And we’re off! The rebooted Clive Staples Award (CSA) for 2013 has begun.

This contest covers any Christian speculative novel traditionally published last year — between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2012.

Any reader can nominate any such novel for the contest. This year a winner will receive not only recognition, but a cash prize.

Nominations are now open here on Speculative Faith: Clive Staples Award 2013: Calling All Nominations.

Q. What are the CSA rules?

A. Complete contest rules are available here: Clive Staples Award Contest Rules. Apart from the limitation to titles published in 2012, books must be published by a separate royalty-paying publisher, within the Christian speculative genre.

Q. How can you determine if your nomination qualifies?

A. The Speculative Faith Library may help.

Explore the Library

The SF Library’s mission is to list every Christian speculative novel ever published.

(And unlike this year’s CSA, the Library does also list self-published titles.)

Recently we installed an Advanced Library Search, located near the top right of Speculative Faith’s front page. Use that search to find your favorite novel, or search for all titles according to author, publisher, or BookTag.

For example, let’s say I especially enjoyed a Christian fantasy novel, which I’m fairly sure was published last year. I could look for it by the title, Medieval Orphan’s Christlike Quest, by the author, Linda P. Hildebrand, or by the publisher, VeryCrossWords.¹

Q. What if I can’t find my favorite novel in the SF Library?

A. If the novel is a published Christian speculative novel but not in the Library, it should be. (Even if the book doesn’t qualify for the 2013 CSA.)

Open the Submit Novel form to add the title.

A few notes on SF Library submissions:

• Adding a novel may take some minor research, but not much beyond reading the book’s own inside-front cover info.
• So we can “advertise” a story the same way its writer and/or publisher does, the Library lists exact descriptions from back cover, or for some hardbacks, inside front flaps. You can either write out the descriptions, or find a “statistically improbable phrase” in the description, and web-search that phrase to find the whole back-cover text online.
• If you can, include the exact date the novel was first published.
• Please include BookTags. These are very helpful to listing similar books that have, say, dragons, spaceships, or time travel, and that are part of romantic or allegorical or fantasy or paranormal, etc.
• There’s no need to include “Christian” or “speculative” as a BookTag. Every book in the Library is Christian and speculative.
• Include any endorsements, excerpts from reviews, and links to further information.
• Please include a cover image. (And not an image that also includes interruping Amazon “look inside this book” stickers!)

Write a review

Speculative Faith also accepts Christian-perspective reviews of published novels, whether original or previously published (by you).

Open the Submit Novel Review form to add your review.

• The process is much the same as submitting a novel, though we do require reviews to be at least 200 words long.
• Unlike brief comments after a book’s listing in the SF Library, accepted reviews will appear on our front page and go out to email and social-network subscribers.

Finally:

Q. Will you review my own (self-) published novel?

A. We don’t have a system set up for that, at least not yet.

Further up and further in!

E. Stephen Burnett
co-editor, webslinger
SpeculativeFaith.com