Checklist for your Genesis entry:
- Have you formatted your manuscript as shown in the Manuscript Formatting Example?
- Is your font 12 point?
- Is your font Courier New, Times New Roman, Garamond, Cambria or Book Antiqua?
- Do you have a margin of one inch on all sides?
- Is your entry double-spaced?
- Is your chapter title (i.e. Chapter One or Tuesday Morning) four double-spaces from the header?
- Do ALL pages in your manuscript have a header in the same font as the body of the document with the title, category, total manuscript word count, and page number?
- Did you make sure your name, personal information, and/or pseudonym are NOT included in the header or anywhere on the manuscript?
- Is your entry 16 pages or less (one page synopsis, 15 page manuscript)?
- Did you include a one-page, single-spaced synopsis? Synopsis can by indented paragraphs or block paragraphs with a space between paragraphs and start one double space below header.
- Is the synopsis included in the file with your manuscript at the beginning of your entry, NOT in a separate file?
FAQ Questions & Answers:
Women’s Fiction and Chick/Mom/Hen/Lady Lit writers can enter their entries in any of the other categories that the entrant deems appropriate. For example, if your story focuses on women’s issues in today’s world that would have been classified as Women’s Fiction then Contemporary Fiction would likely be the best category for your story.
Although the lit stories often involve a single woman’s struggles with her love life, please be aware that the industry expectations for Contemporary Romance and Romantic Suspense have a higher level of involvement of the hero than is usual in a typical chick lit novel. For example, most Contemporary Romance and Romantic Suspense novels have the hero and heroine meeting in the first chapter, whereas most chick lit novels have the hero appearing for the first time several chapters into the story. Also, most Contemporary Romance and Romantic Suspense novels have 40-50% of the scenes from the hero’s point of view, whereas chick lit is often only from the heroine’s point of view.
Chick lit writers should be aware that judges in the Contemporary Romance and Romantic Suspense categories will be judged according to the industry expectations of those genres.
Lad Lit, aimed at men, should be entered in the Contemporary category.
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Under no circumstances should comments given by a judge be used for publicity purposes without the express consent of the judge.
After judging, the coordinators will again go into every judged file and again erase all personal information so that the entrants will not be able to find out who judged their entry.
The Genesis coordinators will do everything to ensure absolute anonymity.