Have you always dreamed of being an Award-Winning Author?
Now's your chance!!!
Enter the Realm Awards, Honoring Christian Creators of Fantastical Stories
Submissions for stories published in 2025 open on
December 1!
Scroll down to learn the steps to enter your work
Check out the amazing benefits of being a Realm Award winner
- An opportunity to accept the award at a live presentation–the annual Realm Awards Gala
- An original, handmade glass Realm Award made by Leah Nietz
- Sales opportunities. We add winning projects to the Realm Award Winners feature case at Bookish, the brick-and-mortar independent bookstore in King of Prussia, PA
- Winners may be invited to join the Realm Makers Bookstore at various events, such as homeschool conferences, to hand-sell their work and meet new audience members.
- A supply of gold Realm Award stickers for novel winners, with replenishment available
- Mention of your project in our press release announcing the Realm Award Winners to publishing industry outlets
- Podcast promotion, such as an appearance on the Avid Readers of Christian Fiction podcast
What kinds of books can enter?
- ALL eligibility requirements can be found on THIS PAGE.
- Entries must be NEW RELEASES published/released in the previous calendar year.
- We accept both traditionally and independently published works.
- Independently published works have won many awards including 2024 Book of the Year (our highest award!)
- Novel Categories accepted are : Fantasy, Science Fiction, Supernatural, Paranormal, Horror, and cross-genre
- Novel Age groups: Adult, YA, Middle Grade, or Young Reader accepted.
- Short fiction options: Novelette, Novella, Short Story, Flash Fiction.
- Audio: Full-length, Mid-length audio, and Short. Single or multiple narrators
- A special category for debut authors and also for cover designers!
- Comics and Graphic Novels are eligible with their own category
HOW TO ENTER
On December 1, 2025, (9:00 am EST) the entry form for the Realm Awards will go live.
- You will find a button on the various contest pages to click to access the entry form.
- Fill out the form completely.
- Upload your file via the form
- Pay the contest entry fee (varies by category from $25 to $45)
- Submit your entry
You will need:
A PDF of the text of your novel or short story
-or-
A PDF of your cover art for those entering the cover art category
-or-
A PDF of the entire comic or graphic novel, or a URL where it can be viewed for free
-or-
the URL where your audio can be listened to for free or a minimum of 3 redemption codes for the audio. For audio that moves on to later rounds of the contest, 3 redemption codes will be needed each round.
Files should be named by the following convention so they don’t get overlooked in the flood of entries or placed in the wrong category.
For novels :
[GENRE]_[TITLE]_[AUTHOR NAME].PDF
ex. Fantasy_The Two Towers_JRR Tolkien.pdf
*** NOTE: Even if you are not entering the genre category you must still name the file that way. ***
For short fiction:
[LENGTH CATEGORY]_[TITLE]_[AUTHOR NAME].PDF
ex. Novella_Fahrenheit 451_Ray Bradbury.pdf
For Audio:
similar to short fiction
ex. Audio Drama_War of the Worlds_Orson Welles
For Cover Design: [CATEGORY]_[TITLE]_[AUTHOR NAME].pdf
ex. Cover Design_The Silver Chair_CSLewis.pdf
For Comics:
[ENTRY TYPE]_[TITLE]_[AUTHOR].pdf
ex. Graphic Novel_The Dark Knight Returns_Frank Miller.pdf
Any questions or problems that come up may be directed to awards@realmmakers.com.
Pro Tip: Please do not wait until the last day to submit to the contest. Heavy site activity has a history of causing timeouts and errors, and we cannot guarantee your entry will be accepted if you have a technical problem on the last day to submit. Our team will probably not be checking emails late at night on the final day to submit to troubleshoot.