2022 Rules and Regulations
Eligibility
The Storytel Epigram Horror Prize (“SEHP 2022”) is open to all citizens and permanent residents of Singapore, ages 18 and above, and living at the time of submission. The work submitted (“Submission”) must contain a minimum of 4,000 words and a maximum of 7,000 words.
Submissions that are already under contract with or under consideration by another publisher (simultaneous submissions) are not eligible.
Works that have been previously published in any form are not eligible. For the avoidance of doubt, works that are self-published or have been made available online are considered to be published.
Subject
Submissions must be fictional. Subjects include all subsets of the Horror genre, including (but not limited to): ghost stories, dark fantasy, cosmic terror, goth, industrial and weird fiction. While we will accept stories with a romantic narrative, SEHP 2022 is not a market for erotica.
Epigram Books will not publish any works that are used to inspire hate or violence against any race, gender, religion or sexual orientation. Nor will we publish works that include splatterpunk, rape, kidnapping, slavery, torture porn, or abuse of children or animals.
Language
Submissions must be in the English language.
Originality
Submissions must either be an original work written wholly by the author(s), or an original translation of a work translated wholly by the translator(s).
Submissions may have more than one (1) author and/or translator (each collectively referred to as an “Entrant”). Where the Submission is an original translation of a work, one of the Entrants must be the original author of the work. There is no limit on the number of Entrants for each Submission. Each Submission should be accompanied by one (1) entry form, regardless of the number of Entrants.
Where the Submission is an original work, the Entrants must have the sole and exclusive rights to the Submission in all territories.
Where the Submission is an original translation of a work, the Entrants must have the sole and exclusive rights to the English language translation of the Submission in all territories.
Number of entries
Entrant(s) may submit more than one work for this competition, provided that Submissions are different and not variations of the same work. Each work needs to be submitted separately.
Each Submission should be accompanied by one (1) entry form and one (1) soft copy of the work sent through our Submittable portal (epigrambooks.submittable.com/submit), regardless of the number of Entrants. Also to be included are four (4) hard copies delivered to: Storytel Epigram Horror Prize, 1008 Toa Payoh North #03-08, Singapore 318996.
Closing Date
The deadline for this competition is 30 May 2022, Monday at 2359 SGT. Any Submissions sent outside of this reading period will be deleted unread.
Rights of Refusal
Epigram retains the right of first and last refusal to publish all Submissions, regardless of whether the Entrant wins the Prize.
Epigram shall have three (3) months from the date the winning announcement is made to inform all Entrants if it wishes to publish their Submission(s).
The Award
SEHP 2022 carries a monetary award of S$3,000 for the top winning entry, S$2,000 for second place, S$1,000 for third place, and S$500 consolation prizes for eight additional Submissions. All eleven chosen entries will be published in a print anthology by Epigram Books and adapted for audiobook streaming production by Storytel.
The monetary awards constitute a flat fee, which shall only become payable after a publishing agreement has been signed. No other monetary payment will be made.
The rights purchased in the publishing agreement include publication, audio adaptation and further subsidiary rights. A copy of the agreement shall be made available upon request.
Where a chosen Submission has more than one Entrant, the monetary award shall be shared equally between the Entrants. For the avoidance of doubt in the case of a translated work, the author(s) will share one half of the monetary award and the translator(s) will share the other half of the monetary award.
Announcement of winner(s)
The prizes will be awarded in July 2022. The shortlisted Entrants will be notified closer to the date of the announcement and will be invited to attend the award ceremony. If a shortlisted Entrant cannot attend this event for any reason, they may nominate a representative to accept the prize on their behalf.
Responsibilities
The shortlisted Entrants will be invited to conduct public talks, workshops and/or other events.
The shortlisted Entrants will be required to speak to the media and attend media engagements, and support Epigram Books in all marketing and publicity related to SEHP 2022.
Epigram reserves the right to amend these rules and regulations without prior notification.