Best First Crime Novel Competition | Malice Domestic Competition | Best Private Eye Novel Competition


Rules for the 2007 St. Martin’s Minotaur/ Mystery Writers of America Best First Crime Novel Competition.

Sponsored by St. Martin's Minotaur and Mystery Writers of America (MWA)


1. The Competition is open to any writer, regardless of nationality, who has never been the author of a published novel, as defined by the guidelines below, (except that authors of self-published works only may enter, as long as the manuscript submitted is not the self-published work) and is not under contract with a publisher for publication of a novel. Only one manuscript entry is permitted per writer.

2. All manuscripts submitted: a) must be original, previously unpublished works of book length (no less than 220 typewritten pages or approximately 60,000 words) written in the English language by the entrants; b) must not violate any right of any third party or be libelous, and c) must generally follow the guidelines below.

GUIDELINES

a. Murder or another serious crime or crimes is at the heart of the story.
b. WHAT CONSTITUTES PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED: For the purpose of this Competition, previously published material includes the publication or distribution of the entry, in part or whole, in paper or electronic format or in any other medium, including self-published works. This does not include a chapter excerpt on an author’s website, subject to the conditions that: (i) the excerpt is the only text that exists for public viewing; (ii) the excerpt is not for sale to the public, and (iii) the number of words in the excerpt does not exceed 10% of the total number of words in the work as a whole.

(The decision of the Competition's judges as to whether or not a manuscript qualifies will be final.)

3. Nominees will be selected by judges chosen by MWA, with the assistance of the editorial staff of St. Martin’s Minotaur, and the winner will be chosen by St. Martin's Minotaur editors on the basis of the originality, creativity and writing skill of the submission. The decision of the editors as to the winner of the Competition will be final. St. Martin's Minotaur reserves the right not to select any winner if, in the sole opinion of the editors, none of the manuscripts submitted are of publishable quality.

4. An attempt will be made to notify the Competition winner, if any, no later than March 31, 2008. The winner will then be recognized at the Edgar Awards Banquet in New York City in April 2008.

5. If a winner is selected, St. Martin's Minotaur will offer to enter into its standard form author's agreement with the entrant for publication of the winning manuscript. After execution of the standard form author’s agreement by both parties, the winner will receive an advance against future royalties of $10,000. THE WINNER WILL NOT RECEIVE ANY OTHER PRIZE AND WILL NOT RECEIVE ANY PART OF THE ADVANCE UNTIL THE STANDARD FORM AUTHOR’S AGREEMENT HAS BEEN EXECUTED BY BOTH PARTIES. Those terms of the offer not specified in the printed text of the St. Martin's Minotaur standard form author's agreement will be determined by St. Martin's Minotaur at its sole discretion. The entrant may request reasonable changes in the offered terms, but St. Martin's Minotaur shall not be obligated to agree to any such changes. St. Martin's Minotaur may, but will not be required to, consider for publication manuscripts submitted by other entrants.

6. All requests for entry forms must be received or postmarked by St. Martin’s Minotaur at the address below by November 30, 2007. DO NOT SEND MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSIONS TO ST. MARTIN’S MINOTAUR. For copies of the rules and to request an entry form, please send a stamped, self addressed envelope to:

St. Martin's Minotaur/MWA Competition
St. Martin's Minotaur
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York 10010

Each entrant will receive an entry form containing the address of the judge to whom he or she will send his or her manuscript. Entries must be postmarked no later than December 31, 2007 and received by judges no later than January 15, 2008 and must include:


a) A double-spaced and neatly typed copy of the manuscript (photocopies are acceptable), with pages numbered consecutively from beginning to end.

b) A letter or cover sheet containing the name, address, email address and telephone number of the entrant and the entrant's previous writing credits, if any.

c) The application form, duly completed, and a self-addressed letter-sized envelope for our response.

*Each entrant must keep a copy of the manuscript for his or her own protection. St. Martin's Minotaur will not be responsible for lost, stolen, or mislaid manuscripts. Because of the great volume of submissions we receive, the fact that judges are volunteers with full-time responsibilities elsewhere, and the fact that most writers now have the work in their computers, manuscripts will not be returned. Please do not send return postage or envelopes for return of your manuscript.

No critical evaluation or commentary will be offered by the judges or the editorial staff of St. Martin's Minotaur unless, in the sole opinion of the editorial staff, evaluation or commentary is appropriate in the case of a manuscript being considered for publication.

8. This Competition is void where prohibited or restricted by law.

*It is important that you submit your manuscript as early as possible. Our judges are volunteers who are extremely busy with their primary concerns, and it is inevitable that your submission will get a more careful reading if the judge does not have to contend with a flood of last-minute entries. However, it is not necessary to send it the most expensive way. We judge on-time delivery by the post-mark or equivalent, not by the date the judge receives the manuscript.

Good luck!


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Rules for the 2007 St. Martin's Press / Malice Domestic Competition; The winner will be notified by April 1, 2007.

The competition is open to any professional or non-professional writer, regardless of nationality, who has never been the author of a published traditional mystery, as defined by the guidelines below, and is not under contract with a publisher for publication of a traditional mystery. Only one manuscript entry is permitted per writer.

All manuscripts submitted: a) must be original works of book length (no less than 220 typewritten pages or approximately 60,000 words) written in the English language by the entrants; b) must not violate the rights of any third party, and c) must generally follow the guidelines below.

Guidelines

Murder or another serious crime is at the heart of the story, and emphasis is on the solution rather than the details of the crime.

Whatever violence is necessarily involved should be neither excessive nor gratuitously detailed, nor is there to be explicit sex.

The crime is an extraordinary event in the lives of the characters.
The principal characters are people whom the reader might not like, but would be interested in knowing.

The suspects and the victims should know each other.

There are a limited number of suspects, each of whom has a credible motive and reasonable opportunity to have committed the crime.

The person who solves the crime is the central character.
The "detective" is an amateur, or, if a professional (private investigator, police officer) is not hardboiled and is as fully developed as the other characters.

The detective may find him or herself in serious peril, but he or she does not get beaten up to any serious extent.

All of the cast represent themselves as individuals, rather than large impersonal institutions like a national government, the Mafia, the CIA, etc.
(The decision of the competition's judges as to whether or not a manuscript qualifies will be final.)

Nominees will be selected by judges chosen by the editorial staff of St. Martin's Press, with the assistance of the organizers of MALICE DOMESTIC, and the winner will be chosen by St. Martin's editors. The decision of the editors as to the winner of the competition will be final. St. Martin's reserves the right not to select any winner if, in the sole opinion of the editors, none of the manuscripts submitted are of publishable quality.

An attempt will be made to notify the competition winner, if any, no later than April 1, 2007.

If a winner is selected, St. Martin's Press will publish the winning manuscript by offering to enter into its standard form author's agreement with the entrant. The winner will receive an advance against future royalties of $10,000. Those terms of the offer not specified in the printed text of the St. Martin's Press standard form author's agreement will be determined by St. Martin's Press at its sole discretion. The entrant may request reasonable changes in the offered terms, but St. Martin's shall not be obligated to agree to any such changes. St. Martin's may, but will not be required to, consider for publication manuscripts submitted by other entrants.

All entries must be received or postmarked no later than October 16, 2006 and must include:

a) A double-spaced and neatly typed copy of the manuscript (photocopies are acceptable), with pages numbered consecutively from beginning to end.

b) A letter or cover sheet containing the name, address, and telephone number of the entrant and the entrant's previous writing credits, if any.

c) The application form, duly completed.

Application forms are unique to each entrant.
All entries must be mailed to the judge whose address appears on the application form. Any entries submitted directly to St. Martin's Press will not be considered for the competition.

To request an application form & a copy of these rules, please send an SASE to:

Malice Domestic Competition/ St. Martin's Press
Thomas Dunne Books
175 5th Avenue
New York, NY 10010

*Each entrant must keep a copy of the manuscript for his or her own protection. St. Martin's Press will not be responsible for lost, stolen, or mislaid manuscripts. Because of the great volume of submissions our judges receive, the fact that they are volunteers with full-time responsibilities elsewhere, and the fact that most writers now have the work in their computers, manuscripts will not be returned. Please do not send return postage or envelopes.

No critical evaluation or commentary will be offered by the judges or the editorial staff of St. Martin's Press unless, in the sole opinion of the editorial staff evaluation or commentary is appropriate in the case of a manuscript being considered for publication.

This competition is void where prohibited or restricted by law.

*It is important that you submit your manuscript as early as possible. Our judges are volunteers who are extremely busy with their primary concerns, and it is inevitable that your submission will get a more careful reading if the judge does not have to contend with a flood of last-minute entries. However, it is not necessary to send it the most expensive way. We judge its on-time performance by the post-mark or equivalent, not by the date the judge receives the manuscript.



Rules for the 2007 Best Private Eye Novel Competition

Sponsored by the Private Eye Writers of America (PWA) and St. Martin's Press, LLC

The competition is open to any professional or non-professional writer, regardless of race or nationality, who has never been the author of a published "private eye" novel and who is not under contract with a publisher for publication of a "private eye" novel.

All manuscripts submitted: a)must be original works of book length (no less than 220 type-written pages or approximately 60,000 words) written in the English language by the entrants; b) must not violate the rights of any third party; and c) must be a "private eye" novel as defined by these rules:

A novel in which the main character is an independent investigator who is not a member of any law enforcement or government agency, and who receives a fee for his or her investigative services.

(There are no other restrictions as to plot or subject matter. The decision of the competition's judges as to whether a manuscript qualifies as a "private eye" novel will be final.)

The competition will be judged by judges selected by the PWA and the editorial staff of St. Martin's Press, LLC. The decision of the judges as to the winner of the competition will be final. The judges reserve the right not to select any winner, if, in the sole opinion of the judges, none of the manuscripts are of publishable quality.

An attempt will be made to notify the competition winner, if any, no later than September 15, 2007. The winner will be officially announced at the Bouchercon conference in September 2007.

If a winner is selected, St. Martin's Press will publish the winning manuscript by offering to enter into its standard form author's agreement with the entrant. The winner will receive an advance against the future royalties of $10,000. Those terms of the offer not specified in the printed text of the St. Martin's Press standard form author's agreement will be determined by St. Martin's Press at its sole discretion. The entrant may request reasonable changes in the offered terms, but St. Martin's Press shall not be obligated to agree to any such changes. St. Martin's Press may, but will not be required to, consider for publication manuscripts submitted by other entrants.

All entries must be received or postmarked no later than July 1, 2007 and must include:

A double-spaced and neatly typed copy of the manuscript (photocopies are acceptable).
An application form, duly completed.
A list of previous writing credits, if any.
Application forms are unique to each entrant.
All entries must be mailed to the PWA judge whose address appears on the application form. Any entries submitted directly to St. Martin's Press will not be considered for the competition.

To request an application form & a copy of these rules, please send an SASE to:

PWA Competition/ St. Martin's Press
Thomas Dunne Books
175 5th Avenue
New York, NY 10010

Please note that declined manuscripts will not be returned to the author, so there is no need to include a SASE. There will be no exceptions. Each entrant must keep a copy of the manuscript for his or her own protection. Neither the PWA nor St. Martin's Press will be responsible for lost, damaged or mislaid manuscripts.

No critical evaluation or commentary will be offered by the judges or the editorial staff of St. Martin's Press unless, in the sole discretion of the judges and/or the editorial staff, evaluation or commentary is appropriated in the case of a manuscript being considered for publication.

This competition is void where prohibited or restricted by law.