Terms and Conditions

 

Conditions of Entry

1. To be considered for entry, participants must purchase a YA Short Story competition entry. The standard entry fee is $16.50, with a $11.00 concession fee for seniors and students.

2. There is also a School Entry Price, where students attending a school who purchases a covering fee will be able to enter without paying for an entry fee. Schools who wish to participate should contact Rhiza Edge to receive different instructions if they intend to submit a collection of their students’ work.

3. Entrants must retain proof of their paid entry fee, and Rhiza Edge reserves any right to request such proof throughout the duration of the competition and during judging.

4. Any Australian or New Zealand author, published or unpublished, can enter. Authors who have previously published with Wombat Books or Rhiza Edge before can also enter.

5. Though there is no age restriction, please keep in mind that the stories selected will be required to reflect Young Adult fiction.

6. Employees are not permitted to enter the competition, with the only exception of the editor/s of the collection who may include a story, however they will be ineligible for prizes.

7. Entries must be the original work of the participant and unpublished.

8. If entrants’ works are not selected, they may submit the same work during a later Rhiza Edge Short Story Competition and not pay an additional submission fee if their work fits with the declared theme. For repeat entrants there is a 25% discount for new stories. Use code REPEAT24.

Competition Period

9. Submissions for the Rhiza Edge Short Story Competition for 2024/2025 closes on the 31st March 2025, 23:59:59. No entries will be considered after the conclusion of the submission timeframe.

How to Enter

10. Once a participant has purchased an entry fee, they will then email their entries with their name, phone number, email address, postal address, school (if student) and title of story in the body of the email. Stories should be attached in a DOC format. Stories that are entered that are not a DOC file will be disqualified.

11. Entries must be emailed to website@wombatrhiza.com.au. Submissions to this email not part of the competition will be immediately deleted. No responsibility can be accepted for entries that are not received due to not adhering to the Conditions of Entry or following the above entry process. 

Judging

12. All short stories will be reviewed confidentially and judged by the publishing team at Rhiza Edge. Decisions made by this judging panel are final and no negotiations will be entered into.

13. Feedback for stories that are not selected will not be given.

14. Stories may also be chosen based on their cohesion with the other selected stories; please consider the theme carefully in your submission.

Copyright and Privacy

15. All work of a participant belongs entirely to that participant and their works will be reviewed confidentially. Participants retain copyright of their work, with selected stories receiving an agreement for use of their work in the final collection.

16. All unselected works will be deleted immediately upon the conclusion of the competition, with no release of personal details or contents.

Prize(s)

17. Winning entrants will receive 2 complimentary copy of the book at publication and either a further four copies complimentary or a half price manuscript appraisal from the Wombat Rhiza website (maximum value of $100).

18. Selected short stories will be required as exclusive for two years within the published collection, but non-exclusive after that for the duration the book is in publication. The collection is set for publication in 2026, with a date to be later decided by Rhiza Edge.

19. Rhiza Edge reserves the right to edit and refine work selected before it is published into the collection.

20. No cash alternative prizes will be offered in lieu of declared prizes. Prizes are not transferable.

Winner Notification

21. Winners will be notified via email once judging concludes. Additional edits may occur during the process of preparing the winning manuscripts for the collection. Manuscripts will need to be confirmed at final edits to be included in the short story collection.

22. Winners' names will be published to the WombatRhiza website and related social media platforms.

General

23. Rhiza Edge and Wombat Books reserve the right to cancel or amend the competition and these terms and conditions without notice in the event of a catastrophe, war, civil or military disturbance, act of God or any actual anticipated breach of any applicable law or regulation or any other event outside of Rhiza Edge and Wombat Books’ control. Any changes to the competition will be made known to entrants as soon as possible.

24. Rhiza Edge and Wombat Books are not responsible for inaccurate competition and/or prize details supplied to any entrant by any third-party connected with this competition.

25. By entering the Rhiza Edge Short Story Competition, entrants are declaring acceptance and agreement of these terms and conditions.

26. Word count for each story must fall between 1000 and 5000 words.