Alrighty, I am making an official contest rules page so I don’t have to post all this blah-blah-blah in all of my giveaways. Unless otherwise noted, these rules apply to all contests and giveaways hosted here on my blog, my newsletter, my Facebook page, Twitter, etc.

Ze Rulez

0) Jess Haines/JessHaines.com reserves the right to alter any rules of any contest at anytime. If you have any questions or complaints about a contest, please contact me.

1) NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO WIN. PURCHASE WILL NOT INCREASE CHANCES OF WINNING. All contests are open internationally and to everyone, except where prohibited by law (e.g., if you’re under 18 and live in the USA, have a parental unit enter on your behalf).

1a) Management, employees and families of Jess Haines/JessHaines.com are prohibited from winning any prizes awarded by JessHaines.com.

2) One entry per person. Unless otherwise specified in an individual contest post, no person may enter any contest more than once using multiple email addresses or postal addresses.

3) If, for whatever reason, you are unable to enter contests via comments or email (WTF are you doing on the internet if you can’t leave comments/send emails? Just sayin’!), ALL contests are open to entries submitted via regular mail to: Jess Haines, 249 N. Brand Blvd., PMB 587, Glendale, CA 91203-2609. Deadlines for entries sent by postal mail are the same as for entries sent in via blog comment or email. Entrants must send entries using the correct contest entry email address, subject line, and any other specific entry information requested in the contest announcement. I am not responsible for and will not consider incomplete or incorrect entries, or emails/comments sent or entries mailed but not received by me for any reason, as potential contest winners.

4) Winners of random email or blog comment contests will be chosen at random from emails/comments received.

5) Odds of winning depend on number of entries.

6) Winners have 72 hours to contact me with their shipping information, or they are considered to have forfeited their winnings so that another winner can be chosen from the other contest entries. I will mail the contest prize to the address supplied by the recipient of the winner announcement email/blog post. For a list of contest winner names, mail a letter specifying the contest you are inquiring about and include a self-addressed and prepaid envelope to Jess Haines, 249 N. Brand Blvd., PMB 587, Glendale, CA 91203-2609.

6a) If I ever give out cash prizes of some kind, winners are solely responsible for all taxes and/or fees that may be incurred. All cash winners are required to verify proper and legal picture identification and Social Security number within 30 days of notification of winning the cash prize. Winner may forfeit any and all cash winnings if verification cannot or has not been made within 30 days. Upon proper verification, cash winnings will be awarded by check, and mailed to winner’s mailing address within seven (7) business days.

6b) Winners may not request substitutions of prize winnings. All winners are solely responsible for any and all taxes and/or fees, and all such additional costs that may be incurred. If the specified prize becomes unavailable due to unforeseen circumstances, JessHaines.com may substitute a prize of like or equal value.

6c) Neither Jess Haines, JessHaines.com, JessHaines.com sponsors, nor employees of JessHaines.com or sponsors may be held liable for any warranty, costs, damage, injury, or any other claims incurred as a result of usage of any winners of a prize once possession has been taken of the product by winner. Jess Haines/JessHaines.com is not liable for any loss arising out of or in connection with or resulting from any contest promoted by JessHaines.com.

Submission of Photos, Text, or Other Content for Contests

7) Entries selected for display and to win “best of” contests and any other contests requiring photo, text or other content from the entrants will be judged entirely at the discretion of me, myself, and I. Possibly my cats, birds, and/or beta readers may have a say in it, too.

8) By submitting any photo or information to JessHaines.com, you hereby grant to JessHaines.com and its affiliates, subsidiaries, licensees and assigns, an irrevocable, perpetual and royalty-free right to use, reproduce, edit, display, transmit, prepare derivative works of, modify, publish and otherwise make use of the submitted photo or other information in any and all media, whether now known or hereinafter created, throughout the world and for any purpose. In addition to other things, the rights granted to JessHaines.com includes but is not limited to the right to resize, crop, censor, compress, edit, feature, caption, affix logos to, and to otherwise alter or make use of the submitted photo;

9) By submitting any photo or information to JessHaines.com, you hereby represent and warrant that the submitted photo or information does not and shall not infringe on any copyright, any rights of privacy or publicity of any person, or any other right of any third party, and you have the right to grant any and all rights and licenses granted to JessHaines.com herein, including but not limited to all necessary rights under copyright, free and clear of any claims or encumbrances.

10) You acknowledge and agree that JessHaines.com shall have no obligation to post, display or otherwise make publicly available any photo or information submitted by you, and may, in its sole and unfettered discretion, remove, edit, modify or delete any photo or information that you submit to JessHaines.com.

11) You understand and intend that any photo or information submitted by you to JessHaines.com may be available for viewing, rating, review and comment on by the public, and understand that comments or ratings with which you disagree or are unhappy about may be published or otherwise become associated with any photo or information you submit to JessHaines.com. By submitting any photo or information to JessHaines.com, you hereby waive any privacy expectations that you may have with respect to any such photo or information submitted by you to JessHaines.com.

12) You hereby agree to hold JessHaines.com and its affiliates, subsidiaries, licensees sponsors and assigns harmless from and against, and hereby waive any right to pursue, any claims of any nature arising in connection with the inclusion in, publication via or display on any JessHaines.com site, or any other use authorized under these Terms, of any photo or information submitted to JessHaines.com by you.

13) Photos or information submitted by you to the Site shall be the property of JessHaines.com, and JessHaines.com shall have no obligation to preserve, return or otherwise make available to you or others any photos or information so submitted.

14) Are you really still reading this? Just enter the contest already!