Frequently Asked Questions

Three reasons. One: every entry gets the identical evaluation. A traditional book-prize jury physically cannot give every entry the same attention — most prizes long-list a small slice and skim the rest. We evaluate every submission the same way: your assigned specialist judge reads the whole book, from the first page to the ending, and scores all ten axes of the published rubric — no entry is skimmed, and no entry is quietly set aside. Two: AI applies the same published rubric to every book, without fatigue, favouritism, or politics. The novel that arrives at 2 a.m. on a Tuesday is judged identically to the novel that arrives during business hours. Three: AI judging is dramatically cheaper than human panels — which means we can afford to refund books that don't qualify rather than awarding everyone for the entry fee. The honest-screen refund only exists because the economics work. We don't hide that the judges are AI; we celebrate it. The Judges page names each judge, their specialty, and the rubric they apply. If anything, our judges are more transparent than the human panels they replace.

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 more than 200 human-curated category names.

Six named AI specialist judges, each with a defined craft domain — literary fiction (Eleanor Whitcombe), thriller/mystery/commercial fiction (Marcus Thorne), speculative fiction (Aiyana Reyes), romance and women's fiction (Vivienne Park), non-fiction/memoir (Arthur Beaumont), and cross-genre/emerging voices (Brooke Hayes). 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 AI judging is exactly what makes the consistent published rubric — and the honest-or-free refund guarantee — possible.

Yes — the /submit page lets you buy 1 to 100 entries in a single checkout. Volume discounts apply automatically: 5% off at 2 books, scaling up to 50% off at 100 books. Purchased entries are stored as credits in your account; you submit each book one at a time on your own schedule with no expiry pressure.

No account required. The free screen at /screen only asks for your manuscript file, your book title, and your email address (your name is optional) — no card, no login. We create a lightweight account for you behind the scenes so your result email can link you straight to checkout if your book qualifies.

Every Booky winner gets a small block of HTML you can paste into any website to display a live award badge linked to your permanent award page. Grab it from your dashboard or from /embed/your-book-slug. It updates automatically if we ever make design improvements to the badge.

If your book qualifies, we email the result and a link to convert the screen pass into a paid Booky Award or Author Bundle entry. Until you enter it, My Bookys also shows the screen’s strongest craft axis and projected score; the full 10-axis breakdown comes with paid judging. While your screened manuscript is still on file you only add the remaining details and choose a tier; we keep it for 90 days, so after that the form asks you to attach it once more before checkout.

Yes. When you're logged in and reach the submission form, BookyAwards checks your SelfPublishing.pro account and shows a drop-down of your books. Picking one pre-fills the title, genre, and pulls your manuscript and cover directly — no manual upload needed. You can also enter everything by hand if you prefer.

Yes. On the submission form, switch from the SelfPublishing.pro tab to the ISBN or Amazon URL tab. Entering your ISBN-13 or pasting your Amazon book URL will pre-fill your title, author, and cover image automatically. You can edit any field before submitting, and you still need to upload your manuscript file.

If our judge can't award a Booky in good conscience after a full 10-axis evaluation — all ten axes of the published rubric, scored after reading your whole book — you receive a 100% refund of your entry fee. Every result below the threshold gets a quick human review before the refund is issued. That's the honest-or-free guarantee: the award only exists when the book genuinely earns it, and you'll also receive honest feedback on what our judge noticed.

Yes. Enter a partner coupon in the optional field on /submit, or enter an eligible promotion code during checkout for a standard Booky Award or Author Bundle purchase. Volume discounts up to 50% apply automatically; fixed-price upgrades do not accept additional promotion codes.

No — entries you buy never expire. Once you purchase a credit pack, the entries sit in your account until you use them. You can submit books one at a time at whatever pace suits your publishing schedule. Your remaining balance is always visible on your dashboard.

Yes — log in and visit /review to share a rating and a short quote about your experience. New reviews are held for a quick moderation check before they go live. You can browse published reviews any time at /reviews, and a rotating selection also appears on the homepage.

Yes. If your book won a Booky Award, your dashboard shows an 'Add the Author Bundle' option for $90 — the exact difference between the $39 Award and the $129 Bundle. Once paid, we generate your custom press release, eight social graphics, a 30-second AI-narrated audio reel, and a cover-with-badge image, and email you when they're ready.

Non-buyers get five complimentary screens of distinct titles per rolling 30 days. Once you've purchased any entry, that catalog cap no longer applies to you. Either way, we won't re-screen a title that already has a completed or pending free screen — check My Bookys for its result or enter it for a full award instead.

AuthorPass is a separate done-for-you launch and marketing membership from SelfPublishing.pro, and its included services include one $39 Booky Award entry for each claimed title. Its Single plan currently starts at $49 per month plus a $99 one-time setup for one book ($148 due initially); Unlimited and Agent options are also available on the live AuthorPass page. If you only want a Booky Award or Author Bundle entry, buy directly at /submit — AuthorPass is optional, and the Booky Author Bundle remains separate.

Yes. Author Bundle winners get a public press-release page at /awards/your-slug/press-release — no account or login needed to view it. Copy the link or use the "Email this link" button on that page to send it to media contacts, retail buyers, or your mailing list. You can also download it as a plain-text file.

Yes. If we don't have a cover on file, your dashboard shows an "Add your cover" upload form right on the submission. Upload a JPG, PNG, or WEBP front cover and it appears on your award page immediately; Author Bundle winners also get their cover-with-badge image and social graphics rebuilt automatically.

Yes — look for the chat bubble in the bottom-right corner of any page. That's Riley, our AI support assistant, and you can ask it about pricing, your submission, your account, or how the judging works any time of day.

Open My Bookys at /dashboard and paste your preferred HTTPS retailer or book page into the "Where readers buy your book" box. Saving it adds or replaces the button immediately; clear the box and save to remove your link.

Yes to both. If the category doesn't match your book, contact us with a short description of what the book is really about, and we'll arrange a corrected category and rebuild your award assets. You can also ask us to withdraw an award; its public page, badge, and certificate are then removed, and My Bookys shows it as withdrawn.

Yes — uploads can be up to about 200 MB, which comfortably covers almost any manuscript. If you pick a file that is too large, the form tells you right away, before the upload starts. If your file is over the limit, try saving it as a DOCX or text-based PDF, or compressing large images inside it.

Yes. The Winners gallery at /winners lists every published Booky, newest first, with the book cover, award category, and judge. Click any book to open its permanent award page, which shows the rubric scores, the judge's reasoning, and supporting passages from the book.

Occasionally a person on our team checks an entry before anything is published — most often because the uploaded file doesn't appear to be the book you entered, or the result needs a second look. While it's on hold, nothing is awarded or declined. We'll email you about the next step; if we ask for the correct manuscript, just send the right file.

Two paid tiers, both per-book. Booky Award $39 (full 10-axis judging by your specialist judge, permanent award page, certificate, embed badge). Author Bundle $129 (everything in Award + custom press release for you to send, 8-graphic social pack, 30-second AI-narrated audio reel, cover variant with the badge applied). Volume discount: 5% off per step — 5% at 2, 10% at 3, 15% at 5, 20% at 10, 25% at 15, 30% at 20, 35% at 25, 40% at 50, 45% at 75, 50% at 100. Applied automatically at checkout. There's also a free honest screen on the home page if you'd like to know whether your book qualifies before you pay.

No charge — the free screen on the home page is genuinely free. Our judges read the opening of your book and email you whether it would qualify for a Booky Award. If it does, the email links you to the paid submission flow. If it doesn't, you get an honest decline listing the strengths our judge noticed, and My Bookys shows the screen as "Did not qualify" — no card, no upsell pressure.

Yes — BookyAwards has an affiliate program. Affiliates receive a unique coupon code that gives buyers a discount and earns you a commission on each purchase made with your code. Sign up at the Affiliates link in the navigation (or visit archieboy.com/affiliate/). Once approved, you will get your code and a dashboard for tracking referrals.

Your manuscript is used only for judging (the free screen reads the opening; paid judging reads the whole book) and is deleted 90 days after your submission is finished; your award page and downloadable assets stay live. If a file is no longer on hand when it is needed, such as entering an older screen pass, we simply ask you to upload it again at no extra charge. We never train models on your manuscript, and AI vendors process it under enterprise no-training terms.

Paid Booky Award entries must be commercially published with a verifiable ASIN or ISBN. You can use the free qualification screen before publication because it does not ask for either identifier, but a passing screen is not an award. You will need a real ASIN or ISBN before converting it to paid judging.

The free qualification screen usually finishes in minutes and emails the result shortly afterward. Full paid judging usually completes within 24 hours of submitting your paid entry. If a result email is missing, check spam or promotions, then contact support with the email address you submitted.

A real ASIN or ISBN of a published book, your manuscript file (.docx / .doc / .pdf / .epub / .txt — upload the whole book; paid judging reads all of it), and your cover image if you have one. The cover is optional at entry; if it's missing, you can add it later from My Bookys and any Author Bundle graphics are rebuilt automatically. We don't judge unpublished manuscripts.

Yes, for paid judging. Your specialist judge reads the complete book, from the first page to the ending, and weighs the whole arc, the payoff and the ending along with the prose, before scoring all ten axes of the published rubric and writing the reasoning for your award page. Supporting passages can come from anywhere in the book. The free screen is different: it reads just the opening (roughly the first three chapters, about 8,000 words) to tell you, at no cost, whether the book is likely to qualify. Please upload the whole manuscript at both stages.

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.

You need your book title, email address, and manuscript file (EPUB, DOC, DOCX, PDF, or TXT); your name is optional. No account, credit card, ASIN, or ISBN is needed. If the book qualifies, we email a link to complete the paid entry, where you add the genre, ASIN or ISBN, and an optional cover.

Yes — after your initial result email, you may receive up to two brief follow-up reminders over the next week. These remind you that your manuscript is already on file and the paid entry only takes a few more details. You can complete the entry at any time from the link in the first email, and the follow-ups stop automatically once you do.

Your winner page at /winners/your-slug has a Share section at the top — visible only to you when you are logged in. It includes one-click share buttons for X (Twitter), Facebook, LinkedIn, and email, plus a "Copy post" button that pre-writes a shareable post with your book title, category, and a link to your award page. You can also share the public URL of your winner page directly, or use the embed snippet from /embed/your-slug to place a live badge on your own site.

This comes up, and it does clear. KDP's automated cover check sometimes treats an award medallion as "medal-like content" or as an award claim it cannot verify, which shows up as a rejection or an unusually long review. It is not a fault in your badge file or your book. What works is giving KDP the proof: reply to the review notice with the link to your public winner page at bookyawards.com/winners/your-slug, which is open to anyone with no login and shows your award category, the judge, the rubric scores, and the date it was awarded. Your certificate at bookyawards.com/awards/your-slug/certificate.pdf can be attached as supporting documentation. It is also worth checking that the badge does not sit over your title, author name, or spine text, since crowded or obscured cover text is a separate and very common reason for rejection. We cannot speak for Amazon's review queue, but the winner page exists precisely so an award claim on your cover is verifiable by a third party.

Everything is in two places. Your dashboard at /dashboard lists each submission and includes download links for all winner assets once the award is issued. Your public award page at /winners/your-slug has the same links. Booky Award winners get a badge PNG, PDF certificate, and an HTML embed snippet (also at /embed/your-slug). Author Bundle winners also get a press release, eight social graphics (downloadable as a ZIP), an AI-narrated audio reel, and a cover-with-badge image.

Your award page, badge, and certificate are issued when judging is complete. The custom press release, eight social graphics, 30-second narrated audio reel, and cover-with-badge image may take up to five business days; we will email you when they are ready.

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 hand-pick a single Book of the Year from among that year's Author Bundle-tier winners — it isn't an automatic score cutoff. Bundle-tier winners are eligible for consideration; there is no separate application.