The Procedure Awards

No purchase or payment is necessary to enter or win. Purchase will not improve chances of winning.

Entrants must be 18 years of age or older and legal United States residents, excluding U.S. territories (e.g., Puerto Rico, Guam, U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands) Employees, officers, and directors of Procedure Press and its partners, subsidiaries, affiliates, advertising and fulfillment agencies, their immediate family members and individuals residing in their same household are not eligible. Void where prohibited

Entrants may submit their own work or nominate others.

Submitted books or chapbooks must be the original work of the entrant or, if submitting on another author’s behalf, the original work of the author who the entrant represents.

All entries must be written in English. Translations are not eligible.

Maximum of five entries per person.

Books must have been published in the United States within the last two years from the date of submission. This awards program is open to books published in the U.S., excluding U.S. territories (e.g., Puerto Rico, Guam, U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands).

Procedure Press reserves the right to disqualify any submission that does not comply with all guidelines or meet eligibility requirements or that is not successfully transmitted and received by the submission deadline below.

Self-published and traditionally published works are both welcome.

Submissions must be received no later than November 9, 2025 at 11:59 PM Pacific Standard Time.

Physical books submitted will not be returned.

Both digital and physical copies are accepted. If submitting a physical copy, it must be received — not postmarked — by the submission deadline.

Procedure Press may request up to five (5) additional physical copies of the submitted book from finalists to facilitate the judging process. Authors will be responsible for providing these additional copies upon request.

Mass entries or mechanical reproductions are invalid. Entries must be on topic and not offensive, demeaning, or derogatory.

Copyright remains with the author. However, Procedure Press reserves the right to publish brief excerpts (up to 250 words) of finalist and winning entries for marketing and award promotion.

By submitting, the entrant affirms they are the lawful copyright holder of the book submitted or duly authorized by the lawful copyright holder of the book submitted and have the authority to make the submission and grant the reproduction permission above.

Procedure Press will not share submissions with any third party outside the scope of the awards program (e.g., judges or official award staff). However, it is understood that submission involves some level of public exposure.

Procedure Press is not liable for any breach of copyright arising from submission and will not be responsible for infringement claims.

The author assumes all responsibility for any claims of defamation, copyright infringement, or other legal issues related to their submitted work.

Entrants agree to indemnify and hold harmless Procedure Press from any and all legal claims arising from their submission.

Neither Procedure Press nor any of its officers, directors, shareholders, employees, agents, or representatives (individually and collectively, “Releasees”) are responsible for submissions from persons residing or physically located outside the United States (excluding its territories), or submissions that are altered, delayed, deleted, destroyed, forged, fraudulent, illegible, improperly accessed, inaccurate, incomplete, interrupted, irregular in any way, late, lost, misdirected, multiple, non-delivered, stolen, tampered with, unauthorized, unintelligible, or otherwise not in compliance with these terms and conditions; or for lost, interrupted or unavailable network, server or other connections; miscommunications; failed computer hardware or software or telephone transmissions; technical failures; unauthorized human intervention; traffic congestion; garbled or jumbled transmissions; undeliverable emails resulting from any form of active or passive email filtering; insufficient space in entrant’s email account to receive email; or other errors of any kind, whether due to electronic, human, mechanical, printing, production or technical errors or other causes; even if caused by the negligence of any of the Releasees.  Each of such potential submissions will be disqualified and any attempt by a person to use multiple accounts to register more than the number of submissions allowed may result in disqualification at Procedure Press’s sole discretion. Void where prohibited or restricted by law, and subject to applicable federal, state, local, and municipal laws and regulations.

By entering, participants consent to Procedure Press storing their email address and contact information for award-related communication and occasional promotional messages.

This information will never be sold or shared with third parties not affiliated with the administration of the awards program, except to the extent necessary to process, judge, and select submissions, notify finalists and award winners, and publicly promote the Procedure Awards and publish the finalists and winners, as well as excerpts from their submissions.

Participants may request to opt out of further communications from Procedure Press at any time by submitting a written request.

All data will be handled in accordance with relevant privacy laws and securely stored. Any and all material entered and submitted for the Procedure Awards or otherwise collected by Procedure Press’s website or the website on which Procedure Awards’ main page is located will only be used for purposes related to the awards process and will not be shared without permission.

All eligible submissions will be reviewed by a panel of judges selected by Procedure Press. Judges may include authors, healthcare practitioners, artists, scholars, and publishing professionals who align with the mission of Procedure Press.

Judging will be based on a range of criteria including originality, artistic and literary merit, relevance to healthcare themes, and overall contribution to the cultural conversation around health and healing.

Finalists and winners will be notified via email during or around the week of December 1, 2025. Please ensure that Procedure Press has your current, correct email address. Winners accept their award within 48 hours of transmission of the email notification. Procedure Press is not responsible for and shall not be liable for late, lost, misdirected, or unsuccessful efforts to notify winner. Winner may not substitute, assign or transfer award or redeem award for cash or credit. Any costs associated with the award, are the sole responsibility of the winner. 

At the sole discretion of Procedure Press, disqualification, forfeiture and the selection of an alternate winner may result from any of the following: [1] potential winner’s failure to accept the prize within 48 hours of email notification; [2] the failure of notification or undeliverable emails resulting from any form of active or passive email filtering; insufficient space in entrant’s email account to receive email; [3] potential winner’s failure to provide Procedure Press with satisfactory proof of age, identity and residency; [4] potential winner’s failure to complete, execute, and return to Procedure Press a liability release agreement and, except where prohibited, a publicity release and other such documents as may be required by Procedure Press within period specified; and [5] potential winner’s failure to comply with any other requirements or restrictions in these terms and conditions. In the event of an award forfeiture, Procedure Press may, in its sole discretion, award or not award the forfeited award to an alternate winner.

Subject to timely receipt of their acceptance of the award, finalists and winners will be announced publicly on the Procedure Press website, in a press release, and via social media platforms during or around the week of February 23, 2026, 2025.

All decisions made by the judging panel are final and binding in all respects. Procedure Press reserves the right not to name a winner in any given year if submissions do not meet the quality or relevance standards.

Winners and finalists agree to provide a photo and short quote or written response, if requested, in a timely manner, as determined by Procedure Press, for marketing purposes.

A digital award seal will be provided to the winners and finalists for public recognition and display.

By submitting, participants grant Procedure Press the right to use their name, likeness, and submission content (including images of the book and excerpts of up to 250 words) for promotional purposes, including but not limited to social media, press materials, and our website.

By making a submission and/or accepting any award you may win, you agree, represent, and warrant that: [1] you will be bound by these terms and conditions and Procedure Press’s decisions, which shall be final in all respects; [2] you release and hold harmless the Releasees, from: (a) telephone, electronic, hardware or software program, network, Internet, or computer malfunctions, failures, or difficulties of any kind; (b) any condition caused by events beyond the control of Procedure Press that may cause the Procedure Awards to be disrupted or corrupted; (c) any printing or typographical errors in any materials associated with the Procedure Awards; (d) any and all losses, damages, rights, suits, claims and actions of any kind, including without limitation death and bodily injury, in connection with or arising from, in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, the awarding, delivery, acceptance, use, misuse, possession, loss or misdirection of the prize; participation in the Procedure Awards or any awards-related activity, or from any interaction with or downloading of computer Procedure Awards information; [3] the Releasees do not make any representation, warranty or guarantee, express or implied, relating to the Procedure Awards or the awards; [4] winner’s acceptance of an award constitutes the grant to Procedure Press and assigns of an unconditional right to use winner’s name, photo, likeness, voice, biographical information and statements, at any time or times, for advertising, trade publicity, promotional and commercial purposes without additional compensation, in connection with the running or advertising of the Procedure Awards, except where prohibited by law; [5] Procedure Press has the right, at its sole discretion, to modify these terms and conditions or to cancel, modify, terminate, or suspend the Procedure Awards at any time; [6] the Releasees are not responsible for typographical or other errors in the offer or administration of the Procedure Awards, including but not limited to: errors in the advertising, terms and conditions, selection and announcement of the winners and distribution of the prizes; [7] the Releasees are not responsible for any inability of the winner to accept or use the prize (or any portion thereof) for any reason; [8] Procedure Press reserves the right to modify prize award procedures at its sole discretion; [9] the Releasees are not responsible for any failure of delivery of winner notification; [10] Procedure Press reserves the right to require winner to submit to a confidential background check to confirm eligibility as a condition of awarding the awards to help ensure that the use of any such person in advertising or publicity for the Procedure Awards will not bring Procedure Press into public disrepute, contempt, scandal or ridicule, or reflect unfavorably on the Procedure Awards as determined by Procedure Press in its sole discretion; and [11] all issues and questions concerning the construction, validity, interpretation and enforceability of these terms and conditions or the rights and obligations of entrants, winners and Procedure Press in connection with the Procedure Awards, shall be governed by, and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of California, without giving effect to any choice of law or conflict of law rules or provisions, that would cause the application of the laws of any jurisdiction other than the State of California.

For name(s) of winner(s), email your request to procedure@uncommonbold.com with the subject line 'Procedure Awards Winners List Request' prior to March 31, 2026, 2025.