Terms and Conditions

General information

The 2020 Crowns are for books published from the 1 April 2010– 31st March 2020

Timeline

Nominations open: 1st October 2019
Nominations close: 30th April 2020 (Judges may call in titles after this date).

Entering the HWA Crowns

Nominations must be entered via the website form for each Crown unless called in by the judges. Once the nomination has been received we will send out an invoice for the submission fee(s). 

Submission Fee

There is a submission fee of £35 per title per entry.

Publication Dates

The 2019 Crowns are for books published from the 1 April 2019– 31st March 2020

Eligibility

‘Historical’ is defined as a novel where the overwhelming bulk of the narrative and the text are set in a period 35 years or more before the date of publication.

Any UK print publisher may enter books provided that the book is relevant to the appropriate award, as defined under Eligibility, and the first UK print edition was published within the specified dates of the Judging Period.

A publisher may submit one title per author.

We must point out that is unlikely that judges will give serious consideration to books that have not been professionally published by recognised publishing houses. ‘’Vanity’’ publications and those whose publication has been partly or wholly subsidised by the author, and ‘’Branded’’ books, in which another person writes for the original author, are unlikely to be considered.

All books must have been published in a physical format. Titles that have only been published electronically are not eligible. 

HWA Debut Crown

This award is for the best historical novel by a first-time fiction author first published in the UK in English during the Judging Period.

HWA  Gold Crown
This award is for the best historical novel author first published in the UK in English during the Judging Period.

HWA Non-Fiction Crown
This award is for the best non-fiction work first published in the UK in English during the Judging Period.

Nomination Fee

There is a nomination fee of £35.

Judges details (i.e their mailing address) will be supplied when the invoice has been raised this year – please pay promptly.

It is the publisher’s responsibility to ensure that all payments are received by the administrator.

Submission Dates

The final deadline for submitting is the 30th April 2020. All forms must be completed, and processing fees paid (except by prior arrangement), by this date. Publishers then have a further two weeks to deliver the books to the judges.

Delivery of Books

One physical copy will be sent to each judge and one epub/PDF file will be sent to the prize administrator for distribution if requested. UPDATED: We appreciate that many publishers will wish to provide judges with e-versions of books rather than physical copies this year. We love having the physical books, but of course we wholeheartedly support all the efforts the industry is making to keep their employees safe and healthy and will happily take e-versions if needs be.

Judges details (i.e their mailing address) will be supplied when the invoice has been raised.

In case of hard copies, please use Royal Mail to deliver books where possible, as it can be hard for judges to rearrange deliveries of missed packages with other couriers.

Publicity

It is an absolute condition of entry that publishers:

Will put the HWA logo and ‘’Winner/Shortlisted for the HWA [insert name] Crown’’ as appropriate on the cover of subsequent editions of winning/shortlisted books.

Will make every effort to ensure that any shortlisted author attends the Awards Ceremony (date and location tbc), and will be available for media interviews immediately afterwards and/or on the following morning.

Will, on request, provide a cover image and author photograph with the necessary clearances for use on the HWA web sites.

Submission of any entry will be taken as complete acceptance of these conditions.

Winners 

The winners will be announced on 25th November 2020.

We plan to hold the ceremony in St Ethelburga’s Church in Bishopsgate, but of course this will depend on what is safe and practical at that time. The safety of our members, authors, publishers, agents, judges, bloggers, booksellers and friends remains our top priority, and if that means the Crowns Ceremony becomes an online celebration only, so be it.

Queries should be addressed to:  chair@historicalwriters.org