Professional Aurora awards definition

The Aurora awards are split into two areas: professional and amateur.  There are eight professional awards: Novel, Young Adult (YA) Novel, Novelette/Novella, Short Story, Graphic Novel/Comic, Poetry/Song, Related Work, Cover Art/Interior Illustration.  Amateur artists are included in the Best Fan Related Work category.  An artist may not be included in both professional and fan categories in the same year.

Please note, that once you are deemed to be a professional in an area, such as writing or as an artist, then you will always be considered a professional even if your future work is unpaid.

Our definition of a professional is one that earns all or part of their living from an endeavour.  This may be a flat rate or be based on commission.  Getting paid with copies of your work or a token compensation is not a Professional standard.

Professionals may be nominated for the professional awards for activities relevant to the award for unpaid work once they are deemed a professional in the applicable category.  This means that if you are a writer then written works whether they are paid or unpaid would still be deemed to be professional work.  This the same for other types of professional work.

When referring to Novels an ISBN (International Standard Book Number) is required.  This also includes Anthologies, a Single Author Collection, and the stories within them.  A work may be published by a major press, small press or self-published.  We can also define a professional as someone who has a paying contract with a publisher for that work.

Short written works, such as Novelette, Novella, Short Stories, Flash Fiction, Poetry, or Songs Lyrics would not be defined as “professional” if the author is not paid or paid sub-professional compensation.  Works that are just posted on a website or printed in a magazine that are given away for free are classified as amateur and would only be eligible for Fan awards.  The exceptions are if the author is paid by the website host or if the author has been previously defined as a professional for prior work.  It is up to an author to inform the awards committee in these situations.

Contests, such as local short story contests, where payment is based on prizes are not classified as professional.  A work would only be classified as professional if the contest resulted in it being published in a book or magazine that was nationally available through a physical or electronic publication.  A work would only be eligible during the year it was published not the year it won a contest.

Note:  To be eligible for an Aurora, works must be commercially available to be purchased from other brick and mortar stores or by online sales.  Kickstart programs do not count until those works are sold to the general public.  Art that is only sold through an art show is no longer eligible for an award.

The administrator’s decision is final and binding.

Ver: 10-Jan-2023