Deadline: 11 September 2010
Geographical Restrictions: entrants may be located anywhere on the globe
Reading Fee: $5.00
Accepts (genre): short stories
Prize/Payment: $300 cash prize, etc.
The contest topic will be emailed to all entrants at start-time. In the event of e-mail difficulties, the topic will also be posted online at start time right here.
If, on the date of the contest, you're checking the website for the contest topic and word count, don't forget to to click "REFRESH" on your browser so it'll pop up after we upload it.
Some ISPs filter out list mailings (which is what the contest mailing is) as sp*m. Therefore, you may not get the contest email. If that happens, pull the topic and word count (and rules!) from the web page above and start writing.
Rules:
1. Your story does NOT need to include the exact topic dialogue. It must only touch on the topic in some way to qualify. Lots of writers ask this question during each contest. so we want this to be perfectly clear. You don't have to quote the topic word-for-word, but you may if you like. It's your decision.
2. Don't forget to name your story!
3. The word count for each contest is distributed with the topic. Short stories exceeding the word count will be disqualified.
4. Type your name, email address, mailing address, phone number and word count at the END of the story. (Lots of people break this rule. Breaking this rule is grounds for disqualification.) We never use phone numbers unless there is an emergency regarding your entry or if, heaven forbid, your winning check is returned undeliverable. And, we never, ever share emails, phone numbers, addresses, names or anything with any other person or company. We do publish the email addresses of the winners on the WritersWeekly site so our readers can compliment their stories and send congratulations.
5. Send your story in the text of an e-mail message. Do not send e-mail attachments unless it is an emergency (your email starts cutting off parts of the story). If you must send an attachment, it must be a text-only file. All other attachments will be deleted. No fancy formatting, please, even in the body of the email. Text-only emails and attachments. Italics may be indicated by using underscores around the italicized area _like this_.
6. Submit your story to angela at writersweekly.com by the deadline, which is 24 hours after the designated start-time.
7. Very Important. Please don't submit your story early and then continue to make corrections and submit your story again... and again...and again. Do not send your story more than once. We will use the first version of the story you send in. The occasional typo will be overlooked, so don't get stressed if you find one in your story later. We're looking for good writers, not editors. Everybooty makes typos, especialley under presshure, and we understann dis. However, if a few stories are finalists and we're having a hard time making a decision, a story with few or no typos will come out ahead of one with multiple typos.
8. For easy reference, guidelines (and hints) are online at: http://www.writersweekly.com/misc/contest.html#guide
9. Sometimes writers submit their stories and find they are missing vast chunks at the ends of paragraphs because they have cut and pasted to their mail program from their word processor. Please make sure your entire story appears in your email before clicking "send." When we email you to confirm that we have received your story, the story will be included in that confirmation email. Please make sure the entire story is there...because that will show you what we received on our end. We can't be held responsible for partial entries. If you find part of your story missing, try sending us a text-only attachment.
10. Late stories are disqualified. During every contest, a dozen or so entrants submit their story late with an excuse (I had to go skiing, my dog slobbered on my keyboard, my mother in law made me go to the mall, I got my time zones confused, I forgot today was contest day, etc.) and ask us to accept it anyway or ask if they can get a refund or be moved to the next contest. We can't do that. To be completely fair, everyone must follow the rules. Stories are due here by the deadline. Many contestants simply send in their stories late with no explanation. We assume they think we won't notice the story is late. Those stories are also disqualified because they are late. All late stories are disqualified. No exceptions.
If your email to us bounces back to you and does not arrive on time, we still can't accept it. Computers can be manipulated to make it appear something was sent before it actually was. Therefore, stories must be IN our in-box prior to the deadline. If your email program tends to send items out late, you should send your story early to accomodate for this possibility.
If the deadline passes, please do not email asking us to accept it late, and please don't send in late stories. We can't include them anyway. In fairness to everyone entered, we can't break the rules for one. All stories ~arriving~ after the deadline will be disqualified.
More rules:
Entrants may be located anywhere on the globe. Only single-author stories permitted. No co-authored stories or teams, please. Reprints are not permitted. All entries must be composed within the contest time frame. By entering the contest, you certify that you have read these guidelines in their entirety and that you agree, on winning the contest, to allow WriterWeekly.com to publish your winning entry on the WritersWeekly.com and WritersMarkets.com websites for an unlimited period of time on a non-exclusive basis. Winning authors retain reprint rights to their work. All other authors retain all rights to their work. Booklocker.com, Inc., Deep South Publishing Company, The Write Markets Report, WritersWeekly.com and WritersMarkets.com, their employees, officers and directors can not be held responsible for any electronic transmission problems. The company's liability will never exceed the cost of the entry fee. Refunds will not be issued. Decisions of the judges are final.
FAQ
(Frequently Asked Questions)
Q. How long do stories need to be?
A. We can't tell you until contest start time how long the entries must be. Past contests have ranged from 500 max. to 2,000 max. You'll just have to wait and see.
Q. Why won't you tell us the contest word count ahead of time?
A. Because we have found that some write their stories ahead of time and then (crafty they are) creatively incorporate the contest topic into their almost-completed story.
Q. What do you base your judging criteria on?
A. In the contests, we give the topic and what we find, after reading the first few entries, is that most of the stories are the same story told over and over but in a different way. Those are weeded out because it is obvious that originality did not play a major part in their planning. We also look at good writing (but if the story is not good... it gets tossed as well). Some writers can weave a beautiful thread, but tell a really bad story at the same time. Humor plays a part, too, when appropriate in the story. If we groan, we don't like it. If we laugh out loud, we love it. What we end up with (at the end) is 10-20 stories that stood out above the rest. While good writing is a must, originality plays a huge role in the judging as well.
For example:
A past topic was: Life Threatening Situation in A Natural Disaster. Common themes were people trying to survive hurricanes, floods, tornadoes and the like. The winning entry focused more on the psychological madness of the wife than on the hurricane itself. Another winner gave us an avalanche. Not only was the story beautifully written, but it was the only avalanche story we received, and the life threatening situation was not the natural disaster, but the impending suicide of the main character.
Another topic was "It was the most terrifying classifed ad yet and, to top it off, a there was a blizzard brewing!" One writer wrote about a woman and classified ad...and she was drinking a blizzard from Dairy Queen. Now THAT was original!
I hope this gives you some ideas of what we're looking for in winning entries.
Q. What is the judging process?
A. Stories are read and broken down into two categories. Finalists versus other. The finalists are read and ranked by all judges. Using the rankings, we pick the top 23. These 23 are then re-read and ranked again by the judges and awarded either first, second, third place, or an honorable mention. All others are eligible for door prizes which are awarded at random.
More information here.
Geographical Restrictions: entrants may be located anywhere on the globe
Reading Fee: $5.00
Accepts (genre): short stories
Prize/Payment: $300 cash prize, etc.
The contest topic will be emailed to all entrants at start-time. In the event of e-mail difficulties, the topic will also be posted online at start time right here.
If, on the date of the contest, you're checking the website for the contest topic and word count, don't forget to to click "REFRESH" on your browser so it'll pop up after we upload it.
Some ISPs filter out list mailings (which is what the contest mailing is) as sp*m. Therefore, you may not get the contest email. If that happens, pull the topic and word count (and rules!) from the web page above and start writing.
Rules:
1. Your story does NOT need to include the exact topic dialogue. It must only touch on the topic in some way to qualify. Lots of writers ask this question during each contest. so we want this to be perfectly clear. You don't have to quote the topic word-for-word, but you may if you like. It's your decision.
2. Don't forget to name your story!
3. The word count for each contest is distributed with the topic. Short stories exceeding the word count will be disqualified.
4. Type your name, email address, mailing address, phone number and word count at the END of the story. (Lots of people break this rule. Breaking this rule is grounds for disqualification.) We never use phone numbers unless there is an emergency regarding your entry or if, heaven forbid, your winning check is returned undeliverable. And, we never, ever share emails, phone numbers, addresses, names or anything with any other person or company. We do publish the email addresses of the winners on the WritersWeekly site so our readers can compliment their stories and send congratulations.
5. Send your story in the text of an e-mail message. Do not send e-mail attachments unless it is an emergency (your email starts cutting off parts of the story). If you must send an attachment, it must be a text-only file. All other attachments will be deleted. No fancy formatting, please, even in the body of the email. Text-only emails and attachments. Italics may be indicated by using underscores around the italicized area _like this_.
6. Submit your story to angela at writersweekly.com by the deadline, which is 24 hours after the designated start-time.
7. Very Important. Please don't submit your story early and then continue to make corrections and submit your story again... and again...and again. Do not send your story more than once. We will use the first version of the story you send in. The occasional typo will be overlooked, so don't get stressed if you find one in your story later. We're looking for good writers, not editors. Everybooty makes typos, especialley under presshure, and we understann dis. However, if a few stories are finalists and we're having a hard time making a decision, a story with few or no typos will come out ahead of one with multiple typos.
8. For easy reference, guidelines (and hints) are online at: http://www.writersweekly.com/misc/contest.html#guide
9. Sometimes writers submit their stories and find they are missing vast chunks at the ends of paragraphs because they have cut and pasted to their mail program from their word processor. Please make sure your entire story appears in your email before clicking "send." When we email you to confirm that we have received your story, the story will be included in that confirmation email. Please make sure the entire story is there...because that will show you what we received on our end. We can't be held responsible for partial entries. If you find part of your story missing, try sending us a text-only attachment.
10. Late stories are disqualified. During every contest, a dozen or so entrants submit their story late with an excuse (I had to go skiing, my dog slobbered on my keyboard, my mother in law made me go to the mall, I got my time zones confused, I forgot today was contest day, etc.) and ask us to accept it anyway or ask if they can get a refund or be moved to the next contest. We can't do that. To be completely fair, everyone must follow the rules. Stories are due here by the deadline. Many contestants simply send in their stories late with no explanation. We assume they think we won't notice the story is late. Those stories are also disqualified because they are late. All late stories are disqualified. No exceptions.
If your email to us bounces back to you and does not arrive on time, we still can't accept it. Computers can be manipulated to make it appear something was sent before it actually was. Therefore, stories must be IN our in-box prior to the deadline. If your email program tends to send items out late, you should send your story early to accomodate for this possibility.
If the deadline passes, please do not email asking us to accept it late, and please don't send in late stories. We can't include them anyway. In fairness to everyone entered, we can't break the rules for one. All stories ~arriving~ after the deadline will be disqualified.
More rules:
Entrants may be located anywhere on the globe. Only single-author stories permitted. No co-authored stories or teams, please. Reprints are not permitted. All entries must be composed within the contest time frame. By entering the contest, you certify that you have read these guidelines in their entirety and that you agree, on winning the contest, to allow WriterWeekly.com to publish your winning entry on the WritersWeekly.com and WritersMarkets.com websites for an unlimited period of time on a non-exclusive basis. Winning authors retain reprint rights to their work. All other authors retain all rights to their work. Booklocker.com, Inc., Deep South Publishing Company, The Write Markets Report, WritersWeekly.com and WritersMarkets.com, their employees, officers and directors can not be held responsible for any electronic transmission problems. The company's liability will never exceed the cost of the entry fee. Refunds will not be issued. Decisions of the judges are final.
FAQ
(Frequently Asked Questions)
Q. How long do stories need to be?
A. We can't tell you until contest start time how long the entries must be. Past contests have ranged from 500 max. to 2,000 max. You'll just have to wait and see.
Q. Why won't you tell us the contest word count ahead of time?
A. Because we have found that some write their stories ahead of time and then (crafty they are) creatively incorporate the contest topic into their almost-completed story.
Q. What do you base your judging criteria on?
A. In the contests, we give the topic and what we find, after reading the first few entries, is that most of the stories are the same story told over and over but in a different way. Those are weeded out because it is obvious that originality did not play a major part in their planning. We also look at good writing (but if the story is not good... it gets tossed as well). Some writers can weave a beautiful thread, but tell a really bad story at the same time. Humor plays a part, too, when appropriate in the story. If we groan, we don't like it. If we laugh out loud, we love it. What we end up with (at the end) is 10-20 stories that stood out above the rest. While good writing is a must, originality plays a huge role in the judging as well.
For example:
A past topic was: Life Threatening Situation in A Natural Disaster. Common themes were people trying to survive hurricanes, floods, tornadoes and the like. The winning entry focused more on the psychological madness of the wife than on the hurricane itself. Another winner gave us an avalanche. Not only was the story beautifully written, but it was the only avalanche story we received, and the life threatening situation was not the natural disaster, but the impending suicide of the main character.
Another topic was "It was the most terrifying classifed ad yet and, to top it off, a there was a blizzard brewing!" One writer wrote about a woman and classified ad...and she was drinking a blizzard from Dairy Queen. Now THAT was original!
I hope this gives you some ideas of what we're looking for in winning entries.
Q. What is the judging process?
A. Stories are read and broken down into two categories. Finalists versus other. The finalists are read and ranked by all judges. Using the rankings, we pick the top 23. These 23 are then re-read and ranked again by the judges and awarded either first, second, third place, or an honorable mention. All others are eligible for door prizes which are awarded at random.
More information here.
