Eligibility
- Participants must be current SCBWI members who have participated in at least one ITS online or at the 2022 Carolinas Fall Conference.
- Published and unpublished authors and illustrators are welcome to submit their work.
- Art and stories must be original and inspired from one (or more) of the monthly ITS prompts or ITS conference sessions.
Important Dates
- Submissions Open: November 15, 2022
- Entry Deadline: November 30, 2022
- Selections Announced: TBA (Mid-January)
- Formatting entries: Please follow the guidelines below to
format submissions. An improperly formatted submission will not be
considered.
Stories
- Length: Stories must be no longer than 250 words.
- Genre: Determine the genre of your story: Picture Book (PB), Chapter Books (CB), Middle Grade (MG), Young Adult (YA).
- Manuscript format: Standard format: double-spaced, 12-pt Times New Roman or Arial font, 1″ margins, indented paragraphs. Anonymous submissions only—the author’s name must not appear anywhere on the manuscript.
Illustrations
- Size: 7.5 x 10 inches (vertical- preferred) or 10 x 7.4 inches (horizontal). Indicate crop marks. Bleed should be .25 in. if the art requires it.
- Genre: Determine the genre of your illustrating: Picture Book (PB), Chapter Books (CB), Middle Grade (MG).
- Text: You can incorporate the text from the prompt if you feel it works best to do so. * Do not sign the art or leave any identifying marks.
- Resolution: Please submit a scan that is 300 dpi. File size should not exceed 10MB. The submissions coordinator cannot help you process or scan your file.
Submission Guidelines
You may submit 3 entries in any combination of illustrations and stories.
- Rankings: Please rank your submissions First, Second, Third. First submissions are guaranteed inclusion in judging. Second and Third submissions will be included if space allows.
- Cover page (to be attached as a separate document) to include the following.
Contact information will not be shared.- Title
- Genre (i.e. PB MG YA)
- Author/Illustrator’s Name
- Email Address
- Phone Number
- Month and specific prompt that inspired your work.
- Word length for each story.
- Ranking: First Entry, Second Entry, or Third Entry
- Saving/Naming Files:
- Save illustration files as JPEGs: last name-illustration-ranking.jpg (Ex: José-illustration-1.jpg)
- Save stories as either .docx or PDF files: last name-story-ranking.docx (Ex: José-story-1.docx)
- Submissions:
- Each entry must include TWO [2] documents:
- Manuscript—formatted as noted above
- Cover page
- Email your entry to: ignitethesparkcarolinas@gmail.com
- Each entry must include TWO [2] documents:
Receipt Confirmation: You will receive email confirmation that your submission has been received. NOTE: Please allow up to 24 hours for confirmation. If you do not receive a confirmation email within 24 hours, your submission may not have been received. It is your responsibility to check back with the Submission Coordinator if you did not receive confirmation. Please be sure to check your email’s spam/junk folder. Please note that Submission Coordinators cannot assist with formatting or file preparation.
Selections
Two external writing judges and two external illustrator judges will evaluate entries and recommend selections to be included in the publication. Judging is anonymous—names of authors and illustrators may not appear on any entry. Selection decisions are final.
- Submission implies the author is granting first right of publication to SCBWI Carolinas. Rights then revert to the author.
- Submission grants SCBWI Carolinas the right to publish the entrant’s name in SCBWI Carolinas correspondence and/or on the website, should your entry be selected for the publication.