The Indiana Chapter of RWA® offers detailed, encouraging feedback and a chance to bypass the dreaded slush pile in an acquiring editor’s office. Our four-page score sheet can help you identify which elements of storytelling you already excel at and which elements you might want to work on. This year only  electronic entries will be accepted.

Entry Receipt Deadline: July 1, 2009

CONTEST CATEGORIES* AND FINAL JUDGES FOR 2009

Historical...................................................................Becky Vinter, Editorial Assistant, NAL

Mainstream with Strong Romantic Elements...............Paige Wheeler, Agent, Folio Literary Management

Paranormal................................................................Kerry Donovan, Associate Editor, NAL

Romantic Suspense....................................................Megan McKeever, Associate Editor, Pocket Books

Single Title.................................................................Latoya Smith, Editorial Assistant, Grand Central Publishing

Young Adult**..........................................................Holly Root, Agent, Waxman Literary Agency

Best of the Best ........................................................Meredith Giordan, Berkley Publishing

 (The 1st Place winners in each of the 6 categories, as picked by the final round editor judges, go on to the Best of the Best round.)
 *Please note the new categories this year.
** Young Adult entries do not have to be romance.

AWARDS
 

Best of the Best Award: The entry judged best overall 1st-place winner will win a Neo by AlphaSmart

ELIGIBILITY

Open to any author who is unpublished, or published authors who have not contracted or had a book published in the past 5 years.

We are using Romance Writers of America guidelines to determine publishing status.  Anyone who has either:  "(1) earned at least $1,000 in the form of an advance on a single novel or novella published by a non-subsidy, non-vanity publisher; or (2) who has earned at least $1,000 in the form of royalties or a combination of advance plus royalties on a single published novel or novella published by a non-subsidy, non-vanity publisher" is considered a published author and is not eligible to enter the IGO Contest.
NOTE: Members of the Indiana chapter of Romance Writers of America (IRWA) are NOT eligible for entry.  If you're an Indiana resident and a member of Romance Writers of America (RWA®), but not a member of the Indiana chapter of RWA®, you ARE ELIGIBLE to enter.

CONTEST RULES

Deadline: Entries must be received by July 1, 2009.

Entries are limited to the first 40 entries in each category.  A category may be dropped if less than 10 entries are received.  If this occurs, you have the option of having your entry (fee included) returned, or you can choose to place your entry in a secondary category.  Your preference can be noted on the entry form.

Entry fee:  $25.00   This can be paid by using the PayPal button on the IRWA website.  IRWA will cover the PayPal service fee, so your total cost to enter is $25.00.  

If you prefer, you may pay by check or money order.  (Payable to INDIANA ROMANCE WRITERS.)  Mail to IRWA, P. O. Box 865, Noblesville, IN 46061.

All entries will be electronic this year.

Each entry shall be no longer than 35 pages. The entry should include a copy of the opening of your manuscript, including prologue if there is one, and  a copy of your synopsis (no more than 10 pages).

a.       For example, if your synopsis is 7 pages long, you may submit the first 28 pages of your manuscript, for a total of 35 pages.

b.      Please use a header that includes the title and page number on each page. To ensure anonymity, your name must not appear on any page or your entry may be disqualified. 

Manuscripts will be judged on how well they adhere to RWA’s Golden Heart style sheet:  1" margins, all double-spaced, a readable font such as Times New Roman or one of the Courier fonts. Please use a 12-point typeface.

You may enter more than one manuscript, but each entry must be sent in a separate file.  Please also make payment for each entry separately.

You may enter a previously entered manuscript that has been revised if it did not previously place in this contest.

Submitting Electronic Entries:

1)      Fill out the entry form found on the website and save it in .doc (Word) or .rtf format.

a.       Give it the filename (category) (short title) entryform.doc. or (category) (short title) entryform.rtf.  Example:  historical desperado entryform.doc

2)      Put manuscript pages and synopsis into a single document that conforms to the contest regulations stated above (double-spaced,  no author names on pages, etc.)  Synopsis should be at the end.  The combined document should total no more than 35 pages.

a.       If you can, leave a little room at the end (that is, 34 pages instead of 35) as formatting occasionally changes between computers.

b.      In the header, put the contest category, the title, and page number.  Save it as a .doc or .rtf file.  Please name it this filename: (category)  (short title) pages.doc     Example: historical desperado pages.doc.

c.       If you are not in the US, please still use US page size (8.5 by 11 inch page).  You can do this easily in Word in File-Page Setup.  This allows us to make sure the page count is accurate.

3)      Send both files to the coordinator of your category (listed below).

4)      Pay using the Paypal button on the contest page of the indianarwa.com website.  (There is a service fee for Paypal but IRWA will cover that cost.)  If you use a different name for PayPal than the name you used to register for the contest, please note this on the registration form.

a.       If you cannot use Paypal, you may pay by check.  Please allow plenty of time if you are mailing a check.  Send a check or money order for $25.00 made out to INDIANA ROMANCE WRITERS.  Mail to IRWA, P. O. Box 865, Noblesville, IN 46061.  Please include a printed copy of your registration form.

b.    Also be aware that we cannot accept non US-denominated checks.  If you are entering from outside the US, please use the Paypal option.

5)      Everything will be done through email.  You will get the scoresheets and judged entries back as .doc or .rtf files.  If you are a finalist, we will print out a copy to send to the final judge.

6)      If you have any questions, please email your category coordinator.

 Click here for Entry Form.

JUDGING

Two (2) experienced judges--including published writers, Golden Heart, and Rita judges--will judge each entry.  IRWA requires all judges to undergo chapter-hosted training.  Please remember, all judging is subjective.  IRWA insists that our contest judges provide constructive critiques.  If the contest coordinators feel that a judge’s comments do not meet this policy, an alternate judge will be asked to review the entry.

If there is a disparity of more than 75 points between two scores, the entry will go to a third judge for discrepancy judging, and the final score will be the total of the two scores closest to each other. In such cases, all three judged entries and score sheets will be returned.

The top three (3) scoring entries in each category will be sent to the editor for final ranking. The First Place winner from each category (i.e., six (6) entries) will then be sent to an editor to determine the Best of the Best winner 

NOTIFICATION OF WINNERS AND ENTRY RETURN

Finalists will be notified on or near September 12th* when their manuscripts are forwarded to the editor.  Winners will be announced around October 15th.*

The Best of the Best winner will be announce around November 15th.*

Non-finalist entries will be returned by the end of September.

*Notification dates are tentative.  We always try to get finalist & winning results back before the deadline, but due to circumstances beyond our control, we cannot guarantee it.

CATEGORY COORDINATORS

Email your entry to the appropriate category coordinator listed below: