2025 RISING STAR Award for Unpublished Women’s Fiction
This award is designed exclusively for the unpublished, unagented writer of women's fiction. It offers the chance for priceless feedback from industry professionals, plus the opportunity to break out of the slush pile and land on the desk of five final round judges, all acquiring agents of women's fiction.
The RISING STAR Award for unpublished manuscripts has NO categories. It is open to all unagented writers of women's fiction* who have never been published in book-length fiction of 60k words or more.
*Not sure if your manuscript is eligible? See Guidelines below.
The RISING STAR Award is limited to the first 100 entries. Detailed score sheets with comments will be provided to all entrants, and the top five (5) finalists will advance to the final round with an opportunity to update entries based on first round judges’ score sheets.
Important Dates
Entry opens: May 18th, 2025 at 12:00pm ET for WFWA members. Once 85 members enter, the contest will move to a lottery system to fill the remaining 15 entries.
After 85 entries have been accepted, the waitlist will remain open to members until May 18th, 2025 at 6:00 pm ET. The remaining entries will be filled via random lottery from that waitlist. Entries selected via lottery will have until May 19th at 6:00 pm ET to pay the registration fee and upload their entry.
Finalists Announced: July 14, 2025
Winners Announced: Saturday, September 27, 2025 at the WFWA Retreat in Albuquerque
Entry Submission Details
On May 18, 2025 at 12:00pm ET, a link to register for the contest will appear on this page. After you have paid your entry fee, you will be provided a link to the contest platform to submit your entry. Payment of the fee will hold your spot while you upload your materials via the contest platform.
A complete entry includes:
- A verification that your entry is Women's Fiction (seen only by entry coordinators, not by the judges)—just a couple of sentences or bullet points
- A short pitch/description up to three sentences (examples provided below)*
- A single-spaced synopsis of 500 words or less
- The first 3,000 words or the last complete sentence prior to reaching 3,000 words of your completed manuscript (60k words or more)
$50 WFWA Members
Waitlist
Once the first 85 spots are filled, the contest will move to a waitlist. At 6:00pm ET on May 18th, 2025, the waitlist will close, and the remaining 15 entries will be selected via random lottery. If your entry is selected, you will receive a link to register and pay the entry fee. Once your fee is paid, you will receive the link to upload to the contest website. If you do not upload your entry by 6:00pm ET on May 19th, 2025, your spot will be passed on to another entrant.
First Round Judges
To be announced
Final Round Judges
To be announced
Judging
As an organization, WFWA supports diversity and inclusivity and seeks to elevate Women’s Fiction as a genre that reflects professional ethics and creative excellence. All stories are judged on a variety of elements, including a clear and compelling hook, strong voice and setting, established conflict and point of view, an interesting story with an emotional arc, and authentic, multi-dimensional characters.
Guidelines
Eligibility
Definitions
Format
Frequently Asked Questions
Eligibility
Open to all unagented writers who have never been published book-length fiction (60k words or over). Entrants will submit an excerpt from her or his finished, original, book-length manuscript that has not been contracted for publication prior to the entry deadline. Failure to comply with any of the rules may disqualify the entry, resulting in a forfeit of the entry fee.
Definitions
I have an excerpt of the manuscript on my website. Does that still count as “unpublished”?
For the purposes of the RISING STAR Award, ‘unpublished’ means that the novel has never been published in any way and that it does not come under contract for publication by the entry deadline. If an excerpt of the novel appears on the author’s website, it may still be considered ‘unpublished’ subject to the conditions that (1) the excerpt is the only text that exists for public viewing, (2) the excerpt is not available for purchase, and (3) the number of words posted does not exceed 15% of the novel’s total word count.
How do I determine if my manuscript conforms to the WFWA women’s fiction definition?
The driving force of women's fiction is the protagonist's journey toward a more fulfilled self, regardless of the protagonist's gender. It may include romance, or it may not. It could be contemporary or historical and have magical, mystery, thriller, or other elements. The driving force of a romance novel is a love story, a mystery's is the exposure of an event, a thriller's is a fear-inducing chase or escape, etc., whereas women's fiction, as defined by WFWA, is driven by the main character’s emotional journey.
If your manuscript's driving force best fits another genre, such as romance, science fiction, thriller, etc. it is not eligible for the RISING STAR Award.
For purposes of this contest, the protagonist should be aged 18 plus for the majority of the novel. If you have any questions about whether your manuscript might be considered an exception, please contact the Chair at [email protected].
What do you mean by "verification that your entry is women's fiction?"
This contest is, as stated above, exclusively for women's fiction novels. Just give us a couple of sentences or bullet points telling us how/why your novel qualifies. Example: This is women's fiction because [character name]'s emotional journey takes her from [unfulfilled self] to [more fulfilled self]. My protagonist changes/experiences growth [in this way]. The driving force of this novel is [elements of emotional journey].
This will only be read by our entry coordinators to verify eligibility. Your response will not be seen by the judges.
Format
An entry is the first 3,000 consecutive words, beginning with page one of your manuscript, plus a 500 word synopsis and a short pitch of up to three sentences. Note that you will also be asked to explain why your entry qualifies as women's fiction in a couple of sentences or bullet points, though your answer will only be seen by the entry coordinators, not by the judges.
The RISING STAR Award accepts electronic entries only. All entries will be submitted on our contest platform. Please be aware that there are some limitations to the formatting capabilities on that platform.
Items of note: You will not have control over some of the formatting. For example, your entry will be automatically fully left justified, and the software does not allow italics. There are some workarounds that you can implement. For example, you could add five spaces at the beginning of a paragraph, or add blank lines between paragraphs (or both). For italics, you can use slashes /like this/ to indicate which text should be italicized.
You will not be judged down for the formatting of your entry. The judges will evaluate content only.
You do not need to stress about setting up the formatting in advance. When you paste your entry into our contest platform, you will be able to view it and make changes.
Additional Questions? Contact the RISING STAR Award co-chairs at [email protected].
