top of page

Governing law

By entering, entrants agree to be bound by these terms and conditions. The competition is governed by the laws of India. The entrants also agree that any dispute arising between the parties shall be resolved through Arbitration. Further, in any such dispute, under no circumstances will entrants be permitted to obtain awards for, and hereby waive all rights to claim, punitive, incidental or consequential damages, including legal fees, other than the entrant’s actual out-of-pocket expenses (e.g. costs associated with entering), and entrant further waives all rights to have damages multiplied or increased. Entrants agree that the decisions of PenAime and the judges related to the Competition are final.

Disqualification

PenAime reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to disqualify any individual found to be tampering with the entry process, the outcome of the competition, or the operation of the competition or any PenAime site; to be acting in violation of these Terms & Conditions; or to be acting in an unsportsmanlike or disruptive manner, or with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass any other person or entrant.

CAUTION: Any attempt by any individual to deliberately damage any PenAime website or undermine the legitimate operation of the competition may be a violation of criminal and civil laws. Should such an attempt be made, PenAime and its affiliates reserve the right to seek damages and/or other relief from any such person to the fullest extent permitted by law.

Failure to enforce any of these terms shall not constitute a waiver.

Limitation of liability

  • PenAime is not responsible for any error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, theft or destruction, or unauthorized access to, or alteration of, Entries, or for technical, network, telephone, computer, hardware or software, malfunctions of any kind, or inaccurate transmission of, or failure to receive any entry information on account of technical problems or traffic congestion on the Internet or at any PenAime website.

  • PenAime is not responsible for injury or damage to any entrant's or any other person's computer resulting from downloading any materials in connection with the Competition.

  • PenAime will not be responsible or liable for: (i) any failure to receive entries due to transmission failures or other conditions beyond their reasonable control; (ii) any late, lost, misrouted, garbled or distorted or damaged transmissions or entries; (iii) any disruptions, injuries, losses or damages caused by events beyond their reasonable control; or (iv) any printing or typographical errors in any materials associated with the Competition.

  • PenAime accepts no liability in relation to an entrant's participation (or inability to participate) in the Competition, including any use made by any of the Winners of (or inability to use) their respective prizes, to the maximum extent permitted by law. Without prejudice to that general exclusion, and insofar as is permitted by law, by entering the Competition entrants release PenAime, any person or any entity involved in any aspect of the Competition (including funding, judging or administration), and each of their respective parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, advisors, contractors, and advertising/promotion agencies, from any liability whatsoever for any claims, injuries, losses, or damages of any kind arising out of or in connection with the Competition or with the acceptance, possession, or use of any prize, except as prohibited by law or where it is caused by the negligence of those parties. PenAime will not be liable for any loss of income, profits, sales or damage to reputation, incurred by any entrant. Your statutory rights are not affected. PenAime does not exclude or limit its liability for personal injury or death caused by its negligence or for fraudulent misrepresentation or any other liability that may not, by law, be limited or excluded.

Changes to these Terms and Conditions

Within the limits imposed by law, PenAime reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to change these Terms & Conditions or cancel the Competition at any time, or to modify, terminate, or suspend the Competition should viruses, worms, bugs, unauthorized human intervention, or other causes beyond PenAime’s control corrupt or impair the administration, security, fairness, or proper play of the Competition or submission of Entries, or in the event PenAime does not receive a minimum of 20 qualified Entries from separate eligible entrants.

Grant of rights

  • By entering the Competition, entrants grant PenAime permission to use their names, biographical information, Entries, images, and/or likenesses in any manner and in any medium for any purpose in connection with the Competition, including worldwide, without additional compensation, except where prohibited by law.

  • All Entries, along with the entrant’s name may be posted on any website operated by PenAime or any of its affiliates, PenAime’s social media accounts such as Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, and any other website or other online point of presence on any platform, through which any products or services available on or through the PenAime Site are described, syndicated, offered, merchandised or advertised, in PenAime’s sole discretion.

  • By submitting an Entry, you grant PenAime and agents permission to use, without charge, portions of your Entry, along with your name and stated reason for writing the submitted Book (if provided), for any purpose in connection with the Competition. You also grant PenAime the right to edit the formatting and display of your Entry, and to create literary or any other types of effects in respect to your Book without compensation or approval. To the extent that any moral rights (for example, the right to attribution and the right to integrity) apply, you waive (and to the extent that these rights may not be waived, agree irrevocably not to assert) your moral rights in your Entry for the purposes of this Competition, including, without limitation, our use of excerpts from your Book in connection with this Competition. Such use of excerpts from your book does not indicate that you are the winner. Nor does it indicate any transfer of copyright.

Prizes

  • The winners of the competition will receive a cash prizes from a prize pool of up to INR Six Lakh rupees  (6,00,000) in the following manner:

  • The first prize winner will receive a cash prize of INR 3,00,000 (Three Lakh), the second prize winner will receive INR 1,00,000 (One Lakh), and the third to tenth prize winners will each receive INR 25,000 (Twenty-Five Thousand).

  • In the event that the book selected as a winner has two co-authors, only one finalist prize will be awarded, and it will be shared equally between the two co-authors.

  • The cash prize will be given to the author in the form of a cheque, which the author must collect from the office of PenAime on the date as specified by PenAime for this purpose.

  • The winner will be responsible for paying all costs and expenses related to the applicable prize(s) that are not specifically mentioned, including, but not limited to, taxes and any other expenses that might reasonably be incurred by the winner in receiving or using the prize. Each winner may be required to submit to PenAime such tax filing information as required by PenAime in order to claim the prize. All prizes awarded will be inclusive of any taxes PenAime is required by law to withhold, as well as applicable sales, use, gross receipts, goods and services, or similar transaction-based taxes, as determined by PenAime in its sole discretion at the time such prizes are awarded. All other taxes, costs, and expenses associated with the acceptance and use of any prize not specified in these Terms & Conditions as being provided are the sole responsibility of the winner.

  • If taxes are applicable to the prizes, it is the responsibility of the winners to pay them to the appropriate authorities. Payments to the winners are subject to the express requirement that the winners submit to PenAime all documentation requested by PenAime to permit compliance with all applicable tax reporting and withholding requirements. If a winner fails to provide the documentation or submits incomplete documentation, the applicable prize may be forfeited, and PenAime may, at its sole discretion, select an alternate winner.

  • Prizes are not transferable, and no substitutions (including cash) will be given. However, PenAime reserves the right to substitute any prize (or portion thereof) for a reasonably equivalent item of comparable or greater value, in its sole discretion.

Scoring and selection of winners

  • Scoring – The works will be ranked based on the unit sales of that work. The competition will be based on the performance of individual books, not the cumulative score of all books published by an author. Accordingly, the author of the single book that accumulates the highest number of points will be declared the winner.

  • Monthly listing – Every month, a list of 10 authors with the highest number of sales generated will be published on the website.

  • Finalists- On May 21, 2026, a list of 10 authors will be published as finalists on the website. Each Finalist will be notified by PenAime by phone or e-mail on the same day. From May 21 to June 15, the selected top 10 finalists will have the opportunity to compete against each other in the final phase. Their performance during this period will determine who earns the title of the ultimate winner.

  • Winner – On June 19, 2026, the author of the book with the most points will be declared the winner and will be published on the website.

  • In the event of a tie, the prize money will be divided equally between the authors. Each Finalist will have seven (7) business days from the date of PenAime’s notice to respond to PenAime by email to and confirm acceptance of the Finalist Prize (as defined below). If a Finalist (or any substitute Finalist) is disqualified, ineligible, cannot be reached, or fails to claim the Finalist Prize within seven (7) business days of PenAime’s notice, that Finalist (or substitute Finalist) will forfeit the Finalist Prize and it will be awarded to the entrant who submitted the next highest rated Entry.

Use of personal data

By entering the Competition, you are providing your personal data to PenAime as a data controller and acknowledge that your personal data will be used by PenAime for the purposes of administering the Competition, conducting publicity about the Competition, and such additional purposes consistent with the nature of the Competition. PenAime will share your information with third parties that have a need to know, such as any judging panels and third parties PenAime retains to assist in administering the Competition. All personal data submitted in connection with this Competition will be treated in accordance with PenAime’s privacy policy.

Conditions of entry

  • Each entrant must follow and meet the following requirements when submitting an entry.

  • The entrant must have subscribed to either the Advanced or Premium self-publishing model provided by PenAime. Additionally, the entrant must have authored the book using AI tools, as outlined in the PenAime submission guidelines. Authors who have written their books without the use of AI tools, or those who follow traditional writing methods, are not eligible to participate in this competition or publish through PenAime.

  • The PenAime Talos Awards will officially launch on June 19, 2025, and the competition will commence only upon the enrollment of a minimum of 20 authors in an eligible subscription plan.

  • If the entrant has chosen a monthly subscription plan, failure to maintain uninterrupted auto-renewal payments at any time after the work is published and entered into the contest will result in disqualification from the competition.

  • Entrants agree to comply with PenAime terms & Conditions as amended from time to time and meet other reasonable community standards.

  • The work must be previously unpublished on any platform, including PenAime

  • The entrant's work will be available through various e-commerce platforms and offline bookstores. However, only sales made through Amazon will be considered for the competition.

  • For a work to be considered for the competition, the MRP shall be no less than INR 299, irrespective of the number of pages of the book.

  • Each entrant, by entering this competition and accepting these terms and conditions, represents and warrants that (i) the AI-powered content used in the work was created through tools that permit commercial use and grant copyright ownership to the user. (ii) the work is original or lawfully derived from the public domain or licensed materials, and that it does not infringe any copyrights. (iii) In case the work is an adaptation of a screenplay into a novel using AI tools, the author warrants that the copyright of such screenplay is held by him/her. (iv) the work is not libelous, defamatory, or otherwise unlawful. (v) the exploitation of the rights granted by these Terms & Conditions has not infringed, and will not infringe, the rights of any third party.

  • The entrant shall indemnify and hold PenAime harmless against all liabilities, costs, expenses, damages and losses (including but not limited to any direct, indirect or consequential losses, loss of profit, loss of reputation and all interest, penalties and legal costs (calculated on a full indemnity basis) and all other professional costs and expenses) suffered or incurred by PenAime arising out of or in connection with any breach of the representation and warranties above. At the request of PenAime and at the entrant's own expense, it shall provide all reasonable assistance to enable PenAime to resist any claim, action, or proceedings brought against PenAime as a consequence of that breach.

How to enter

All entrants are automatically entered into the competition upon subscribing to either the Advanced or Premium model of self-publishing on or before May 21, 2026. Authors who subscribe after this date will be considered for the next competition period.

Eligibility

This competition is open to entrants of age eighteen or over, who is of Indian nationality.

PenAime Talos Awards – T&C

These terms and conditions will govern the PenAime Talos Awards organized by PenAime. Please read these terms and conditions carefully.

bottom of page