The award was structured to be egalitarian allowing for anyone to nominate a story including readers, authors, editors and publishers; prize money was donated by readers and writers; and the winners were selected by public vote from a short-list of entries selected by judges.
[5][6] The Million Writers Award was founded by author Jason Sanford in 2003 at a time when the literary establishment "didn't believe online magazines were legitimate places to publish fiction," seeing it as a fad.
[8] Stories eligible for the award include those first published in online literary journals, magazines, and e-zines that have an editorial process.
[5] Prize money was raised through donations from writers, editors and readers and thus fluctuates each year.
[9] The award was profiled in a six-page feature interview with editor Jason Sanford in the 2005 Novel and Short Story Writer's Market[10] and mentioned in The 100 Best Trends, 2006: Emerging Developments You Can't Afford to Ignore as an example of the emerging online literary movement.