All You Need To Know About the Self-Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC)

Writing

Oct 16

"Illustration of a girl engrossed in a book with a colorful outer space setting. — Image by Sniezka / Deposit Photos.

I am very excited to be a judge for SPSFC 5 (2025–2026)! This is a contest for self-published authors of sci-fi, founded in 2021 by Hugh Howey. It takes place over a year, where judges evaluate submissions and post reviews over that time. Here is some information about the contest.

Important Dates

Submission Deadline: Nov 9, 2025
Round 1: Nov 17, 2025 – May 10, 2026
Semifinals: May 11, 2026 – July 11, 2026
Finals: Jul 12, 2026 – Sep 13, 2026
Winner announced: Sep 14, 2026

Eligibility

To enter SPSFC5, your book must be a work of science fiction, at least 40K words, self-published, standalone or first-in-series, YA or adult, not AI-authored, and published by Nov 17, 2025. You can only enter one book into the contest. You can submit a book that has been entered in a past SPSFC contest, but it cannot have made it to the semifinals or further. See here for more details.