Houston Bay Area RWA

 

Judge a Book By Its Cover Contest

 
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Houston Bay Area is dedicated to encouraging and supporting the romance writers, both published and aspiring, in its membership.

  

Houston Bay Area's Judge a Book By Its Cover contest is geared toward published authors -- whether published by an RWA-recognized publishing house, a small press, or self-published -- and recognizes that all-important first impression: the book cover.

Grand Prize
A full-page color ad in the April Romance Writers Report
featuring the winners of all five categories!

Contest Details | Important Dates | Preparing Your Cover | System Requirements
How to Enter | The Judges | Questions?

 

Contest Details

Please read over the complete Terms and Conditions for this contest. You must agree to these terms and conditions in order to enter.

You can get more general information about our contest, including our list of judging booksellers, in our Contest FAQ.

Terms and Conditions

  • Eligibility -- Books published during the calendar year 2007 by traditional publishing houses, ePublishers, Print-on-Demand publishers, or self-published.
  • Judges -- Booksellers from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand
  • Categories include:
    • Single title/Mainstream
    • Contemporary Series
    • Historical
    • Romantic Suspense
    • Science fiction/fantasy/paranormal
  • Deadline -- Midnight, January 15, 2008. (This means you must have uploaded your cover via the entry process by that time.)
  • Entry fee -- $15 USD; Fees are payable via PayPal or by check as directed during the entry process. (Credit cards will not be directly accepted by Houston Bay Area. You may use credit cards with PayPal, however.)
  • Entries:
    • consist of front covers only.
    • will be submitted electronically.
  • You may enter as many different covers as you wish. One entry fee per cover.
  • Each cover may be entered in only one category.
  • Decisions of the judges are final.
  • Winners may be asked to submit a high-resolution image file for inclusion in the RWR ad.

 

Important Dates

  • October 1, 2007 -- The contest opens.
  • January 15, 2008 -- The contest closes.
  • February 10, 2008 -- Winners are announced.
  • April 2008 -- The Judge a Book By Its Cover winner ad appears in the Romance Writers Report

 

Preparing Your Cover for the Contest

The simplest way of obtaining a correctly sized cover is to browse your book at Amazon, then click on View larger image. The image that displays will be suitable for our contest. Simply right-click on it, select the Save Image... (or similar) option, and then download the cover to your PC or Mac. Then upload it when prompted to do so during the entry process.

If you choose to manipulate the cover image manually, remember that the cover must conform to the following specifications:

  • JPG or GIF only, please. No PDF or BMP files.
  • The cover must be only the front cover. Please do not submit the back cover.
  • Its width must be between 300 and 400 pixels. (Its length can vary. Just make sure the cover is correctly proportioned.)
  • Name the file your book's ISBN number (e.g., 3-272-98812-X.jpg or 1373427669.gif).

View the Image FAQ for more information on formatting your entry.

 

System Requirements

Browsers: The following browsers are recommended for successful uploads:

  • AOL 8.0 (or higher)
  • Netscape 7 (or higher)
  • Internet Explorer 6 (or higher)
  • Mozilla Firefox 1.0 (or higher)
  • Apple Safari 1.2 (or higher)
  • Opera 8.5

Connection Speed: File upload times will vary depending on your connection speed. If you have a dial-up connection, you should still be able to upload a file successfully.

More technical questions? Try our Technical FAQ.

 

How to Enter

HBA will receive entries from October 1, 2007 to January 15, 2008.

The process of entering the Judge a Book By Its Cover contest is:

  1. Fill out the entry form.
  2. Pay the contest fee via PayPal or check.
  3. Login with your e-mail address and ISBN number. (IMPORTANT: This login is good for only one particular cover upload. If you enter more than one book, you must go through a separate payment and upload process for each entry.)
  4. Verify the cover has uploaded correctly and print the receipt page that displays.

 

Questions?

For general contest questions, please contact the Contest Coordinator.

For technical questions about images or the entry and upload process, please contact the Contest Technical Administrator.