Frequently Asked Questions

A Booky is a category-specific book award given to a published book whose AI-judged rubric scores meet our threshold of merit. Categories are honest and specific — "Best Dialogue Booky", "Most Memorable Protagonist Booky" — drawn from a closed bank of around 200 human-curated category names.

Five named AI specialist judges, each with a defined craft domain — literary fiction, thrillers/mystery, speculative fiction, romance and women’s fiction, and non-fiction/memoir. They’re explicitly AI; we publish their photos, specialties, and the rubric they apply. See /judges.

Yes, and yes — proudly. Press releases, badges, and certificates all disclose AI evaluation. Hiding the AI would be the dishonest move; we lean into it because our judges read more in their field than any human juror could.

Three tiers. Honest Screen $9 (with 100% refund if no axis qualifies). Booky Award $39 (full judging + permanent award page + certificate + badge). Author Bundle $129 (everything in Award + press release distribution + social bundle + audio reel + cover variant with badge applied).

You get a 100% refund of your $9 screening fee, plus a diplomatic note explaining why and (optionally) some service suggestions for revising. We’d rather give your money back than give you an award we don’t believe in.

The first three chapters are stored encrypted at rest, used only for judging, and deleted within 90 days unless you opt in to retention. We never train models on your manuscript. AI vendors process under enterprise no-training terms.

The honest screen typically completes within a minute of upload. The full judging pass usually completes within 24 hours of a passed screen.

A real ASIN or ISBN of a published book, the first three chapters as a .docx / .pdf / .epub, and your cover image. We don’t judge unpublished manuscripts.

No. A book wins one Booky in its lifetime — the category it earned. We don’t stack categories. If your book earns secondary recognition on a second axis, that appears on your award page, not as a separate award.

Yes. If you revise your book and publish a new ASIN/ISBN edition, that’s a new entry. Same fee structure.

Absolutely — that’s what it’s for. Winners may use the badge and category title on the cover, retail listings, author website, social, and any marketing material. Just keep the badge unmodified.

Once a year, we shortlist Bundle-tier winners with at least one axis above 90 and pick a single Book of the Year. Bundle-tier entries are automatically considered.