Terms and Conditions

 

Conditions of Entry

1. To be considered for entry, participants must purchase a WB Short Story Competition entry. The standard entry fee is $16.50, with a 20% discount for seniors and students.

2. There is also a school entry price, where students attending a school that purchases a covering fee will be able to enter without paying an entry fee. Schools that wish to participate should contact Wombat Books 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 Wombat Books reserves the 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 Any Australian or New Zealand author, published or unpublished, can enter.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 been published with Wombat Books or Rhiza Edge can also enter. Authors from outside Australia can enter, but we will primarily include AU- and NZ-based authors.

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

6. Employees are not permitted to enter the competition. The only exception is the editor/s of the anthology, 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 Entries must be the original work of the participant and unpublished.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 the declared theme. For repeat entrants there is a 25% discount for new stories. Use code REPEAT24.

Competition Period

9. Submissions for the Wombat Books Short Story Competition close on the 30th September 2027, 23:59:59 AEST. 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 submitted by this form. Submissions to this email that are not part of the competition will be immediately deleted. No responsibility can be accepted for entries that don't adhere to the Conditions of Entry or follow the above entry process. 

Judging

12. All short stories will be reviewed confidentially and judged by the publishing team at Wombat Books. 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. Included entrants will receive one complimentary copy of the book at publication and either a further five complimentary copies or a discounted manuscript appraisal from the Wombat Books website (to a maximum value of $100). This includes an opportunity to pitch a full manuscript to Wombat Books/Rhiza Edge with a 15-minute meeting with Rochelle Stephens, publisher.

18. Selected short stories will be contracted as exclusive for two years within the published anthology, but non-exclusive after that for the duration the book is in publication. The anthology is set for publication in 2028/9, with a date to be later decided by Wombat Books.

19. Wombat Books reserves the right to edit and refine work selected before it is published in the anthology.

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's 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 Wombat Books Short Story Competition, entrants are declaring acceptance and agreement of these terms and conditions.

26. Word count for each story must fall between 500 and 3000 words.