Realm Makers' Contest for Unpublished Authors!
Many new authors are looking for a gut check on whether their writing is on the right track to someday be published. Not every day can you compete for an opportunity to get your writing on industry professionals’ radar.
The Aurora Contest offers these opportunities!
Submissions are currently closed. Entries will open again August 2025!
To Enter:
Authors of adult and YA books submit the first 7500 words of their unpublished, un-contracted SPECULATIVE FICTION manuscript. This excerpt will be divided into multiple documents for our use in each round, as detailed below.
Middle grade submissions send the first 3000 words. This excerpt will be divided into multiple documents for our use in each round, as detailed below.
Authors send a 500-word synopsis of their novel that includes how the story ends.
The work being submitted must be the opening chapters from a novel-length work. If the work has a prologue, the submission should begin with that.
These requested materials will be uploaded as FOUR documents (.docx, .rtf, .PDF formats are all acceptable.) *This is a change from the 2023 contest.
Document 1: The first 2500 words for YA or Adult manuscripts -OR- the first 1000 words of a Middle Grade manuscript
Document 2: The first 5000 words words for YA or Adult manuscripts -OR- the first 2000 words of a Middle Grade manuscript
Document 3: The first 7500 words for YA or Adult manuscripts -OR- the first 3000 words for a Middle Grade manuscript.
This means the third document will repeat all the text from documents 1 and 2.
YOU MAY CUT OFF YOUR SUBMISSION EXCERPTS PRIOR TO THE MAXIMUM WORD COUNT IF YOU DON’T WANT TO END THE EXCERPT IN THE MIDDLE OF A SENTENCE. YOU MAY NOT GO OVER THE WORD COUNT FOR YOUR AUDIENCE. THE SAME IS TRUE FOR YOUR SYNOPSIS.
FORMATTING:
Please use an easily readable font such as Times New Roman, Courier, or Arial.
12 pt size
Double spaced
Include your name in the entry. The first page or the headers are both fine. (If you already submitted in did not do this, don’t worry, we won’t disqualify you. This information was added to the guidelines due to multiple questions coming in about it.)
Entry Fee: $45 for your first category
$30 to add a second category
For example: If you enter your book in Horror only, it will cost $45
If you enter your book in Horror and Middle Grade, it will cost $45 + $30, for a total $75 .
FIRST:
In the first round, judges will read the first 2500 (YA, Adult) or 1000 (MG) words of the book and assign the work a score.
NEXT:
The top-scoring first 2500/1000 word samples advance to the second round.
If you don’t advance, it means your work didn’t achieve the “cream of the crop” status that only a minority of work will exhibit. Unpublished writing contests receive hundreds (if not thousands) of entries, therefore those who don’t advance beyond the first round will not receive scores or comments.
Judges for the second round will then read the first 5000/2000 words of the manuscripts, once again assigning the work a score. Judges will make comments about the work’s strengths and areas for improvement. Second round contestants will receive their total scores in each criteria and any comments judges supply. These comments will be sent out after the conclusion of the contest.
FINALLY:
The top scorers from round two will move on to the final round. Judges will read the full sample as well as the synopsis. The judges for this round will be agents, editors, and/or publishing industry professionals. This round will reveal our winners!
Entries will receive a communication with their scores and comments, which we hope will be constructive and actionable for those authors. The feedback will come to authors via email after they round in which their work is eliminated closes.
For example: if your book doesn’t make it to round 2, you will receive scores and feedback after round 1 closes and our volunteers can get the data compiled.
If your book gets eliminated in round 2, you get your scores and comments after round 2 closes and the volunteers get the data compiled.
Categories
Authors must choose a genre category and an audience at the time of entry. Authors may opt to be judged in the genre category of their choosing, the audience category, or both.
There is no limit to the number of different manuscripts authors may enter.
GENRE CATEGORIES
Fantasy—a story with elements that do not occur in the real world, which may have magic, mythical creatures, races of intelligent beings besides humans, etc. Any setting or time period is permissible. Non-magic fantasy is permitted as well.
Science fiction—built upon scientific premises but goes beyond what our current scientific understanding explains. Any setting or time period is permissible.
Horror–stories that include scary or macabre elements Please be advised that because this is a Christian run and judged contest, gratuitous gore such as slasher-type horror will not qualify.
Supernatural/Paranormal-Supernatural stories embrace spiritual entities such as angels, demons, God, and Satan. Paranormal stories are set in the real world and contain elements that occur outside the range of what is normal in our everyday experience: ghosts, monsters/cryptids .
AUDIENCES
The entry form will ask you to choose an audience (age group that your work is geared toward.) Each author can elect if he or she wants to enter that audience category. Here are the audience cut-offs as we define them.
Adult: Written for age 17 and up, containing intricate plots, adult characters, mature (tastefully written) themes.
Young Adult: written for readers aged 13 and up, generally focusing on teen protagonists
Middle Grade: written for readers aged 8-12.
Entrants will have an open field to indicate if the story has a subgenre that will help contextualize the work better.
A note for Middle Grade submissions: we acknowledge that the word count for middle grade books a varies widely, depending on whether the story is for early middle grade or late middle grade readers. When you submit, we recommend that you use the sub-genre field to indicate which part of the middle grade spectrum your work is written for. This will help us judge your work most accurately. .
How Categories are Judged
We will judge each genre’s entries against other books of the same genre and/or audience, according to how manuscripts are entered. Therefore, we will name winners in the following categories.
Fantasy, all audiences
Science fiction, all audiences
Horror, all audiences
Supernatural/Paranormal, all audiences
Middle Grade, all genres
Young Adult, all genres
Adult Speculative Fiction, all genres
Should any category fail to meet the minimum number of entries, we will combine age groups or genres as needed. Only in cases of very few entries would we consider cancelling a genre category altogether.
Eligibility
What is the definition of unpublished?
The contest is for unpublished novelists. For the sake of this contest, unpublished means:
The author submitting their work has never released a novel-length work with any royalty-paying publisher -OR- self-published a work for sale or giveaway to the public.
Authors under contract with a future release date on a project are ineligible.
*Please note: last year, we allowed authors who had sold under 300 copies of a book to enter the Aurora, but we discovered this created overlap with the Realm Awards. We are not allowing published authors to submit going forward. Authors that have given away books in a fully-edited, finished format, either ebook or hard copy, are not eligible.
Other Qualifications
Authors who have published short stories of any length remain eligible for this contest.
Authors who have published non-fiction, short story, and/or picture books are eligible to enter novel-length works in progress.
Authors entering the contest must be willing to affirm our statement of faith as stated on the entry form.
If a manuscript entered into the contest earns a contract before December 1 of the entry year, it is the author’s responsibility to inform the contest coordinators. This manuscript will no longer qualify for the contest.
In the event of a co-authored entry, both authors must meet the qualifications of “unpublished” and affirm our statement of faith
If a sample does not win its category this year, it is still eligible to be entered in future years, so long as the author remains unpublished.
Realm Makers reserves the right to cancel or combine any category receiving fewer than ten entries. In the event of a category cancellation, the entries will receive a refund of their contest fee.
Manuscripts do not need to be complete to enter the contest, but should be far enough along that the author is certain the final story will be novel length, (over 25,000 words for Middle Grade, over 40,000 words for YA, over 70,000 words for adult)
The manuscript shall contain no gratuitous/glorified violence, excessive gore, erotic content, pervasive profanity, or other material that conflicts with a Christian worldview. The work and/or the synopsis should indicate the work’s inherent harmony with Christian moral standards. The contest runners reserve the right to evaluate entries for disqualifying content.
Judging
Judging phases will be determined by the numbers of entries and judges involved in the contest, but contestants should expect the judging to run from late August to December.
Final winners will be announced via livestream, date TBD.
Books will be judged according to the following criteria (each area worth 10 points):
Writing skill: grammar, punctuation, syntax, voice, cadence, pacing
Story: emotional impact, hook(s), originality
Characters: appeal, dimension, uniqueness
World Building: Consistency, interest, appeal
Contest Q & A
Q: I’d like to judge, but I’m worried about the time commitment. How long will it take me to participate in each round?
A: In round one, we’ll send you as many as a dozen entries to read, but they are going to be only 2500 words (or less for MG.) To read, score, and comment on an entry will probably take less than 30 minutes, and you’ll have a month to complete your judging. If you commit 1.5 to 2 hours of work on the contest per week, you’ll finish with no worries. If you procrastinate, however…
The second round will be a similar time commitment, just for fewer entries and more in-depth comments.
If you think you can read and score for 2 hours per week in September and October, you have ample room in your schedule to help.
Q: Will authors receive their scores/comments?
A: Entries that advance to rounds 2 and 3 will receive communication with their scores and judges’ comments after the conclusion of the contest. Our committee will need time to aggregate this information as we continue to administrate the contest and Realm Makers’ other endeavors.
Q: How many entries did the contest receive?
A: It’s our policy not to reveal exact numbers for contests, event attendance etc.
Q: Can I judge the contest if I’m entering my work?
A: Absolutely! We’ll just assign you a category you’re not entering.
Q: How long will it take to get the results of each round?
A: The time it takes to tally scores will differ every round and every year because the number of entries will change. For early rounds, it may take several weeks to deliver accurate results.
Q: If I’m a judge, can you give me contact information for authors of books I read if I really like the work and want to discuss it with the author?
A: Sorry, Realm Makers can’t facilitate connections between judges and contestants. Judges are prohibited from disclosing their judge status during the contest, and we cannot violate the authors’ privacy by sharing their contact information.