Fantasy Novel Writing Contest

This Contest is Open to

Authors based in the US who are 18 or older.
Authors who have never had a book traditionally published (published by a publisher).
Self-published authors are OK!
Unagented authors.

We are Looking for

Previously unpublished books.
Books in the fantasy genre.
Quality writing with unique or off-the-wall premises, dynamic characters, and gripping prose.
Books with a word count of 40,000 to 100,000.
Books that were written with absolutely zero AI

Submission Guidelines

Work should be double spaced and in Times New Roman, 12 point font. Work should be submitted as a Google or Word document. We are unable to accept submissions in any other form (Pages file, Scrivener file, etc.).
We accept submissions via our Google form. The form is at the bottom of this page.
Not following our submission guidelines may lead to automatic rejection.
There is no fee to submit to this contest.
You may only submit once per submission period.
We are unable to give specific feedback to every submission.

First Place will Receive

Publication by Journey’s End Publishing.
A cash prize of $500.
10% off a future round of developmental/content editing for a different book.
Free access to Wandering Wordsmith Academy's Fiction Writing 101 Course.
Free access to Wandering Wordsmith Academy’s Book Branding Bible Course.
Announcement in our Newsletter and on social media.

Second Place will Receive

A full beta read by one of our editors ($500 value!).
10% off a future round of developmental/content editing.
Free access to Wandering Wordsmith Academy’s Fiction Writing 101 Course.
Free access to Wandering Wordsmith Academy’s Book Branding Bible Course.
Announcement in our Newsletter and on social media.

Third Place will Receive

10% off a future round of developmental/content editing.
Free access to Wandering Wordsmith Academy’s Fiction Writing 101 Course.
Free access to Wandering Wordsmith Academy’s Book Branding Bible Course.
Announcement in our Newsletter and on social media.

Runners Up will Receive

Free access to Wandering Wordsmith Academy’s Book Branding Bible Course.
Announcement in our Newsletter and on social media.
More secret prizes!

Other Details

Writing must be fully original and your own work.
Unfortunately, we are unable to publish all submissions. If you are not accepted for publication, do not take it as a personal rejection of you or your writing skill. We encourage everyone to try again with our next submission opportunity.
We only publish work that has been unpublished elsewhere. This includes publication on your personal website or social media or self-publication.
We are unable to provide specific feedback for every submission.
Publication: the winner will be published digitally and as a physical book. The winner will meet with us to discuss a contract, which will be negotiated and signed before the first steps of publication begin. If the author and Journey’s End Publishing cannot reach an agreement on the contract, they may mutually decide to not continue with publication. The book will still be deemed the winner of the contest, and the prize winnings will not be refunded. Publication may then be offered to second place.
Marketing: the published book will receive marketing help in the form of a short strategy call, setting up a basic author website (if needed), producing a batch of social content, and giving the author a list of outreach and podcast targets. We do not and cannot guarantee how well the book will sell, but we can say that the best marketing plans also involve the author’s efforts.
We accept simultaneous submissions, but if your piece is accepted elsewhere, email us ASAP to withdraw your submission.
We cannot accept any work that includes copyrighted song lyrics or uncited quotes.
We do not accept work that has been AI-generated. The use of programs like Grammarly are okay to check spelling and grammar, but all work should be original and written by the author, not by a program. If we suspect a piece has been written in part or in full by ChatGPT or another similar program, it will not be chosen for publication.
We will consider work that is violent, sexual, or political—however, we will not publish work that is discriminatory in nature.
For this contest, we are only accepting books that were written primarily in English by US-based authors.

Journey’s End Publishing and Wandering Words Media will retain exclusive First Worldwide Publication, Print, and Electronic Rights for three years following date of publication of the contest-winning book, and non-exclusive rights and incidental promotional rights thereafter. We retain the unrestricted right to publish the contest-winning book in print and online, and to publish excerpts in relevant promotional material. The authors of non-winning books retain all rights.

Please note that submission by an author to this contest shall be considered acceptance of the full guidelines above.