Fee Waiver Guidelines

In order to keep our fees from potentially excluding writers, we are willing to waive the cost for those undergoing financial hardship or living within limited means. If the reading fees prevent you from sharing your writing with us, we encourage you to reach out—no explanation necessary—and we’ll step you through the submission process.

• We offer these waivers on a first-come-first-serve basis.
• We ask that you please be considerate when requesting a waiver as we cap the number of waived submissions at 25 per prize.
• Please do not ask for a fee waiver until you are ready to submit your work.
• Please do not request a fee waiver for a prize outside of the reading period.

To request a waived reading fee please use the following guidelines:

1. Email us and use the subject line “Request for Free Entry – NAME OF PRIZE” (ex. Request for Free Entry – Fiction Prize)
2. Within the body of your email, please include the title of your book and the email address associated with your Submittable account. If this information does not match the work submitted, the manuscript will be declined.

Please note: You can only receive one waived entry per contest, you may not submit a manuscript for someone else or share the waived fee with anyone, and you must submit your work within one week of requesting the waiver. When submitting your book, please follow all guidelines for the particular prize you are submitting to.