The Keystone Contest
Rules & Registration

ELIGIBILITY

Participation is open to all authors who are unpublished, self-published, and traditionally published.

The entry must be the author’s original work, unpublished in any format (including author’s website, self-publication, e-book, mass market, etc.) and not under contract as of the contest’s closing for entries on July 1st, 2025.

Entries must be taken from a manuscript with a Central Love Story, where the main plot centers around individuals falling in love and struggling to make the relationship work, and an Emotionally Satisfying and Optimistic Ending. The entered scene must be the key scene of your manuscript: it is the scene which holds the rest of the story together and on which all else depends, such as the opening, or the Meet Cute, or the First Kiss, or the Point of No Return.

CONTEST DATES AND REGISTRATION DEADLINE

• June 8th, 2025 at 10:00 am EDT (Eastern Daylight Time): The Keystone Contest opens for registration.
• July 1st, 2025 at 8:00cgt p.m. EDT (Eastern Daylight Time): All submissions must be received electronically by this date/time. Entries received after the deadline will be returned and the entry fee will be forfeited.
• July 6th, 2025: Entries will be sent to judges.
• July 30th, 2025: Judged entries due back to VFRW.
• August 3rd, 2025: Finalists announced.
• September 6th, 2025: Winner announced.

HOW THE KEYSTONE CONTEST WORKS

• Authors will submit an electronic copy of each entry according to the format listed below. (See ENTRY FORMAT.)
  -There are no categories; all entries compete in the same pool.
  – All heat levels, ability levels, backgrounds, and sexualities are welcome. Stories featuring LGBTQ+, multicultural, and diverse characters of varying backgrounds and abilities are not only accepted, but also encouraged.
• At least two (2) but no more than three (3) trained judges will be assigned per entry. The average of all scores will be used to determine finalists.
• Up to the top three (3) entries will be announced as finalists. A minimum averaged score of 80% is required to become a finalist.
• Entrants will receive their scoresheets, which may include judge comments.
• The overall winner will be selected from the top three (3) entries by our judge, Mindy Kuhn, from Warren Publishing, a premier hybrid book publisher.

AWARDS

All Finalists will receive certificates, web badges, and charms and will be announced through VFRW social media. In addition, the overall Contest Winner will receive a $25 Visa gift card.

ENTRY FEE

• $5 for all VFRW members
• $15 for all non-VFRW members (May be applied toward membership in VFRW)

Payment must be made by electronic payment via PayPal.

All entry fees must be received by VFRW by 8:00 pm EDT on July 1st, 2025, or the entry will be disqualified and the fee forfeited.

All entry fees are non-refundable.

ENTRY

Entries must include:

• Up to 500 words to set up the scene for the judges and explain why this is the Keystone Scene of the manuscript
• Up to 5,000 words of/from the Keystone Scene

There is no limit on the number of entries an author may submit, provided all of the entries meet the eligibility requirements.

Any entries submitted after the deadline will not be accepted; the entry fee will be forfeited.

The contest is limited to 35 entries.

Entries will be evaluated with AI detection software. Any entry scoring over 35% will be disqualified for content.

Entries deemed at the discretion of the VFRW Board to be plagiarized in part or total will be disqualified for content.

Entries deemed at the discretion of the VFRW Board to contain abuse, rape, bestiality, pedophilia, or other illegal, non-consensual, or objectionable practices will be disqualified for content.

The VFRW Board’s decision to disqualify an entry for any reason is final. If an entry is disqualified for content, no refunds will be issued.

ENTRY FORMAT

• Entrants will submit one Microsoft Word .docx file per entered work.
• The setup (500 words) should be first, followed by the Keystone Scene pages (up to 5,000 words).
• The entire document will be double-spaced.
• The entire document will have one-inch margins.
• The entire document will use Times New Roman font, 12-point.
• Manuscript headers will include and be limited to the title of the entry and category in the upper left corner and the page number in the upper right corner.
• The author’s name may not appear anywhere on the entry, including in the document properties. (For a how-to on removing this data, please see here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/remove-hidden-data-and-personal-information-by-inspecting-documents-presentations-or-workbooks-356b7b5d-77af-44fe-a07f-9aa4d085966f. If you use google docs, download the file as a word document before following these steps.)  

Entrants who do not comply with the formatting rules as stated above will be contacted and given until the contest registration deadline to correct the infraction. Failure to comply by the deadline will disqualify the entrant. The entry fee will be forfeited.

JUDGING

Entrants will receive a detailed score sheet from no less than two (2) and no more than three (3) trained, qualified judges. Judges will be encouraged to comment on the score sheet, but VFRW cannot guarantee that all judges will comply with this suggestion.

To be eligible to judge for The Keystone Contest, all potential judges must complete a training program, to include instruction on recognizing and eliminating bias from their judging.

Should a judge believe an entry to not be an original work; to be published previously; to not contain a Central Love Story and an Emotionally Satisfying and Optimistic Ending; and/or to contain racism, discrimination, abuse, rape, bestiality, pedophilia, or other illegal, non-consensual, or objectionable practices, then the judge may flag the entry for potential disqualification. Entries will be reviewed by the VFRW Board, who will evaluate the complaint and rule on disqualifying the entry.

All judges’ scoring and comments will be reviewed for bias, abuse, insult, and unprofessionalism. Any comments they identify as below VFRW standards will be forwarded to the VFRW Board, who will determine if the comments will stand or be removed, up to and including removal and replacement of the judge’s entire critique, additional judge training, and disqualification of the judge from participating in The Keystone Contest.

All scores will count and be averaged to obtain the entry’s final score.

• Any score below a 55 will be reviewed and evaluated.
• Should a difference of 18 points or greater between scores occur, the Contest Chair will have an additional judge read and score the entry. The original outlying score will not be included in the calculation of the entry’s final score and may or may not be forwarded to the entrant at the Contest Chair’s discretion.

Should an entrant believe a judge’s comments to be biased, abusive, insulting, or unprofessional, a special committee of the VFRW President and no less than two VFRW members shall evaluate the complaint and rule on disqualifying the judge for future contests.

No entry from a Valley Forge Romance Writers member shall be judged by any other member. All member entries will be judged by non-member judges to ensure fairness to all entrants.

Entrants are not permitted to judge in the Keystone.

Questions or concerns? Please contact The Keystone Contest Chair Miranda Montrose at vfrwkeystonecontest@gmail.com.