Submission Rules 2007

We are here to help, and if you have any queries with the rules please contact us.

This aim of the competition is to highlight new writers. It is open to writers of any age and nationality, but it is not open to professional authors.
Stories must be in English, and must be between 2,000 and 4,000 words in length. There is a maximum of three submitted stories per author. Stories over 4,000 words will be disqualified.
Submissions must be original, and should not have previously appeared in any publication - in any language or format. Stories should be Science Fiction (though we will treat "Science Fiction" as a fairly broad canvas).
Stories may not have been entered in The James White Award in any previous year.
Two printed copies should be posted to the competition address, if you include this on a disk it would be helpful, but there MUST be two hard copies.
The stories are judged, and narrowed down to a final five. At that stage we will require a copy on disk, but we are aware that not everyone can do this, and will deal with that when we come to it. We require contact details for such an eventuality.
Entries must be submitted by post to the competition address. Entries will not be accepted by email, though email inquiries will be responded to.
Stories should be typed, in a non-proportional typeface such as Courier, between 10 and 12 points in size, double-spaced; 2.5cm margins all around, on plain white paper, one side of the page only. Pages should be either A4 (21cm by 29.7cm) or letter (21.59cm by 27.94cm). The text should be clear and legible.
Each story should be prefaced with a title page containing the story title, author's name, author contact details address, e-mail, exact word count and page count. This should be considered page zero.
Each page of the story should have a header containing the story title and page number. The author's name should NOT appear on the page header - the stories will be judged anonymously: only the competition administrator will know the authors' names.
Please end your story with 'The End'.
Please staple each individual story. An Entry Form should be paper clipped to each individual story.
An administration fee is required for every story entered.
The fee is €5.00/£4.00Stg/US$6.00. Cheques/orders should be payable to The James White Award. We apologise for any inequalities caused by fluctuations in exchange rates.
Please Note: Eurocheques (also known as traveller cheques with an EC logo) are no longer acceptable. Please do not confuse these with personal cheques made out in the new Euro currency.
Submissions should arrive no later than the 1st June 2007.
The competition administrator reserves the right to disqualify a story should it fail to meet the above criteria. If this occurs the fee will be lost. However, the administrator may instead decide to request the author to re-submit a story.
The final five authors will be informed of their success.
The award will be presented in Belfast, Northern Ireland at Mecon 10, a science fiction convention.. Entrants are welcome to attend the award ceremony, but travel to the ceremony is the sole responsibility of entrants.
The competition administrator reserves the right to refuse to accept or disqualify any submission: in such a case, the administrator will inform the author as soon as possible, giving the reason for refusal or disqualification.
The decisions of the judges are final, and discussion will not be entered into.
The judges may decide not to award the prize if in their opinion there is no entrant of sufficient quality.
After the competition has ended, the final five and the winner will be posted onto the website.
Any tax liability resulting from the prize is the sole responsibility of the winner.
We regret that stories cannot be returned afterwards. Please keep a copy.

Please read the writers guidelines, you may find them helpful. Helping me helping you etc.

Also please consider giving us permission to transact correspondence by e-mail, if possible, as this reduces our costs.