Entries for the Book of the Decade contest must have a copyright date between January 2012 – December 31, 2021.

Books published outside of these dates will not be judged, nor will they be returned, and you will not be notified.

As long as all Book of the Year and Book of the Decade entries are postmarked by the deadline, they are valid entries for the contest.

Books postmarked after the deadline will not be judged, entrants will not be notified, and refunds will not be given.

You can submit either a Word document or a PDF, but we prefer Word if possible. The reason for this is sometimes authors will leave their name on the PDF and we have to go into a PDF editor and cover the name. Word is easiest for us, so we would appreciate it greatly!

For articles: As long as you were not paid for your entry to be published on another website, we will allow it to count for the Writer of the Year contest. 

If you published a post/article on your blog or as a guest blog, it can still count as “unpublished” for this contest.

For manuscripts that are now under contract but not published yet, you can submit them to the Writer of the Year contest.

We allowed e-books last year but will not be continuing with this practice. All books for the contests must be physical copies.

Pricing for the Early Bird deadline will not be extended, even for books postmarked during the Early Bird timeframe.

To be eligible for the Early Bird pricing, the payment must be received before the end of the Early Bird deadline.

Your book will be donated to a local library, kept by the judges, or given to readers within the community. Books will not be returned. Sign the copy if you wish!

No, your book will not be returned after the contest. Your book will be donated to a local library, kept by the judges, or given to readers within the community. Books will not be returned.

With the exceptions of some comments we share at the awards dinner for the winners, we do not share feedback with the entrants.  

Yes! We offer a discount for publishers. 

Talk with your publisher and see if they’re open to having multiple authors entered into the Book of the Year or Book of the Decade contests. We have a special bulk deal if publishers enter 10 books or more, they can do so for $30/entry.

We can be reached at [email protected] if you have any questions or need more information.

The fifteen Semifinalists will be announced on our Serious Writer blog and our Serious Writer Facebook Page. Please be sure to follow us on Facebook and turn on notifications!

The five Finalists for each contest will be announced on our Serious Writer blog and our Serious Writer Facebook Page. Please be sure to follow us on Facebook and turn on notifications!

The one grand prize winner for each contest will be notified privately so arrangements can be made to attend the awards ceremony. 

We will announce their names and entries live during the awards ceremony on the Serious Writer Facebook page.