Every award needs rules, right? Mine were pretty simple, and I listed them in the "Disclaimers" chapter of In My Opinion. In case anybody needs a reminder, here they are again in short form. The basic explanation: I'm a Christian, a scaredy cat with a weak stomach, and I'm not a poet.

1. No explicit sexual content

2. No LGBTQIAP+ content

3. No poetry

4. No zombies

5. Blood, gore, horror, and medical procedures acceptable only in small doses

I created these rules after I'd already accepted books that violated some of them, so those got grandfathered in, but even after that, I was far too trusting. After ending up with multiple books that violated the rules, I began reading author profiles and story blurbs and checking story tags before accepting new entries. And I still ended up with books that violated the rules. But I didn't disqualify any books I'd already accepted, and I read it all (including far more smut than I ever wanted in my head), because I'd agreed to do it, and that's part of my work ethic.

And also, I kept getting assigned books to judge in awards with content I said I didn't want to read when I signed up to help, and I basically gave up and resigned myself to dealing with it. In the future, I will be more strict (in reviewing and judging). More about that later. (Much later. Like, end of the book later.)

But there are three more rules I added specifically for these awards, and these are a little more complicated:

6. To be eligible for prizes, books must be available on Wattpad and accessible to me.

I don't care about follows or votes or comments or any of that. I just want to bring attention to books that people can actually read right now on Wattpad, which means published books. But I've also put a lot of work into doing this, and I don't appreciate people blocking me without even having the decency to tell me there's a problem, so anybody who does that won't make the cut.

Note: If Wattpad removed your book from the site for suspected violation of content guidelines, and you're sure there's nothing wrong with it, appeal the decision. A real person working at Wattpad will read it and, if everything's fine, they'll add it to the site again (in draft form). At that point, let me know, and I'll be happy to publish your review and add your book to its corresponding category. But until then, I can't in good faith list it here, just in case there is an actual problem with it.

And another note (for the judging list only): I'm not listing books disqualified from the original awards they entered by the original hosts. There are many reasons books and authors can get disqualified from awards, and I won't get into those here, but this is just a gesture of respect for the original hosts' rules.

7. If an author has multiple books in a single scored category, they can only win a top prize with one book.

Basically, this rule means one author can't sweep a single category if they end up with all the top scores. Only their highest score is eligible for placement in the top three. But all their books can get participation prizes.

8. What about AI?

I didn't even know AI would be an issue when I first started doing this, so there was nothing about it in my rules. My first (known) encounter with AI-generated content occurred during judging, when a book I was reading had a blatant and sudden change in writing style. I had to consult with another judge and the host before I realized AI was the issue (my first thought was actually plagiarism).

Now, unfortunately, I am much more familiar with AI-generated content, so I can spot it more easily. And looking back, I'm positive there was AI-generated content in books I read and reviewed prior to that first experience. I also didn't make it a practice to check all books until very recently, so I know some of it has slipped through the cracks.

That being said, books with AI-generated content rarely score well with me, because AI has a very repetitive, introspective style that's all flower and no substance. It doesn't sound human; it flattens all characters, regardless of age, gender, culture, whatever, so they all sound the same; and it writes every genre of book the same, too. It gets really boring, really fast. So I don't even like it. I'd much rather read a book full of grammatical errors that has some heart and soul to it.

Could I have gone back through the entire list of books I read and checked them for AI? Yes. Did I? Absolutely not. If I'd done that, this would have taken at least another month to put together, and it wouldn't have been fair to the people who had no warning about AI when they submitted their requests.

This is another thing I'll change in the future. But more on that later.

01/02/2025: Unfortunately, I've had concerns of plagiarism brought to my attention, and after a lot of research, talking to those who brought me the concerns, conferring with a third party, and checking Wattpad's Terms of Service, I decided to disqualify the book in question. And that reminded me that I'd warned another author about plagiarism in a review (on a much smaller scale), so I disqualified that one as well. So, I'm adding one more rule:

9. No plagiarism.

*****

12/28/2024: Not tomorrow, though! Tomorrow, I'll be posting...well, you'll find out tomorrow. 😊