After weeks of campaigning, writing, pitching, and tweeting, the writers who entered our Inkshares Sci-Fi and Fantasy Contest had to set down their quills (er… laptops) and wait for the results. The top five authors with the most pre-orders were automatically funded – which means their books are going to be published whether or not they made their goal! Inkshares announced the winners, and we couldn’t be more thrilled for the authors:

• Welcome to Deadland by Zachary Tyler Linville
• Rise by Brian Guthrie
• The Seventh Age: Dawn by Richard Heinz
• These Old Bones by Andrew J. Ainsworth
• It’s All Fun and Games by Dave Barrett

And, for those of you unfamiliar with the contest, Nerdist was tasked with a difficult decision — which book from the final five should we add to our brand new Nerdist Collection on Inkshares? Well, we hate rules, so we decided to pick not one, but TWO winners. Please join us in congratulating Zachary Linville and Dave Barrett!

We chose Welcome to Deadland (Linville), Welcome to Deadland, a Lost meets The Walking Dead tale about a ragtag team of characters thrust together in an abandoned theme park as a widespread outbreak decimates humanity, and It’s All Fun And Games (Barrette), where six high school friends spend a weekend Live Action Role Playing only to discover that the game world is both real and very, very deadly. Zombies and LARP? Spooky mysteries and dangerous gaming? Maybe now you can understand why we had trouble choosing just one.

Check out our brand-spanking new Nerdist Collection page, peruse all the winners of our Inkshares Nerdist Contest, and stay tuned for exclusive sneak peaks from Welcome to Deadland and It’s All Fun and Games, right here on Nerdist!