Spine breaker Awards 2020/2021 [Complete]

Judge criteria For First Round

The first round of judging 

Judging of the cover, title, description, and 3 chapters of the story including the grammar of the first chapters.

IMPORTANT!!! One-shots and short stories are only judged for cover, title and description! DO NOT READ 3 CHAPTERS!  This is because these stories are short and reading the first chapters means the whole book would be judged. Therefore I repeat ONE SHOT AND SHORT STORIES JUDGE ONLY COVER, TITLE AND DESCRIPTION!

Book cover (10 points)
- Is the cover attractive? Does it gain your attention?
-Do you want to read the story after seeing it?
- Does the cover match the story line/ aesthetic?
- Does the cover look sloppily made or like the designer took their time?
- Can the font be easily read?
- Does the cover include the author's name and the story title?
- Does the cover relate to the title?

Title (10 points)
- Is the title attractive? Does it gain your attention? 
- Is the title creative, unique or have you seen it before?
- Does the title make you want to read the story?
- Can the font be easily readable?
- Is it too long, short, or just perfect?

Description (20 points)
- Does it give you an impression of what the storyline is going to be? (for example do you know the subgenre of the fanfiction, romance, horror, thriller, angst etc.)
- Does it make you want to read the story? Is it intriguing?
- Is it too short? too long, or just enough? 
- Is it connected to the story? 
- Is it just a random quote or does it beat around bush (a lot of writing but it doesn't really give any information)? Or does it give away too much of the plot? Or is it not related to the plot at all?
- Are there any grammatical and/ or punctuation mistakes?
- Would you read the book based of the description?
- Is it just random/ story quotes, random words, author's note, or scene from story? Or an actual description you would find on the back of a book?

First Impression (First 3 chapters) (40 points)
- Is it a catchy beginning?
- Does it make you want to continue?
- Do you feel like it builds interest or is it random?
- Is it cliche?
- Were you hooked on the story right from the beginning or did it take you a while to get interested in it? Or did it not want to make you read on at all?
- What would you change or would not change anything at all?

Writing, grammar, and vocabulary (20 points)
- Are there any spelling errors? (words wrongly written, typo's, etc.)
- Does the author use shortened words rather than the actual word? Eg. U, B4, etc.?
- Does the sentence structure makes sense? Are sentences pleasant to read?
- Is vocabulary advanced or too simple? (Does the author repeat words, or has broad vocabulary?) Or is the vocabulary too advance compared to the grammar).
- Does the choice of their vocabulary compliments the story?
- Can you easily understand what the author wants to say?
- Do you feel like reading a story or single sentences?
- Do they make many many mistakes or just few? 
- What about punctuation? Are they adding commas or they're too many of them and makes the sentence look weird or really long? What about dialogues punctuation? Does the author capitalize the correct words?
- Do they separate the story in different paragraphs or write all of in one?
- Is the dialogue realistic?

____________________________________________________________________

The second round of judging

After the first round half the book will go on to the next round! (7 books in 15 slots categories and 10 in 20 slots categories). The judges who's book have been eliminated will be assigned new books. For the new book you won't have to do the judging all over again only you have to turn in the forms for the second round. The judging criteria for this book will be published later. The bonus points will also be added to your score of the second round.