Ethical Guidelines for Reviews & Awards

These guidelines are to ensure that MWSA reviews are standard, consistent, fair, and professional.

• All authors will receive the same consideration and be held to the same standards regardless of method of publication.

• Authors may not contact reviewers (by message, phone, text, Twitter, Facebook, email, or any other method of communication) during the review/award process. If an author contacts a reviewer, the reviewer will report the incident to the Awards Directors and the book will be disqualified from the awards process. The book will still be eligible for review and posting on the MWSA website.

• Reviewers will score books based on the standard criteria defined by MWSA and published on the MWSA website.

• Reviewers will recuse themselves from reviewing books written by family members or close associates.

• Reviewers who write in the same genre as a book they are reviewing pledge to judge any book in that genre fairly, using our industry-standard evaluation criteria, regardless of whether or not they are submitting a book in the same genre in the current award cycle.

• Reviewers may not negotiate reviews or scores with authors, publicists, or publishers.

• The Awards Directors maintain the fairness of the review and scoring process and are subject to removal by the board if conflicts of interest arise during the review process.

• Officers, board members, and reviewers may not offer awards to authors, publishers, agents, or any other organizations in exchange for joining MWSA or in exchange for money or other favors.