Annual New Years Starter Awards

Judging Criteria Form - 1st Round

The idea of this contest is to find and award hidden gems within the endless ocean of newly started books. Our wish is to motivate the talented authors to continue to work hard until they find mainstream recognition - perhaps we can even give their way to success a kickstart.

There is this saying that if a reader is not impressed after reading the first few chapters of a book, something is lacking with regards to the structure or style and the chances are very high that he's going to drop it. For this reason our aim is to especially focus on the first 5 chapters in the first round.

We want to award the books that have an unique idea/setting or a great new new take on a topic. We are searching for a story plot that draws us in right from the start and has us completely hooked by the end of chapter 5. We are looking for characters we can relate to and who are developing in a reasonable manner. We are seeking out a writing style that just has the special something and an overall impression that blows our minds.

(Judge's username for organisation:)
Book title:
Author's username:

Title: 0/5
-->Is the title catchy and sparks your interest?
Cover: 0/10
-->Does the cover grab your attention and make you want to click on the book?
-->Can you read the relevant writing well?
-->Is the chosen visual art relating well to the story?
Blurb: 0/10
-->Is it intruiging?
-->Does it make you want to read the book?
-->Does it relate to the actual storyline?
Chapter structure + length: 0/5
-->Can you manage to read the chapter in one go?
-->Is the flow nice?
-->Is does the arc of tension of the chapter feel right?
-->Does the end of the chapter make you want to continue to read?
Grammar + punctuation: 0/10
-->self-explanatory
Creativity/originality: 0/5
-->How unique is the plot?
-->Is there a new twist on an already excisting topic?
Description skills/writing style:* 0/10
--> Does the writing style/vocabulary fit the genre?
-->Do you feel attracted to the style of story telling?
Plot development/pacing/logic/world building: 0/15
-->Is the plot progressing logically and with a commensurable pacing?
-->Can you picture the world the story is set in?
-->Do you understand everything that is going on?
-->Do you feel that your questions are answered throughout the chapters in an reasonable amount of time?
-->Can you spot any (obvious) plotholes?
Character development: 0/15
-->Are the characters likable/relatable?
-->Do they behave reasonable or do they act out of character?
-->Do the characters develop/change within a reasonable amount of time/due to reasonable triggers?
-->How much do the characters grow throughout the book?
Overall impression/enjoyment: 0/10
-->Was the book enjoyable overall with regards to the plot, characters and writing style?
Hook: 0/5
--> Is the book exciting enough to read on?
Total sum: 0/100

Short review of a few sentences for each book you are judging + longer review for your 2 top pics per category:

Please also answer:
Would you (personally) continue to read on after the 5 chapters?
yes/no
Why?
(short comment in key points is enough)

As for the poetry/short story category, please only review the first 2 chapters.

If there are no characters in the poetry entry, then please review the topic of the book instead.

Also, instead of judging the overall impression/enjoyment and hook seperately, please rate the books by the overall impression/depth/enjoyment on a 0/15 scale.


! If a contestant didn't follow all the rules there will be a reduction of up to 20 points. If we find out that the majority of rules wasn't followed, the contestant needs to be eliminated. This is for the reason of fairness with regards to other contestants. Please notify us if you notice any rule breaking. !

! Please keep in mind that different genres usually have different writing styles when you judge. Don't be biased by a certain genre style you are usually into. !

Please send the results to me via e-mail, pm or facebook (check my profile) until 12 January 2020 (we aim to publish the round one results by 15 January). If you chose the e-mail option (which I prefer), please pm me and I'll send you the address! =)

Thank you in advance for all your hard work!! <3