NEO•GRIOT

1. ELIGIBILITY

The Textnovel Contest (the "Contest") is offered by Textnovel, LLC ("Textnovel") and open only to residents of the United States, Canada and those countries where the Contest is allowed by law. By entering the Contest, you accept sole responsibility for determining whether your participation is legal in any jurisdiction that applies to you. You must be at least 13 years old (and if you are not of the age of majority in your jurisdiction of residence, you must have the consent of a parent) and have an active e-mail account and Internet access at the time of entry. By entering, you agree to these "Contest Rules" and that the decisions of Textnovel are final and binding in all respects. Textnovel reserves the right to disallow participation by the residents of any specific country in its sole discretion, either now or upon completion of the Contest, if Textnovel determines in its sole discretion that tax, jurisdictional and other issues make it infeasible or overly difficult to award the prize, calculate witholding taxes, or obtain publication rights from residents of that specific country.

2. DESCRIPTION OF CONTEST AND CONTEST PERIOD

The Contest is for the "best" textnovel story or novel, as determined in the sole discretion of the Textnovel editorial advisory board. Eligible Textnovel stories must be in English and can be submitted and created online, by email or by text from a cell phone, and may include images and/or illustrations. The Contest begins on January 1, 2010 and runs until midnight Mountain Time (U.S.) on August 31st, 2010 (the "Contest Period"). Each participant may submit one Basic Story and an unlimited number of Premium Stories  during this period, each of which is deemed an entry. However, in order to qualify for the Contest, each story must have at least 50,000 words by Midnight Mountain Time on August 31st, 2010. To be eligible to win the Contest, your Textnovel account information must include your correct and full name and a valid e-mail address. You must also be in compliance with the Textnovel Terms of Use. If Textnovel determines, in its sole discretion, that your story contains content or images not in compliance, your story will not be eligible for the Contest. No particular format for the story is required for the Contest but authors are encouraged to include breaks between paragraphs and keep sentences and paragraphs reasonably short so that stories are easier to read online or by cell phone.

3. ENTRY

To enter the Contest, you must register as a Textnovel member at www.textnovel.com (the "Site"). You may then enter no more than one Basic Story in the Contest but you may enter an unlimited number of Premium Stories.  You can enter your stories from the My Library page (functionality for doing this will be available by January 1, 2010) and this must be done before August 31st, 2010. All submissions are subject to the submission requirements stated in the Terms of Use .

4. WINNER SELECTION

The winner(s) will be selected in the sole and absolute discretion of the Textnovel editorial advisory board, based on a combination of factors, including total views (page views), positive votes and subscriptions by readers and reviews by reviewers, as well as the subjective opinions of the Textnovel editorial advisory board. As part of the selection process, Textnovel may select semi-finalists and finalists and the final winner may come from the semi-finalists, finalists or not, at the discretion of Textnovel.  One of the key objectives is to find a novel that can be published and sold successfully in the U.S. market. Textnovel reserves the right to declare a tie between more than one winner, in which case the prize money will be divided equally among the tied contestants.

5. PRIZE

The prize for the Contest is $1,000 cash. The winner(s) will be notified by email and/or text message and/or phone call and must respond and accept the prize by signing and delivering an Affidavit of Eligibility and such additional agency and/or publication agreements as Textnovel or its partners may require within 5 business days of notification. It is currently contemplated that these agreements will either appoint Textnovel as the exclusive literary agent for the winning story for a period of not less than six (6) months or require that the winner grant the sole and exclusive right to publish the print and e-book versions of their story in the United States, Canada and the winner(s) country of residence within a period of 24 months after winning, in exchange for a royalty (specific amount to be determined based on partnership with publishing company and/or based on industry standard rates, in which case the $1,000 advance will be treated as an advance against future royalties or in the case of an agency agreement, as a reimbursable expense, but only reimbursable out of any advance or royalties received by the author from a publishing deal). The winner(s) will be announced on the Textnovel site after they are determined and have signed and delivered the appropriate documentation and been determined to meet all applicable criteria, at which time the prize will be paid as a lump sum. No assignment, transfer or substitution of the prize is permitted. The prize is expressed in U.S. Dollars. Taxes on the prize are the sole responsibility of the winner(s). Note that if your story wins and was created by multiple authors, Textnovel may require that each such author sign an Affidavit of Eligibility and additional agreements.

6. GENERAL CONDITIONS

Textnovel reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to disqualify any individual it finds to be tampering with the entry or voting process or the operation of the Contest or the Site; to be in violation of the Terms of Use; to be acting in violation of these Contest Rules; to be acting in an unethical or disruptive manner, or with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass any other person, as determined by Textnovel in its sole discretion. Any use of robotic, automatic, macro, programmed or similar voting methods will void all entries by such methods and persons using any such methods will be disqualified. Repeated voting by a member for their own story will void that member's Contest participation. If for any reason this Contest is not capable of being conducted as planned due to infection by computer virus, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures, or any other causes which, in the sole opinion textnovel, corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity, or proper conduct of this Contest, Textnovel reserves the right to cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the Contest. Textnovel reserves the right to change the Contest Rules prior to August 31st, 2010.