Pay It Forward Award (PIFA) 2026

The Pay It Forward Award 2026 (“PIFA” or “Contest”) is a skill-based contest. Entry is free of charge. No payment, donation, or purchase of any kind is required to enter or win.

The Sponsor of PIFA is Atomix Publishing (“Sponsor”), an imprint of Atomix LLC, a Colorado limited liability company. Sponsor’s mailing address: [TBD — Sponsor]. Questions about these Official Rules may be directed to the pub.co contact form (subject: “PIFA Award”) or by reaching @wwwPUBco on X.

PIFA 2026 begins on [TBD — Sponsor: start date] and ends on [TBD — Sponsor: submission deadline]at 11:59 PM Pacific Time (the “Contest Period”). Judging will occur from [TBD — Sponsor] through [TBD — Sponsor]. Winners and finalists will be announced on or about [TBD — Sponsor: announcement date]. Sponsor’s computer is the official time-keeping device for PIFA.

PIFA is open to natural persons who:

• are at least 18 years of age at time of entry;
• are legal residents of jurisdictions in which this Contest is legal (void where prohibited or restricted by law);
• are self-published or small-press-published authors of fiction;
• own all rights necessary to grant the licenses described in Section 11 below for the submitted book and its description (the “Blurb”); and
• have not had their submission written, in whole or in part, by an artificial-intelligence tool (see Section 6).

Authors published by major traditional publishers (Big-Five imprints and equivalent) are not eligible. Employees, officers, directors, contractors, and immediate family members (spouse, parent, child, sibling, and their spouses) and members of the household of Sponsor, its parent and affiliated companies, judges, advertising and promotional agencies, and any other entity directly involved in the administration of PIFA are not eligible to enter or win.

During the Contest Period, eligible authors may enter PIFA by completing the following steps:

1. Create (or sign into) a free pub.co account at my.pub.co/sign-up.
2. Complete the PIFA entry form at awards.pub.co.
3. Provide all required information: applicant name and email (auto-filled from your pub.co account); book title and (if applicable) series name and series number; eligible genre(s); a Blurb (English; 150–250 words recommended); optional book cover image; optional retailer links; and all required eligibility certifications.
4. Submit. You will receive a confirmation email from Sponsor at the email address on file.

Limit: One (1) entry per book. Duplicate entries of the same book by the same entrant or by different entrants will result in disqualification of all duplicate entries.

Each Blurb must:

• be written in English;
• be the entrant’s own original work (or that of the book’s licensed editor working from entrant’s source material);
• fit one of the PIFA 2026 eligible genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Dystopian, or Apocalyptic Speculative Fiction;
• Nothave been generated, in whole or in part, by a large-language model or other artificial-intelligence text-generation tool. This applies to both the Blurb and the underlying book. Entries flagged by reviewers as suspected AI-generated content may be subject to additional review and disqualification at Sponsor’s sole discretion;
• not contain unlawful, defamatory, obscene, threatening, hateful, discriminatory, or otherwise objectionable content; and
• not infringe any third party’s intellectual property, privacy, or other rights.

Entries that fail to meet these requirements may be disqualified at Sponsor’s sole discretion. Sponsor reserves the right (but not the obligation) to verify any entry, including by requesting an entrant to certify compliance in writing.

Each eligible Blurb will be scored by three (3) or more independent reviewers on the following weighted rubric:

• Hook — 25%
• Clarity & Readability — 20%
• Genre Fit & World-Building — 20%
• Writing Quality & Voice — 20%
• Overall Opinion — 15%

Reviewers will not see the entrant’s legal name, pen name, or other personally identifying information during judging (“blind review”). Reviewer scores will be aggregated and may be normalized for inter-reviewer variance. In the event of a tie, the Hook score will be used as the tiebreaker; if a tie remains, Sponsor’s lead reviewer will make a final, binding determination.

All judging decisions are final and binding. By entering, entrants agree to be bound by the judges’ decisions.

The following prizes will be awarded:

• First Place:$200 USD Amazon.com Gift Card; PIFA First Place digital badge for use on the winner’s book pages and author profile; permanent listing on the PIFA Winners page at awards.pub.co.
• Second Place: $100 USD Amazon.com Gift Card; PIFA Second Place digital badge; permanent listing.
• Third Place: $50 USD Amazon.com Gift Card; PIFA Third Place digital badge; permanent listing.
• Seven (7) Finalists: $10 USD Amazon.com Gift Card each; PIFA Finalist digital badge; listing on the PIFA Finalists page.
• Honorable Mention: All other entrants who completed eligible submissions will receive a digital PIFA Honorable Mention badge.

Total approximate retail value (ARV): $370 USD.

Prizes are non-transferable. No cash or other substitution is permitted, except by Sponsor in the case of unavailability, in which case a prize of equal or greater value will be awarded. Prizes cannot be combined with any other offer. All federal, state, local, and other taxes, fees, and surcharges on prizes are the sole responsibility of the winner. Winners may be required to complete tax forms (e.g., IRS Form W-9) where applicable.

Amazon.com Gift Cards (“GCs”) may be used only for purchases of eligible goods at Amazon.com or certain of its affiliated websites. For complete terms and conditions see www.amazon.com/gc-legal. GCs are issued by ACI Gift Cards LLC, a Washington corporation. All Amazon ®, ™ & © are IP of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. Amazon.com is not a sponsor of this promotion.

Because PIFA is judged on the merit of submitted Blurbs and not by random selection, the odds of winning depend on the number and quality of eligible entries received and on the judges’ assessment of those entries.

Potential winners will be notified by email at the address provided in their entry within fourteen (14) days after the announcement date. To claim a prize, the potential winner must, within seven (7) days of notification:

1. respond to the notification;
2. confirm eligibility under these Official Rules; and
3. provide any additional information reasonably requested by Sponsor (which may include a signed Affidavit of Eligibility, Liability Release, and where lawful, a Publicity Release).

Failure to respond, to comply with these requirements, or if Sponsor cannot deliver the prize after reasonable attempts, may result in forfeiture of the prize and selection of an alternate winner. If a prize remains unclaimed at the end of the alternate-selection process, Sponsor may, at its sole discretion, donate the unclaimed prize amount to a charity supporting indie authors or writing education.

By entering, each entrant grants Sponsor a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable license to use, display, reproduce, publish, distribute, and create derivative works of the submitted Blurb, book title, book cover image, and author name (or pen name, where applicable) for the following purposes:

• administering the Contest;
• blind review and judging;
• public announcement of winners, finalists, and honorable mentions;
• marketing, advertising, and promotion of PIFA (this and subsequent cycles), of pub.co, and of Sponsor and its products and services.

Sponsor will not modify the Blurb in any way that materially alters its meaning without entrant’s consent. Except where prohibited by law, by accepting a prize, winners further agree that Sponsor may use winner’s name, voice, likeness, biographical information, and statements about the Contest for promotional purposes in any media now known or hereafter devised, without additional compensation, notification, or permission.

Sponsor reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to:

• disqualify any entrant who tampers with the entry process, violates these Official Rules, or acts in a disruptive or non-sportsmanlike manner;
• modify, suspend, cancel, or terminate the Contest if it determines, in its sole discretion, that the Contest cannot be conducted as planned, including due to fraud, technical failures, or any other cause beyond Sponsor’s reasonable control that corrupts the integrity of the Contest; and
• seek damages and other remedies (including attorneys’ fees) from any individual who tampers with the operation of the Contest to the fullest extent permitted by law.

Any attempt by any person to deliberately damage the Contest or undermine its legitimate operation may be a violation of criminal and civil law.

By entering, each entrant agrees to release and hold harmless Sponsor, its parent, subsidiaries, and affiliates, its advertising and promotional agencies, and each of their respective officers, directors, employees, contractors, and agents (collectively, the “Released Parties”) from any and all liability, loss, or damage of any kind arising out of or in connection with: participation in the Contest; the acceptance, possession, use, or misuse of any prize; or any claim based on publicity rights, defamation, invasion of privacy, or infringement of intellectual property.

The Released Parties are not responsible for: lost, late, incomplete, illegible, misdirected, garbled, or undelivered entries; technical, hardware, software, server, network, or Internet failures; or any combination thereof. Released Parties are not responsible for incorrect or inaccurate entry information whether caused by entrants, printing errors, or by any equipment or programming associated with or used in the Contest.

Except where prohibited by law, all issues and questions concerning the construction, validity, interpretation, and enforceability of these Official Rules, or the rights and obligations of entrants and Sponsor in connection with PIFA, shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of [TBD — Sponsor: choice of law], without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles. By entering, entrants agree that any disputes shall be brought solely in the state or federal courts located in [TBD — Sponsor: venue]. Entrants waive any right to a jury trial and, to the fullest extent permitted by law, any right to participate as a class member in a class action lawsuit against Sponsor.

Information collected from entrants is subject to Sponsor’s Privacy Policy. By entering, entrants consent to Sponsor’s processing of their information for the purposes of administering PIFA and as otherwise described in the Privacy Policy.

A list of winners will be posted at awards.pub.co following the announcement date. Entrants may also request a copy of the winners list by sending a message through the pub.co contact form with subject “PIFA Award” and a note in the message body that they are requesting the winners list.

If any provision of these Official Rules is found by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid or unenforceable, the remainder of these Official Rules shall remain in full force and effect. Sponsor’s failure to enforce any provision shall not constitute a waiver of that provision.

PIFA is not sponsored, endorsed, administered by, or associated with Amazon.com, Inc. or any of its parents, subsidiaries, or affiliates. References to Amazon.com Gift Cards as prizes are for descriptive purposes only. All Amazon trademarks are the property of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.

PIFA is void wherever prohibited or restricted by applicable law.

For questions about these Official Rules, contact the Sponsor through the pub.co contact form (subject: “PIFA Award”).