adult characters, mature (tastefully written) themes.

Authors of adult and YA books submit the first 7500 words of their unpublished, un-contracted SPECULATIVE FICTION manuscript. This excerpt will be divided into multiple documents for our use in each round, as detailed below.

Young Adult: written for readers aged 13 and up, generally focusing on teen protagonists

Authors of adult and YA books submit the first 7500 words of their unpublished, un-contracted SPECULATIVE FICTION manuscript. This excerpt will be divided into multiple documents for our use in each round, as detailed below.

Middle Grade: written for readers aged 8-12.

Middle grade submissions send the first 3000 words. This excerpt will be divided into multiple documents for our use in each round, as detailed below.

Realm Makers reserves the right to cancel or combine any category receiving fewer than ten entries. In the (rare) event of a category cancellation, the entries will receive a refund of their contest fee.

What about subgenres?

Entrants will have an open field to indicate if the story has a subgenre that will help contextualize the work better.

A note for Middle Grade submissions: we acknowledge that the word count for  middle grade books a varies widely, depending on whether the story is for early middle grade or late middle grade readers. When you submit, we recommend that you use the sub-genre field to indicate which part of the middle grade spectrum your work is written for. This will help us judge your work most accurately.

HOW TO ENTER

MAKE SURE YOU’RE ELIGIBLE

What is the definition of unpublished?

The contest is for unpublished novelists. For the sake of this contest, unpublished means:

The author submitting their work has never released a novel-length work with any royalty-paying publisher -OR- self-published a work for sale or giveaway to the public. 

***Even if you believe you blundered your debut novel badly, it had virtually no sales, has been pulled from the market, etc. you are still published. We won’t be able to include you in the contest. Sorry, no exceptions.***

Authors under contract with a future release date on a project are ineligible. 

Other Qualifications

Authors who have published short stories of any length remain eligible for this contest.

Authors who have published non-fiction and/or picture books are eligible to enter novel-length works in progress.

Authors entering the contest must be willing to affirm our statement of faith as stated on the entry form.

Prepare Your Manuscript Excerpts

  1. In addition to your opening 5000 or 7500 words, you will need a SYNOPSIS:

Authors for all categories and audiences should send a 500-word synopsis of their novel that includes how the story ends.

2. The work being submitted must be the opening chapters from a novel-length work. If the work has a prologue, the submission should begin with that.

When you enter: your synopsis and the excerpts for all rounds will be uploaded as FOUR documents (.docx, .rtf, .PDF formats are all acceptable.)  

  • Document 1: The first 2500 words for YA or Adult manuscripts -OR- the first 1000 words of a Middle Grade manuscript
  • Document 2: The first 5000 words words for YA or Adult manuscripts -OR- the first 2000 words of a Middle Grade manuscript (Everything from document one, plus the next chunk of the story)
  • Document 3: The first 7500 words for YA or Adult manuscripts -OR- the first 3000 words for a Middle Grade manuscript. 
    (This means the third document will repeat all the text from documents 1 and 2. )
  • Document 4 is your synopsis

Please name your files in the following format:

Your last name_project title_excerpt 1 (or 2, 3).file extension

or

Your last name_project title_synopsis.file extension

For example:
Minor_Fairies and Flippancy_excerpt 1.PDF

Please don’t abbreviate your name or title. 

YOU MAY CUT OFF YOUR SUBMISSION EXCERPTS PRIOR TO THE MAXIMUM WORD COUNT IF YOU DON’T WANT TO END THE EXCERPT IN THE MIDDLE OF A SENTENCE. YOU MAY NOT GO OVER THE WORD COUNT FOR YOUR AUDIENCE. THE SAME IS TRUE FOR YOUR SYNOPSIS.

FORMATTING:

Please use an easily readable font such as Times New Roman, Courier, or Arial.

12 pt size

Double spaced

Include your name in the entry. The first page or the headers are both fine. 

Entries that advance to the second round and beyond will receive a communication with their scores and comments, which we strive to have be constructive and actionable for those authors. The feedback will come to authors via email after the conclusion of the contest.

Please understand this process is a TON of work for our volunteers. You will get your feedback as soon as we can possibly send it out.

A Few More Caveats and Clarification

ACQUISITION:
If a manuscript entered into the contest earns a contract before December 1 of the entry year, it is the author’s responsibility to inform the contest coordinators. This manuscript will no longer qualify for the contest.

CO-AUTHORING:
In the event of a co-authored entry, both authors must meet the qualifications of “unpublished” and affirm our statement of faith

ENTERING AGAIN:
If a sample does not win its category this year, it is still eligible to be entered in future years, so long as the author remains unpublished.

UNFINISHED MANUSCRIPTS:
Manuscripts do not need to be complete to enter the contest, but should be far enough along that the author is certain the final story will be novel length, (over 25,000 words for Middle Grade, over 40,000 words for YA, over 70,000 words for adult)

MATURE CONTENT:
The manuscript shall contain no gratuitous/glorified violence, excessive gore, erotic content, pervasive profanity, or other material that conflicts with a Christian worldview. The work and/or the synopsis should indicate the work’s inherent harmony with Christian moral standards. The contest runners reserve the right to evaluate entries for disqualifying content.

This does not mean your work can’t have mature themes. It just means we reserve the right to determine what is story-relevant and what is gratuitous or included for shock value only.

Very gritty books that are R-rated throughout are difficult for us to find judges to score, so  bear in mind how intense your content is before you decide to enter.

Judging

Judging phases will be determined by the numbers of entries and judges involved in the contest, but contestants should expect the judging to run from late September through December.

Final winners will be announced via livestream, date TBD.

JUDGING PHASES:

Works will be judged against like genre in all cases and like audience if the author has elected to enter the audience category.  In the event we receive too few entries for a category, we reserve the right to combine categories.

FIRST:

In the first round, judges will read the synopsis and first 2500 (YA, Adult) or 1000 (MG) words of the book. The excerpt will receive scores in Writing Skill, Story, Characters, and World Building. We will announce which books score high enough to move to the next round. 

If you don’t advance, it means your work didn’t achieve the “cream of the crop” status that only a minority of work will exhibit. Unpublished writing contests receive hundreds (if not thousands) of entries, therefore those who don’t advance beyond the first round will not receive scores or comments.

NEXT:

Judges for the second round will then read the synopsis and first 5000/2000 words of the manuscripts, once again assigning the work scores. Judges will make comments about the work’s strengths and areas for improvement. Second round contestants will receive their total scores in each criteria and any comments judges supply. These comments will be sent out after the conclusion of the contest. 

FINALLY:

The top scorers from round two will move on to the final round. Judges will read the full sample as well as the synopsis. The judges for this round will be agents, editors, and/or publishing industry professionals. This round will reveal our winners!

What are the Judges Looking For?

Books will be judged according to the following criteria (each area worth 10 points):

  1. Writing skill: grammar, punctuation, syntax, voice, cadence, pacing
  2. Story: emotional impact, hook(s), originality
  3. Characters: appeal, dimension, uniqueness
  4. World Building: Consistency, interest, appeal
 

Entry Fees

While we’d love to offer the contest for free, we could write a long series of blog posts about why we can’t do that. So here’s the scoop on costs:

Each 7500/3000 word excerpt may be entered into ONE genre category (fantasy, science fiction, horror, paranormal, supernatural, cross-genre)

Each excerpt may be entered into ONE audience category (Middle Grade, YA, or Adult)

$45 for your first category

$30 to add a second category

For example: If you enter your book in Horror only, it will cost $45.
If you enter your book into Middle Grade only, it will cost $45.
If you enter your book in Horror and Middle Grade, it will cost $45 + $30, for a total $75 .

Contest Q & A

Q: I’d like to judge, but I’m worried about the time commitment. How long will it take me to participate in each round?

A: In round one, we’ll send you as many as a dozen entries to read, but they are going to be only 2500 words (or less for MG.) To read, score, and comment on an entry will probably take less than 30 minutes, and you’ll have a month to complete your judging. If you commit 1.5 to 2 hours of work on the contest per week, you’ll finish with no worries. If you procrastinate, however…

The second round will be a similar time commitment, just for fewer entries and more in-depth comments. 
If you think you can read and score for 2 hours per week in September and October, you have ample room in your schedule to help.

Q: Will authors receive their scores/comments?

A: Entries that advance to rounds 2 and 3 will receive communication with their scores and judges’ comments after the conclusion of the contest. Our committee will need time to aggregate this information as we continue to administrate the contest and Realm Makers’ other endeavors.

Q: How many entries did the contest receive?

A: It’s our policy not to reveal exact numbers for contests, event attendance etc. 

Q: Can I judge the contest if I’m entering my work?

A: Absolutely! We’ll just assign you a category you’re not entering.

Q: How long will it take to get the results of each round?

A: The time it takes to tally scores will differ every round and every year because the number of entries will change. You will get feedback after the conclusion of the contest, and we will keep you in touch regarding any significant delays.

Q: If I’m a judge, can you give me contact information for authors of books I read if I really like the work and want to discuss it with the author?

A: Sorry, Realm Makers can’t facilitate connections between judges and contestants. Judges are prohibited from disclosing their judge status during the contest, and we cannot violate the authors’ privacy by sharing their contact information.