Guidelines for Competition Entrants
- Leaf is looking for previously unpublished work only. This doesn’t include work published online if you hold the copyright. Copyright remains with the author. Selected entries will be published in an anthology and/or the Leaf Books online Showcase and/or the Leaf Writing Magazine – see individual competitions for full details.
- Unless otherwise specified in the competition details, you may enter either by post or online. If you enter by post and are successful, we will ask for an electronic version of your story or poem at a later date. You’ll also be asked to supply a short writing biography, so please note that an email address at which we can reliably contact you is inordinately useful.
- If entering online, you can pay by PayPal and then send us your entries as .doc or .rtf attachments to contact@leafbooks.co.uk, including your contact details in the email. Please state the name of the competition you are entering in the title of your email. We are unable to open .docx or .wps files, so please remember to convert your work before you send it to us. If necessary, short pieces can be pasted into the body of the email, but attachments are preferable. We will acknowledge receipt of entry within a week.
- Please type all work. Use single-spacing and a readable font, ideally Times New Roman or Arial 12 point.
- If entering by post, please number pages and staple them together. Do not put staples through cheques.
- As all work is judged anonymously, your name should not appear anywhere on the manuscript: only on the entry form or covering letter.
- Enclose a stamped addressed postcard or envelope marked 'receipt' if you'd like acknowledgement of receipt.
- Enclose a SAE marked 'results' if you wish to receive a hard copy of the competition results (though note that results are posted online very shortly after judging has concluded).
- Due to the volume of entries we are unable to return manuscripts so please don't send out your only copy.
- Please note that critiques for competition entries will not be returned until the winners have been announced.
- Entrants’ emails will be added to our mailing list and will receive our monthly newsletter (from which it’s very easy to unsubscribe if desired).
- *Please* ensure that you get your entry weighed and correctly franked when you send it to us: since the postal system has changed, we have understandably received several items of mail with incorrect postage - we have to pay not only the shortfall but a £1 correction fee.
Information for competition winners
- Entries selected for publication in anthologies/the magazine/the showcase may undergo minor editing in order to correct typographical errors and bring the work in line with the house style.
- Winners will be contacted by email wherever possible, and by post if not, but we will require an electronic copy of your work, so a valid and frequently-checked email address is extremely helpful. We work to a tight schedule and a prompt response to notifications of success, requests for electronic copies, proofing etc. is much appreciated. If you do not respond, time constraints may mean we have to drop your work from the anthology. If this happens and you are subsequently able to contact us, we will, if possible, offer to publish your work in a subsequent anthology.
- Please make sure that you are happy with the electronic copy you send us. PDFs will be sent to authors for proofing prior to publication, but we ask that major author-led changes are not requested at this stage: we are aiming to pick up errors only.
- Regretfully, financial constraints mean that we are unable to send free copies of anthologies to all published authors. Winners and runners-up will receive a free copy, and all other featured authors will be able to buy copies of the anthology at a significantly reduced rate. All authors published in the magazine will receive a free copy.