Please read all terms and conditions carefully before submitting an entry. Please note that the only email address from which individual queries will be answered is [email protected]. 

We will respond where possible but we are sorry that we cannot guarantee a response to all emails. Emails sent to any other address found on the Costa Book Awards website will not receive a response. All relevant updates will be posted on www.costabookawards.com and via Twitter (@CostaBookAwards). Please note that unsuccessful entrants will not be contacted individually. Submission of an entry is taken as acceptance of all the terms and conditions of entry. Incomplete entry forms and short stories not submitted in accordance with these terms and conditions will not be eligible for consideration. Note: Proof of any of the following conditions of eligibility may be requested from entrants at any time and will be checked at shortlist stage.

 1 ELIGIBILITY a) The Costa Short Story Award (the “CSSA”) is for a single, previously-unpublished short story of up to 4,000 words by an author aged 18 years or over on 1 January 2018 whose primary residence (ie resident for over six months of the year) has been in the United Kingdom or Ireland since 1 November 2015. UK or Irish nationality is not a requirement. If there is any issue about whether or not you qualify as a UK resident, please check with the organisers before submitting your entry. b) Entries must be submitted in English. Translations of short stories originally published in languages other than English are not eligible. c) Entries will not be eligible where the author is a member of the judging panel, anyone involved in the administration of the CSSA or a close family relative of any such person. d) The submitted story must not have been previously published or broadcast. e) A story published posthumously will not be eligible if the author died prior to 1 January 2018. f) Authors currently serving a term of imprisonment are ineligible for the Award. This is for practical purposes - when an author is shortlisted/wins, the organisers need direct and speedy access to the authors. 

2 ENTRY a) Entries may only be submitted online via the specific entry form on the Costa Book Awards website (www.costabookawards.com). Entries submitted in any other form will not be accepted. b) Entries may be submitted from 9am on Monday 2 July 2018 to 4pm on Friday 3 August 2018. Entries submitted after that time will not be accepted. Submission of entries will be acknowledged automatically with an on-screen message when the Submit Story button has been pressed. There will be no separate acknowledgement by email. c) Entries may be submitted by the author, his/her publisher or his/her agent. d) Although the entries will be assessed anonymously, they must be submitted in the author’s own name. e) The submission of an author’s work by the publisher/agent will be taken as agreement by the author that he/she is willing for the submitted work to be considered and to comply with these terms and conditions. f) No more than one story per author may be submitted. It is the responsibility of the author to ensure that no more than one of her/her stories is submitted in total. If more than one story is submitted, only the first story received will be considered. g) Authors may only enter individually and not as part of a team. h) The story submitted must be a separate, standalone, original story and not a chapter of a book or ongoing work. h) The story submitted must be (and by submission of this form is warranted by the author and accepted by the Costa Book Award to be) original, fictional, and entirely the author’s own work. It must not infringe the copyright or any other rights of any third party and not be libellous, unlawful or defamatory of any living person or corporate body. The author is entirely responsible for any potential copyright issues in his/her story.

 3 THE SHORT STORY a) The story must not exceed 4,000 (four thousand) words. Please note: 4,000 is the maximum word count but not a specific target. b) If the story has already been submitted to other competitions or publications, please ensure that it is given a different title before being submitted to the Costa Short Story Award. This is because, if it has already been commended elsewhere, this would then compromise the anonymity of its author, particularly if it is shortlisted. c) There is no set theme to the story, but we encourage all entrants to submit entries that are bold, different and original in order for them to stand out from the rest. d) The format of the story must adhere to these following rules, and the CSSA administration will change all shortlisted/Highly Commended stories to this format to ensure that they are all the same: i) PDF format ii) Typed in Arial 12 pt black font iii) Double-spaced iv) Hard returns between paragraphs (NO indentations anywhere please and NO page numbers) v) The name of the author must not appear anywhere within the story vi) The name of the story and word count to be included within the header on every page. 

4 JUDGING a) Entries will be judged anonymously; in other words, the name of the author will not be linked to the story/made available to either the initial readers or the judges. b) The judges of the Costa Short Story Award will be looking for what they think is the best entry on the basis of quality and originality of prose, narrative voice and storyline. c) All entries will be initially read by a team of readers who will select a smaller number of stories for the judging panel to read. This is not deemed to be an official longlist (as each story will have been selected at this stage by one reader rather than as a result of collective discussion and agreement), and authors of these stories will not therefore be advised that their stories have been selected for submission to the judging panel. d) A judging panel will read the short stories selected by the team of readers, and will draw up a shortlist of three stories plus an additional list of up to six Highly Commended stories. e) The three shortlisted stories (which will remain anonymous) will be made available on the Costa Book Awards website between mid-November 2018 and mid-January 2019, and the public will be asked to vote for their favourite. f) The identity of the authors of the three shortlisted stories will be announced after voting has closed. At the same time, the authors of the Highly Commended stories will be announced. All shortlisted/Highly Commended authors will be contacted by the Costa Book Awards Management before this announcement. g) A winner and two runners-up will be announced at the Costa Book Awards presentation ceremony in January 2019. h) The winner will receive prize money of £3,500. The author in second place will receive £1,000 whilst that in third place will receive £500. i) Costa reserves the right to increase or reduce the numbers of entries selected for the judges to read and for the shortlist at its sole discretion. j) The judging will be fair and independent. The judging panel will be appointed by the Director of the Costa Book Awards. The decisions of the judges are final. Neither discussion nor correspondence concerning any decision will be entered into. 

5 SHORTLIST AND WINNER a) All three shortlisted writers will be contacted personally by email or by telephone using the details provided at the time of entry. Unsuccessful entrants will NOT be contacted. The three shortlisted stories will be published on the Costa Book A or trademarks are pre-approved by the Costa Book Awards Administration. Such accreditation if required will be provided to the winning, shortlisted and Highly Commended authors.

 6 COPYRIGHT AND TERMS OF USE a) Entrants retain the copyright in their entries, but by submitting a story into the CSSA, entrants acknowledge and agree that each shortlisted entrant: i) grants to Costa, its affiliates, licensees, successors and assigns a worldwide sub-licensable, perpetual, transferable, non-exclusive royalty-free licence to use in any way whatsoever including but not limited to, public performance, public display, publishing, reproduction, broadcasting, amendment or modification of the entry or any part of the entry on and through the website www.costa.com/www.costabookawards.com or any website associated with Costa in its different present and future forms - for example newsprint, Braille, talking book, podcast, audio download, electronic databases, e-paper, mobile device application, electronic media or website including mobile form or any other facsimile or derivative versions in any medium; and ii) without prejudice to the above, grants Costa a non-exclusive, perpetual, royalty-free licence to publish the first three paragraphs of the winning entry and runners-up on the Costa and Costa Book Awards website (www.costa.com/www.costabookawards.com). b) All entrants (whether author, publisher, agent) will be deemed to have granted the rights for publication and distribution in paper, e-paper, e-Book, downloadable format, talking book, podcast, mobile device application, electronic media or website including mobile form or in any other present of future form of publication, and they or their agents will clear the necessary rights for such publication and distribution. The rights for publication will be nonexclusive, with no bar on publication rights elsewhere.

 7 ADMINISTRATION a) All announcements in relation to the CSSA will be published on www.costabookawards.com and via the Costa Book Awards Twitter feed (@CostaBookAwards). b) Entrants must provide their name, email address, telephone number and postal address on the initial entry form. c) The competition will be administered by the Costa Book Awards Management team. Costa and the CBA management team will only ever use personal details for the purposes of administering the CSSA, and will not publish them or provide them without permission to anyone not involved in the administration of the CSSA. d) Entrants must supply full details as required above, and comply with all rules to be eligible for the Award. Ineligible, obscene or fraudulent entries will be automatically disqualified. e) The CBA management team reserves the right to refuse any entry for any reason at its absolute discretion, and reserves the right to vary the Rules and Conditions of Entry, and alter the published programme, as may be deemed necessary. Any amendments will be published on www.costabookawards.com. f) The CBA management team reserves the right to cancel, modify or supersede this competition (including altering prizes) at any stage, if deemed necessary in its opinion, or if circumstances arise outside of its control. g) By entering, all eligible entrants will be deemed to have accepted these rules and to agree to be bound by each and all of these terms and conditions. Costa reserves the right to exclude entrants and withhold prizes for violating any of these terms and conditions. h) The submission of an author’s work by a publisher or agent will be taken as agreement by the author that he/she is willing for the submitted work to be considered and that he/she consents to and approves of all terms and conditions contained herein and as agreement by the published or agent guarantee and procure the author’s compliance with these terms and conditions. If such publisher or agent fails to do the foregoing, Costa may at its sole discretion disqualify the Entry and/or reclaim any Award and/or associated prize money and revise the shortlist and (if applicable) winning entries. Any author who submits an entry warrants that he/she has obtained all necessary publisher and/or agent consents required to submit an entry in accordance with these terms and conditions. i) All entrants will indemnify Costa and the Awards Management against loss or damage (including any legal costs or expenses and any compensation costs and disbursements paid by Costa and CBA management team on the advice of legal counsel to compromise or settle any claim) occasioned to Costa or the CBA management team in consequence of any breach of the warranties contained in these terms and conditions or arising out of any claim alleging that the submitted entry constitutes an infringement of copyright or contains libellous, obscene or defamatory matter. j) There is no alternative to the prize stated and the prize is not transferable and no part or parts of the prize may be substituted for other benefits, items or additions. k) Costa and the CBA management team will not be liable for any failure of receipt of entries. Costa and the CBA management team have no responsibility for any entries which are lost, delayed, illegible, damaged, incomplete or otherwise invalid. If the CBA management team are unable to contact a shortlisted author despite making reasonable attempts to do so, the Judges will be entitled to shortlist another entry. Other than death or personal injury arising from the acts or omissions of Costa, the CBA management team or their employees, Costa and the CBA management team will not be liable for any loss or damage arising out of the winner’s enjoyment of the prize. l) The promoter of this award is Costa Limited, Whitbread Court, Houghton Hall Business Park, Porz Avenue, Dunstable, Bedfordshire LU5 5XE. m) These terms and conditions are governed by the laws of England and Wales and entrants submit all matters arising in relation to these terms and conditions or the CSSA to the jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales. Nothing contained in this clause shall limit the right of Costa, its affiliates or subsidiaries, successors or assigns, to bring a claim against any part in any other jurisdiction

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