Hello everyone, please read this as this is very important.

There will be a rule change as well as general information in this chapter.

For starters, yes, results are coming. Indie is just about completed, so I hope to be publishing those results either over the weekend or early next week. So I've been working hard on results. Rock should be completed shortly after that as I've made really, really good progress on it as well!

I'm also starting judging for AOTY, so if you are in that category, please do not change your title/blurb/cover until the category is completed. I've already judged three books lol so yeah I'm hoping it'll be out soon.

I judged 6/8 of the trailers in the best book trailer category because I got bored and wanted to watch some trailers, so if two more people sign up to the category, I can release the results ASAP! If you know anyone who might be interested, I would appreciate it if you could tag them.

Secondly, my next awards will be publishing in December but won't be judged for a bit since it's a 2024-themed awards, and I want to give people a chance to publish their stories prior to the December 31st deadline (since it's a 2024 only awards), so I will post the guidelines as soon as I can.

I say this because for the first time since starting awards, I am looking for a co-host to help out, ensure judging goes smoothly, and just take on general responsibilities. It's not a hard role or anything that's going to be too demanding, and experience is not required or preferred, so newcomers are welcome!

I'm only going to be choosing one co-host for this contest, though anyone who is interested will be considered for other events and future contests as well (as you guys know, I host multiple contests a year).

If you're interested in co-hosting with me, I have a very short interest form for you to fill out. It's just to get a scope of your availability and why you're interested. Mostly multiple choice, so nothing complicated. It should take no more than 3-5 minutes at most to fill out. So, if you're interested to co-host with me, please fill out the form!

Link is in the external link!

Thirdly, in case you did not see my announcement, I am now streaming my reviews on Twitch. Obviously I still do most of my work off-camera, and I don't spoil any scores or results on-camera, but a lot of people ask me about my judging process, so I thought I'd start streaming it.

So if you're interested in having a discussion about your work (you can request me to review it, and as long as I haven't reviewed it already, I'll take a looksie), looking into how I review books, or just want to chill since it's a relaxing stream you can have on in the background (I speak quietly and have soft music playing), then I suggest heading on over to my Twitch, which is Ravendipity.

Next stream will hopefully be Friday, 11/29. Tomorrow for me but today for a lot of people. Likely in the mid-day, like noon in EST, which I believe is around 10:30 p.m. IST.

Lastly, the change.

Rule Change: Artificial Vote Spam

This is for the fan vote category only.

When fan vote is announced, the votes are only allowed to come from people who actually know your writing.

That means if you go around posting on other people's message boards who don't even know your writing, that will make you disqualified. Please only post it on your message board and in your books and really anywhere on your profile. Other websites are fine as long as it's on your profile and you're not going around vote farming from random people who don't know you or doing a good ole "I'll read your book if you vote for me in this contest." You shouldn't have to do anything for anyone to secure a vote; they should want to vote for you since they are fans of your writing.

If you have to do something for someone to secure their vote, that will disqualify you as that is vote buying, and I take that very seriously.

I saw some people doing that recently in another awards and I thought it was really unethical. Don't farm votes from people who are not familiar with your writing. It's unfair, and it's also not worth it. It's called a fan vote, not a stranger vote. If you are going around saying "Please vote for me in this contest" on everyone's mb copy pasting the same exact message even to strangers, that will get you disqualified. It's one thing if you're going to the mb of people who actually know your writing (AKA your followers), but don't be a vote spammer, it's not cool.

Winning is not everything. You will still get prizes and recognition from this awards regardless of if you win or not, and what matters above all else is putting your work out there and having fun on Wattpad. I spent a lot, and I mean a lot, of time making these awards, so please respect this rule change when the time comes.

This announcement is not meant to sound like a scolding or anything like that. Everyone in the fan vote category is chill and I like y'all, I'm just letting you know in advance since I spotted this behavior in another awards and don't want it to repeat here and make the awards feel unfair.

Fairness is my #1 priority. Even if you don't agree with the things I say in my review (which is perfectly fine), I want it to at least feel fair and like you understand where I'm coming from. The #1 priority is to make it so your review feels fair and you feel like you get at least a good but preferably great experience out of these awards. That's why I want everyone to get playlists and prizes and have intros and all that jazz. You deserve it for being such awesome participants.

Thank you for reading. That about sums it up. If you have any questions for me, please let me know!