The Official Rules

• We accept all genres of fiction except for children's picture books.
• We accept creative nonfiction*.
• We do not accept screenplays, poetry, or any nonfiction novels aside from creative nonfiction.
• We do not accept novels over 200,000 words in length.
• We do accept short stories and novellas.
• Novels must be submitted as a PDF file.
• Cover images must be submitted as a JPEG file.
• We ask that novels be typed and not include additional notes, markings or anything that is not a part of the actual story. (ex. illustrations and footnotes are good; other people's edits or handwritten asides from the author are not).
• We reserve the right to refuse any novels for any reason.
• Authors who submit novels that do not adhere to our standards (i.e. wrong genre, incorrect format, etc…) will be refunded minus a small processing fee.

• Evaluators are identified by a set of initials. Authors are not allowed to choose or request a specific reviewer.
• If you would prefer to remain anonymous, we suggest not including your name or other identifying information in the novel (this will not be removed for you).

• Compulsion Reads guarantees a five week turnaround time for all evaluations upon submission.
• Currently, we do not offer an expedited evaluation service.

• You may only place the Compulsion Reads Endorsement Seal on a novel that has received our endorsement.
• While we strongly suggest putting the seal on the cover of your novel, you are free to put the seal anywhere on your book that you like. You may also put it in multiple areas of your novel (i.e. cover, title page, copyright page, etc…).
• You may not place the CR Seal anywhere other than your book (ex. your website, Facebook page). You may include an image of your book cover with the seal on it wherever you like. As part of your endorsement asset package, you will also receive a Compulsion Reads Badge that you may place on your online properties.
• You may not place the CR Seal on any novels that did not receive our endorsement. For example, just because the first book in your series received a CR Endorsement does not mean you can put the seal on the rest of the books in the series. They must be submitted for evaluation separately.
• You may not forward or pass on the seal to anyone unless it is for the direct purpose of placing it on your novel. (ex. you can send the seal to your graphic designer, printer, or publisher, but not your friend who wants to put it on her book).
• You may not make any changes to the seal. For example, you may not change the font, add in new graphic components or change the color. The only exceptions are that you may resize the seal proportionally (ex. make smaller or larger to fit your book cover), and you may color it on a grayscale.
• You may not recreate all or any part of the Compulsion Reads Seal without permission.

• You may place the Compulsion Reads Badge on any of your online properties (ex. your website or Facebook page).
• If you choose to make your badge a live link, it must link back to Compulsion Reads (We recommend your novel’s page in our Endorsed Books Library).
• You may resize the badge proportionally or change it to grayscale, but all other changes are prohibited.
• You may not share this badge with anyone unless the express purpose is to put it onto your web properties. For example, you can send it to your web master, but not your friend who wants to put it on her Facebook page.

• The Compulsion Reads marketing materials were created to help you promote the news that your novel received a Compulsion Reads endorsement. You are free to use the marketing pieces any way you wish, but we ask that you refrain from adding content that makes false or unsubstantiated claims related to Compulsion Reads. If you have any questions about how the items can be changed, just ask. We'll respond promptly.

• Compulsion Reads provides a brief book review for each of our endorsed authors. The review is written by the book's evaluator and is the sole and subjective opinion of that evaluator.
• This review will automatically be posted on the book's individual page in the Compulsion Reads Endorsed Books Library, on Goodreads, and on any retail site the author indicated in their initial submission.
• The author will receive their book's review as part of their endorsement notification and will have four days to request that the review not be posted or shared. Our reviews are final. They may either be posted in full or not posted at all. We will not revise our reviews, take out parts or make any other changes to it. The exception is that we will correct the review if the author discovers factual errors (ex. a misspelled name) or grammar and punctuation errors.

• If your novel did not pass the initial evaluation, you may resubmit your work free of charge within 60 days of receiving the notice that your novel did not pass. Once the 60-day window has lapsed, an author must pay the full submission price to resubmit their book for review.
• In all other instances, authors may resubmit their novel two additional times but will be required to pay the full submission cost for each submission.
• If a novel does not pass the endorsement process three times, it cannot be resubmitted.
• If we find that an author tries to resubmit a novel that has failed the endorsement process three times, we retain the right to refuse review without a refund.
• We freely acknowledge that our evaluators cannot be 100% objective, which is why we employ a layer of quality control before any endorsement decision is approved. All decisions to endorse or not endorse a novel are final. We do not allow authors to refute the evaluator’s opinion and we do not issue refunds once a novel has been accepted into the evaluation process.

• If your published novel receives the Compulsion Reads Endorsement, it will automatically be featured on our website in our Endorsed Books Library.
• If your book is not yet published, we would be happy to feature the novel as soon as it is available for sale. We’ll ask that you just send us a cover shot, a short description and a link or links to where it is available for sale.
• If, for any reason, you would prefer not to have your novel featured on our website, please contact us, and we will take it down.

Still have questions? Check out our FAQs or contact us.