Pay close attention so you know where best to submit your album!

Standard categories are the general categories that have 10-15 slots. They're like the romance, sci-fi, fantasy, etc. categories you'd see in other awards, only with a bit of added spice.

Specialized categories are more niche and celebrate specific things, like "best music video" is best trailer, or "fan vote" is the story that receives the most fan votes. These categories are 10-20 slots and receive better prizes, but they come at a higher risk because there are normally more participants and the judging is stricter.

You can submit to both, but separately. So one book can't go into both a standard and specialized category, but one book can go into a standard category and another, different book can go into a specialized. This is so I'm not judging the same book(s) over and over, and also to give different books and authors a fairer chance.

STANDARD CATEGORIES:

Completed, ongoing, fanfic, mature, and original stories are accepted into every category unless otherwise specified.

Pop - Any story in the most popular genres, which are: romance, action-adventure, thriller/mystery, horror, sci-fi/fantasy, and YA. Fanfic is allowed, but it should be one of those listed genres. 10 slots.

Rock - Any story meant to be intense and fast-paced. No genre restrictions. Thriller/mystery may also be good in this category, depending on the subject and pacing. 10 slots.

K-pop - Any K-pop fanfiction. Original stories not allowed, K-pop fanfic only. K-pop fanfics are allowed anywhere, but this is a category specific to them. 15 slots.

R&B - Any story focused more on slow pacing, angst, and/or calmer storylines. AKA: anything not fast-paced and upbeat. No genre restrictions. 10 slots.

Experimental Music - Any non-traditional book, like poetry, scripts, text fics, diaries, etc. 15 slots.

Indie - Any stories with less than 10k reads. Completed, ongoing, originals, fanfics, etc. are allowed. 10 slots.

Disco - Any upbeat story. AKA: Feel-good stories. Rom-coms in particular may be good for this category. 10 slots.

SPECIALIZED CATEGORIES:

Completed, ongoing, fanfic, mature, and original stories are accepted into every category unless otherwise specified.

Best Pop Solo Performance - Ready to bring your best performance? 

This category is a presentation category that will judge the title, blurb, cover, and any additional aesthetics (like character aesthetics) in the story. You will not be penalized for not having additional aesthetics, though it is recommended. 

The title, blurb, and cover must have been made by you, or you will be disqualified. It is okay if the additional aesthetics were made by others, but the majority of this category must have been made by you. Do not submit to this category if your cover was not made by you. 15 slots.

Best Music Video - Lights, camera... book trailers?

This category is for book trailers. Please include the link(s) in your form. Trailer creators can submit their trailers even if they are not the writer of the book they made the trailer for. What matters is you are the creator of the trailer. I am judging the trailer, not the book. 10 slots.

Best New Artist - Let's celebrate the upcoming stars!

This category is for writers who only started writing two years or less ago (at the time of entry). Please submit one book. You must be a new writer to submit to this category. 15 slots.

*Note that it's okay if you wrote non-books, like poems, before the two year cut off since poetry is vastly different from novel writing, or if you wrote casually as a kid or something. It's more when you officially started to write books since this is a book category.

Fan Vote - Time for the fans to get involved! 

Once you submit your story, I'll add you to a poll. As soon as the poll is live, fans will have one week to vote for their fave, and the favorite will be the winner! All participants will get a short review from me (with no scores). It is based purely on fan vote, so please do not submit if you are not okay with that. Fans will have the option to give their thoughts on your story, so there's also a high chance you will receive fan feedback as well. If fans leave feedback, everyone will get the chance to see said feedback, even if they did not win the vote. I will put it in the results chapter for all 10 participants. 10 slots.

Please do not vote for yourself. Keep it fans-only.

Record Of The Year - Thou hast a special record for me?

This is a showdown between any poems. This is a poetry-only category. If you are submitting an anthology of poems, please submit 1-4 poems I can judge. No word count requirement. Any type of poem is allowed here, including narrative. 20 slots.

Album Of The Year - Don't panic, it's only one of the most prestigious categories!

This is a showdown between any short stories and/or anthologies. Oneshots are allowed, anthology compilations are allowed, short stories are allowed. I consider this anything under 20,000 words. Doesn't matter if it's ongoing or completed as long as it's planned to be short. If you are submitting an anthology/oneshot compilation, please name 1-3 stories within the anthology you want me to judge. 20 slots.

*Please note that if you submit an anthology/oneshot compilation, it does not matter if the entire compilation is over 20k words. You can submit 1-3 stories, and what matters is each story you submit is under 20k words.

Song Of The Year - Ohhh, we're getting a little spicy with this one...

Ultimate showdown: Best overall book. Any genre, length, maturity level, completion status, etc. are allowed in here. Pretty much a category for every book to compete against one another. 25 slots.

*Both fanfics and originals are allowed in this category.

*Please note poetry is only accepted in the experimental and ROTY categories. I will always include poetry in all my contests moving forward, so if you do not get a chance to sign up, no worries, I will have more contests with poetry coming soon.

JUDGING:

- Album Cohesion (10)

- Lyrics (10)

- Dynamics & Harmony (10)

- Narrative (10)

- Album presentation (10)

Total: 50

Explanations:

- Cohesion refers to how well your story flows. AKA: pacing. This also refers to the organization of your book. Is your book organized well, or is it a little all over the place? Do you have a million chapters before chapter 1, especially if they can be moved elsewhere and/or combined, or do you have a smooth entry to chapter 1? Those kinds of questions are what I will be answering.

- Lyrics refers to word choice and SPAG (spelling, punctuation, and grammar). Does your word choice make sense for the story? Do you repeat words too often (i.e., "look," "just," and "walk" are words I see repeated often)? Is your language purple prose (AKA over-the-top)? How is your SPAG? Too many adverbs?

- Dynamics & Harmony refers to how the characters flow within the narrative and with each other, and does their dialogue feel harmonious? This is a characters & dialogue category.

- Narrative refers to the plot and themes and how they flow/how well they are executed. Factors that may be considered in this category: tone, plot holes, and the clarity of plot/theme information.

- Album presentation refers to your title, blurb, and cover. You can't have an album without an album cover, after all!

For the specialized categories, the criteria is the same, only stricter.

Remember I allow editing, and judging typically takes about a month to start, so feel free to apply and edit if you're worried about any of these categories. I have a writing errors book on my profile that goes over common writing errors I see.

EXPERIMENTAL/RECORD OF THE YEAR CRITERIA:

- Creativity (10)

- Timelessness (10)

- Structure (10)

- Flow (10)

- Album presentation (10)

Total: 50

Explanations:

- Creativity refers to the uniqueness of the story, the word choice, the presentation, and pretty much whatever creativity fits in with your album. For example, poetry will be judged more on word choice while scripts will be judged more on the creativity of the idea, so what "creativity" means is dependent on the submission.

- Timelessness refers to how timeless a story is and how you use your genre to make a theme/message/story that people remember and can keep with them for years to come. How well do you accomplish making an interesting, impactful experiment that can inspire others?

- Structure is like the SPAG category on steroids. Depending on what you submit, I will be judging the structure and how well it's executed. For example, if you submit a script, I will be judging how well you do the script format. SPAG errors will also be taken into account here.

- Flow refers to how well you pace your album and how it feels to read. Depending on what you submit, the flow category may be altered so I can judge accordingly. For example, if you submit a poem, I will judge how well the words flow together, and if your rhyme schemes (if any) work and flow with the words. So if any rhymes sound forced, you may get points off.

- Album presentation is the same as before.

BEST MUSIC VIDEO CRITERIA:

- Transitions (10)

- Quality & Color (10)

- Sound design (10)

- Flow (10)

- Thumbnail (10)

Total: 50

Explanations:

- Transitions refers to how you switch between different clips. If there are effects used to enhance transitions, those will be judged as well.

- Quality & Color refers to the overall quality of the clips used along with the color correction and how strong the colors look throughout the video.

- Sound design refers to any sfx and/or music used throughout the video. I will be judging you based on how well the sfx is implemented and if the music (if any) makes sense for what's going on.

- Flow refers to the overall flow/pacing of the video. Does it end abruptly? How does it start? Does the pacing maintain itself throughout the entire video? Does it feel too flashy and over-the-top with effects? Those are the kinds of things I'll be judging.

- Thumbnail is like the album cover. Is it attractive? Does it make me want to click on the video?

*Please note I study film in college, so I have a lot of experience here, though I won't be overly strict or anything like that.

Questions?