QUASAR and ARIANA Rules    

EPIC, the Electronically Published Internet
Connection proudly announces

2008 QUASAR and ARIANA Awards
Recognizing Excellence in E-book Covers

Please read these rules in their entirety before entering. Questions may be directed to quasarentry2008@epicauthors.com.

Entrant Agreement:

Entry into this contest constitutes permission for EPIC to post the cover on EPIC's website for display, voting, and use of finalist, honorable mention, and winning covers in the EPIC Award Banquet program and the website for historic purposes. Entrant is assumed to be owner of the artwork or have permission from the owner of the artwork.

EPIC, its officers, committee members, volunteers, members, and anyone else associated with EPIC, the EPIC Awards, the QUASAR, the ARIANA, and the DIRK A. WOLF Honorable Mention contests are not held liable for inaccurate or incomplete entries do to mistakes or misunderstandings on the part of the entrant. It is the responsibility of the entrant to read, understand, and comply with all the rules. Take the time, read the rules, and do it right. If you do not understand, please ask. Questions may be directed to quasarentry2008@epicauthors.com

General Rules and Eligibility:

• Covers must be original artwork appearing within the 2008 EPIC Award eligibility period (October 1, 2006 through September 30, 2007). New covers for books released earlier than this time frame may be entered, as long as the cover was published during the eligibility period.



• Covers must be from the eBook edition of the book, if different from any print edition.



• You do not need to be an EPIC member to submit an entry.



• Entries must be made by the artist or the publisher for the artist. The publisher must coordinate with the artist prior to submitting.



• No author may submit a cover unless they are the artist or the publisher of the book submitting for the artist.



• Artists may submit an unlimited number of covers in the contest and in each category. There are no limitations to the number of covers submitted in any category, or submitted in the contest. The prior contest restrictions on the number of covers a single artist could submit has been eliminated.

If you have any questions about rules, please contact quasarentry2008@epicauthors.com before entering the cover.

Entry Fee:

Entry Fee is $10.00 per cover. Payment, entry form, and cover must be received prior to the start of judging or will be disqualified. Be sure to indicate which covers you are paying for. We need the book name, publisher, and artist.

Fees may be paid via PayPal to treasurer@epicauthors.com If you are paying for one book, you may use the PayPal button here for your convenience. If you are paying for more than one book, go directly to PayPal and make your payment to treasurer@epicauthors.com.

Fees may be paid by sending a check/money order made out to EPIC, and sent to EPIC QUASAR ENTRY PO Box 2278 Glen Rose, TX 76043 Only US Bank checks in US Dollar amounts or money orders in US Dollar amounts are accepted.

Be sure to include the name of the book, artist, and publisher so your payment may be properly credited.

Image Naming Requirements:

The cover jpg file must be named as the following:

CATEGORY-LETTER then a DASH/HYPHEN (-) then the BOOK TITLE all as one word.

No special characters, no spaces, only letters, numbers, and dashes. See category list below for category letters.

Example:

The cover for the book SciFiSuperDuper is entered into "N. Sci-Fi or Futuristic Romance." The name would be:

Image Size Requirements:

• 96 dpi



• Exactly 400 pixels tall



• Not more than 260 pixels wide (keep proportional)



• JPG format



• Proper Naming Conventions (see above)

Covers received larger or smaller than requested size will be resized and/or reproportioned without regard to quality or scale.

Covers will be displayed in thumbnail size with a link to the larger size. This helps those that are on dial-up connections to see the entries. The better quality of your cover, and closer to the proper size, the better display it will make.

The ARIANA Awards: The best cover in each category will win the ARIANA Best in Category award. The fifteen ARIANA winners will go on to compete for the QUASAR Best Cover of 2008 Award. The QUASAR and the ARIANA are engraved awards presented at the EPICon awards banquet. Awards are mailed to any winners not present.

The Dirk A. Wolf Honorable Mention Awards: The runner-up cover in each category will win the Dirk A. Wolf Honorable Mention award, which is a certificate mailed directly to the winner.

Categories:

1. Children's/Teens/Young Adult
2. Contemporary/Suspense/Mystery/Historical Romance
3. Contemporary/Suspense/Mystery/Historical Erotic Romance and Erotica
4. Fantasy
5. Fantasy/Paranormal Romance
6. Fantasy/ Sci-Fi or Futuristic/ Paranormal Erotic Romance
7. GLBT
8. Historical and Westerns
9. Horror
10. Mainstream/Single Title
11. Mystery
12. Non-Fiction, Poetry, Inspirational and Inspirational Romance
13. Science Fiction
14. Sci-Fi or Futuristic Romance
15. Thriller/Action-Adventure

Covers for Anthologies, Erotica, or any other genre not specified above must be entered where they fit best. This is a cover artwork contest and the cover should best represent the book and the category.

How to Submit Your Covers:

Send the cover as an email attachment to: quasarentry2008@epicauthors.com. Send a separate email for each cover you are entering.

In the Subject line of your email, put "Quasar--[name-of-the-book]".

[name-of-the-book] means you put the actual full name of the book in the subject line. Please don't just literally type the words "Quasar--[name-of-the-book]" in the subject line.

In the body of the email, provide the following information:

• Category: (see above—spell it out, don't abbreviate or make up your own category.)
• Title of Book: (just the name of the book that the cover appears on, no other information)
• Artist's Name:
• Artist's Home Address:
• Artist's Phone Number:
• Artist's Email:
• Entrant's Name:
• Entrant's Email:
• Publisher: (just the publisher's name, no other information)
• Date Cover First Appeared: (Month and Year only, no other information)

Example email:

From: Joe Coverartist To: quasarentry2008@epicauthors.com Subject: Quasar--SciFiSuperDuper Category: N. Sci-Fi or Futuristic Romance Title of Book: SciFiSuperDuper Artist's Name: Joe Coverartist Artist's Home Address: 1234 Main St., Anytown, USA Artist's Phone Number: 800-555-1212 Artist's Email: joecoverartist@aolyahoomsn.com Entrant's Name: Joe Coverartist Entrant's Email: joecoverartist@aolyahoomsn.com Publisher: BestDarn Publishers, Inc. Date Cover First Appeared: May 2007

DO NOT SEND THE INFORMATION IN ALL CAPS and do not use all lowercase! Use upper and lowercase letters with proper title capitalization. We will be using an automated program to copy your information generate the presentation web pages.

Sending the information in your email in all caps or all lowercase will cause your entry to be rejected immediately! Please follow the rules.

Judging:

EPIC members judge the ARIANAs and the QUASAR. The QUASAR and ARIANAs are not strictly an award for artistic merit per se. Rather they are a recognition of the covers that do the best job of representing the eBook. Appropriateness to the genre (category), "eye-catchiness," style, ease of reading the titling are all components of the judging.

The time line is:

1. November 2, 2007—open for entries—start sending them in.



2. November 16, 2007, midnight EST—entries closed.



3. December 3, 2007, 9:00 pm EST through December 11, 2007, midnight EST—voting for the ARIANA Best in Category Awards. A voting form will be available in the members-only section at that time and there will be an announcement of the EPIC lists when voting starts.



4. December 15, 2007—ARIANA Best in Category Award winners and Dirk A. Wolf Honorable Mention Awards announced.



5. January 15, 2008, through January 30, 2008, midnight EST—Judging for the QUASAR Award (Overall Best Cover of the Year). A voting form will be available in the members-only section at that time and there will be an announcement of the EPIC lists when voting starts.



6. March 8, 2008—ARIANA Best in Category Awards presented and the QUASAR Award announced at EPIC Awards Banquet at EPICon 2008

EPIC grants unimited permission to the Dirk A. Wolf Honorable Mention Award winners, the ARIANA Best in Category Award winners, and the QUASAR Award winner to use the QUASAR, ARIANA, and Dirk A. Wolf Honorable Mention logos displayed on this page. Right-click on the award to save it. Click on the award to display a larger version and right click on that image to save it. This permission extends to the publishers, the authors, and the artists of the books containing the winning covers.

Any questions about entering your cover should be directed to quasarentry2008@epicauthors.com.

The ARIANA Best in Category Award was named in honor of the late Ariana Overton, a long-time EPIC member, and a talented artist and author.

The Dirk A. Wolf Honorable Mention Award was named in honor of the late Dirk A. Wolf, also a long-time EPIC member, and a talented artist and author.