Weta Nichols Writing Contest
The 2012 Weta Nichols Writing Contest
Contest is now closed to entries!
Winners will be announced at our 2012 Annual Conference, scheduled to be held June 23, 2012, in Springfield, Missouri. Winners are not required to be present to win. Winners who are not in attendance will be notified via email, and prizes will be mailed promptly. We will also post the winners’ names, titles, city, and state, on our website.
Please read guidelines carefully and fill out the electronic entry form at the bottom of this page when submitting.
2012 WETA RULES:
* Complete the entry form at the bottom of this page.
* Pay the entry fee through the PayPal account (details below).
* Submit the first 3000 words of your unfinished or finished, unpublished, non-contracted novel to OzarksRomanceAuthors@gmail.com.
* The subject line of your email submission must state: WETA ENTRY
* Short stories, memoirs, essays, poetry, or non-fiction will be disqualified without refund.
* Membership in Ozarks Romance Authors is not required in order to enter the contest.
* Contest is open to both published and unpublished authors, but the piece submitted must be:
- unpublished (traditional, self-pub, or e-pub)
- not under contract to be published.
* The first page of your entry should be one-paragraph of flap copy (flap copy is the blurb on the inside covers of a book, the information a reader would see when he or she picks up the book) to orient the judges to your story. Note: The flap copy is not a synopsis.
* Total word count for the entire entry (including flap copy) should be no more than 3,200.
* Send your entry as an email attachment in .doc format with one inch margins all around, double spaced, in 12 pitch Times New Roman font. Do not include the entry within the body of your email message.
* The cover page should be saved as a separate document (NOT the first page of your entry) and attached to your email submission.
* Indicate one category for each submission. Categories in which entries may be judged are:
- Historical
- Contemporary
- Paranormal/Sci-Fi
- Young Adult
* Entries are open genre and not required to contain romantic tones.
* Your name (and pen name, if any) should only appear on the entry form below and your cover page. Also on the cover page, please put your contact information, the name of your submission, and the cateory (see above). NOTE: The cover page should be saved as a separate document (not as the first page of your entry) and attached to the email submission.
* In the header of each page of your submission, the title of your story, category to be judged, and page number should appear. The story title should appear in the top left, and the category/page number should appear in the top right. Do not include your name on page headers. Your name should only appear on the cover page, which is to be saved as a separate document and attached to your email submission.
* Entry fee is $15.00 per submission. Fees may be paid via your PayPal account or credit card using the PayPal button below. (If you do not have a PayPal account, you can use your credit/debit card to send payment to our PayPal account.)
* If the email address or name on your PayPal account does not match (a) the email address tthat you are using to send your submission, or (b) your name or pen name, please let us know by including the other email address or name within the body of the email when you send your submission. Otherwise, we will not be able to match the contest entry with its payment, the entry will be disqualified, and no refund will be made.
* You may submit up to five separate entries. Each submission must be sent in a separate email message, with the subject line indicating: WETA ENTRY 1, WETA ENTRY 2, etc.
* If you have questions about the rules, please tweet the question to us at @OzarksRomance or email us (with WETA QUESTION in the subject line) at OzarksRomanceAuthors@gmail.com.
FINAL ROUND JUDGES:
Lucienne Diver
Lucienne Diver
Novelist and Agent with The Knight Agency
To learn more about The Knight Agency, click HERE.
Cori Deyoe
Cori Deyoe
Agent with of Three Seas Literary Agency
To learn more about Three Seas Literary Agency, click HERE.
PRIZES ARE AS FOLLOWS:
Category: Historical
1st place: $50, Certificate, and ORA Pin
2nd place: $25, Certificate, and ORA Pin
3rd place: Certificate and ORA Pin
Category: Contemporary
1st place: $50, Certificate, and ORA Pin
2nd place: $25, Certificate, and ORA Pin
3rd place: Certificate and ORA Pin
Category: Paranormal/Sci-Fi
1st place: $50, Certificate, and ORA Pin
2nd place: $25, Certificate, and ORA Pin
3rd place: Certificate and ORA Pin
Category: Young Adult
1st place: $50, Certificate, and ORA Pin
2nd place: $25, Certificate, and ORA Pin
3rd place: Certificate and ORA Pin
PAST WINNERS:
The 2011 Weta Contest winners are listed HERE.
The 2010 Weta Contest winners are listed HERE.
THE FINE PRINT:
Judges’ comments are given solely as a guide to improving your writing, but comments from judges should be used at the discretion of the writer. If there is a twenty-five point or more difference between the scores, another arbitrator will judge the entry and the highest score will be used. To determine the winner, the top eight scoring stories will be judged by separate arbitrators. You will receive a copy of the judges’ scoring sheets, upon return of your entry.
Ozarks Romance Authors is not responsible for comments made by the judges. These are personal opinions only, and are not the expressed opinion of Ozarks Romance Authors.
All submissions will remain anonymous to the judges. Names of the judges will be unknown to entrants and shall remain so. After the contest, if contestants wish to convey comments to them regarding their judging, send thank you notes, etc., please put the Judge # in the subject line and email your comments to OzarksRomanceAuthors@gmail.com. All will be forwarded.
Ozarks Romance Authors, founded in 1987, is a registered nonprofit group in the state of Missouri, and a member of Springfield Regional Arts Council. Ozarks Romance Authors is an independent writers’ group and is not affiliated with Romance Writers of America. Monthly meetings are held in Springfield, Missouri, and an annual conference is held each summer.
The Weta Nichols Writing Contest is named in honor of the late novelist Weta Nichols, who was the founder of Ozarks Romance Authors. For more about Weta (pronounced “WEE-ta”), visit her memorial page HERE.
