Science fiction publishing contest

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SciFiNow, the premier sci-fi, fantasy, horror and cult TV website, has teamed up with TorUK and Play.com to host a science fiction writing contest that could lead to an unpublished author seeing their book come to print. 

War of the Words gives a new writer the chance to get a book contract with MacMillion Publishers Limited for publication in 2010 (dependent  on publishing schedules). The other main thing to note is that there will be no advance for this contract. I.e., the winning author won't see any money for their book until it starts netting royalties--so decide now whether that is a factor in your entering the contest or not.

If you do want to enter, here are the most important rules:

1. Have a science fiction story written. Initial entry does only require the first three chapters and a synopsis, but you have to have the full manuscript (80k-150k words in length) available by August 20, 2009.

2. Be an unpublished writer. If you've had a book published before, sadly you are disqualified from entering. It doesn't look like they have restrictions about having previously published short stories, so if you've just been featured in a few speculative fiction magazines, you should be good. 

3. Only one entry per person. So don't try submitting under half a dozen pen names. 

4. Location is not a factor in who can enter. This is a global contest. 

A shortlist of six finalists will be announced, with the winner picked no later than November 25, 2009. Lastly, here's info on the judges, and what criteria they will be choosing the winner according to:

The judging panel will consist of readers from SciFiNow magazine, the Tor imprint at Pan Macmillan Publishers and at least one person independent of the promoters. The identity of the judges will be made available on request. The shortlisted entrants will be notified no later than 07 September 2009. SciFiNow or Tor will notify the shortlisted candidates by telephone/email, and they will need to respond no later than 5 days from the notification otherwise another entrant will be selected from the remaining eligible entries.

The winner will be the entry which, in the decision of the judges, shows a thorough grasp of narrative, pacing and characterization and additionally who, in the opinion of the judges, will create the most appealing and commercial book for the science fiction and fantasy readership and is the most suitable author to be published under the Tor imprint at Pan Macmillan Publishers. The judges’ decision in all matters will be final, and no correspondence will be entered into.

For more info: Read through all the rules and regulations of the contest on SciFiNow's official site.