| Award: Original short fiction works (17,500 words or fewer) of imaginative literature (e.g., science fiction, fantasy, horror, speculative fiction or like literature) published by a small press. |
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| Eligibility: Works published for the first time in the English language in 2023. |
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| Eligible venues: |
| 1. Books: Stories published in a book by a small press. A small press is defined as a hard copy print or web publication house releasing no more than 45 titles in the year that the story is published. The number should be the total of all imprints of the publisher for that year. |
2. Periodicals: Stories published in a periodical by a small press. Eligible paper periodicals are those with a circulation of fewer than 10,000 in the year that the story is published. For magazines that publish in print and electronic form, the subscription number shall be the total number of print, Kindle, Nook, and any other ebook format subscribers. Eligible web or digital only periodicals are those with fewer than 10,000 subscriptions including Kindle, Nook, and any other ebook format subscribers and/or patrons on Patreon and/or, if the magazine was kickstarted that year, the number of Kickstarter backers. Periodicals must compensate the authors in some manner and authors must not contribute financially to the publication.
If you are unsure about eligibility, contact the Awards Administrator ("admin" at this website: wsfasmallpressaward.org).
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Ineligible:
- Any story published in a periodical owned by a major publishing house or media producer prior to publication in a small press venue is not eligible for this award.
- Publications released or sponsored by a large press, or by a press that publishes only a single author's work are not eligible for this Award. Self-published works are not eligible for this award.
- No graphic novels or comic books are eligible.
- Stories published by WSFA Press or written by authors who are WSFA members are not eligible for this award.
- In all cases of ambiguity, the eligibility of a story will be the sole province of the WSFA Small Press Award Committee.
Special Note: Any editor or publisher that is a member of WSFA and who has stories under their control which have been submitted to this award may NOT be on the Small Press Award Committee. They will not identify, discuss, or promote stories directly to WSFA members or in WSFA meetings during the election period. Any violation of this restriction, in the judgment of the Small Press Award Committee, will result in that story or stories being declared ineligible.
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Who may nominate stories:
- A single representative of a small press or periodical may nominate no more than three (3) stories, which may include stories published by the press/periodical or others. This representative may be the publisher, editor, or an official designee.
- An author may nominate one (1) story, published by themselves or others.
- A WSFA member may nominate one (1) story.
If you are unsure about eligibility, contact the Awards Administrator ("admin" at this website: wsfasmallpressaward.org).
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| Submission Deadline: Submissions will open on January 2, 2024 and close on March 31, 2024 at 11:59pm EDT (GMT-4) |
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| Nomination/submission: Nominated stories MUST be submitted in electronic form, in any of the common formats (e.g., text, doc, rtf, pdf) without DRM. Nominations should be sent to the Awards Administrator ("admin" at this website: wsfasmallpressaward.org). See the Anonymized Judging section below for additional requirements for the electronic submission. The story WILL NOT be circulated beyond WSFA and will be housed on a secure, password-protected website. |
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| Complete THIS FORM and return with each nominated story. |
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| Nominations which do not comply with these submission guidelines will be returned once for resubmission. If it still does not comply with the submission guidelines, it will be declared ineligible. |
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| Anonymized judging: Judging will be anonymized, that is the name of the author/publisher/publication must be stripped from the story. Therefore, the story should be sent in a format that allows the Awards Administrator to edit the file to remove any identifying features other than the story itself, and its title. For this reason, be sure to include the name of the author in the accompanying email message. Nominations which can not be easily edited will be returned once for resubmission. After that, the story will be ruled ineligible from that source. |
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| Judging procedure: Initial screening will be done by a committee of five WSFA members who will produce a list of 5-10 finalists. Final voting will be done by the members of WSFA. |
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| Award presentation: The award, consisting of a small acrylic trophy, and a monetary prize of $500, will be presented at the annual WSFA convention, Capclave, held in the fall. Certificates of recognition will be presented to the other finalists. |
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| Contact information: Awards Administrator ("admin" at this website: wsfasmallpressaward.org). |