That's right folks, we've got less than two weeks left on our 25th Anniversary story contest!
I'll admit, I'm a little disappointed we haven't had more entries so far. For such a big event, and with us wanting to go fairly big for prizes, I was expecting a lot more interest. That said, at least part of that has to be on me, since I haven't been pushing it particularly hard.
THAT BEING SAID!
We have 13 fantastic entries so far, and we're looking forward to even more! Two weeks isn't a ton of time, but here's hoping some of you have been hard at work for weeks now simply biding your time 'til the big event!
How about this to sweeten the deal a bit? I'd like to see at least 25 stories in the contest. That's 12 more than we have -- more or less 1 per day 'til the end of the contest.
If we can get up to 25 stories, then I will offer the top 3 voted stories in the contest their choice of either A) a formatting run of their story for release as an ebook or B) a cover art piece for their story.
If you need a reminder about the rules, they're available right here. We might adjust the voting procedures if the story count stays low (even up to that 25 mark,) but the requirements for the stories themselves are firm.
Melanie E.
Comments
A disappointing turnout
I understand and agree with your disappointment Melanie, particularly when compared to the number entered for the last contest, and given that the theme is extremely loosely defined and open to interpretation. Not only is it disappointing from your organiser's point of view but some of the entrants must be frustrated by the lack of support for their excellent stories, both in the number of reads and the numbers of kudos and comments (not that I am complaining personally, my story has been well-received.). I hope that your gee-up call does the job and we all get overwhelmed with a flood of more entries and more support from the readership.
Many thanks for organising the contest.
Gill xx.
If I can put my Pom-poms on for a moment . . . .
The number of entries in the contest is small, but, WOW there are some great stories there! If you haven’t read them, you really should. Terrific work from some of BC’s finest. All right here!
Okay. I’ll put my Pom-Pom’s back in the box now. ;-)
— Emma
I was hoping I would have another entry ready
but real life has been kicking my butt, so sorry.
Same here, unfortunately
Yeah, same here. I was hoping to contribute something for the contest, but right now I'm focused on writing another story. And with some real-life stuff going on, I just haven't had the bandwidth to write a side story for the contest. Sorry, but I'll try again next time!
Concur
Same here, really. 15k words is rather more than an afternoon's effort to draft, which would mean multiple (preciously rare) days taken away from efforts towards the current book in process. Typically only have one day a week available to even think about writing, so between drafting and editing - that'd be at least three weeks away from the muse-driven obsession which is hoping (insisting?) to have a completed draft by end of summer.
An open question I thought of when reviewing the rules was also whether non-patreon folks would be able to vote in the proposed 'patreon poll' methodology? Popular voting in any case would likely give a great edge to authors who already have a larger following - regardless of how amazing any new author's prose may be. Hit counts and kudos counts certainly already highly favor those who have cultivated a fan base through previous works. :)
I mean... it can be LESS than 15k words.
15k is the upper limit. The lower limit is 500 words.
As for non-Patreon folks voting in the poll -- yes, you SHOULD be able to.
Melanie E.
as it turned out, I finished 2 more entries !
I just never know with my muse, its either nothing or a ton of ideas!
Visibility
Low turn out could have to do with lack of visibility for the contest. If you just go to the front page, unless there's a blog mentioning the contest, there's nothing on the page saying there is a contest. (Or I'm blind.) I've forgotten about the contest twice. :)
I have a thought about a story but it just isn't gelling when I try to write it. 30% I'll post a story in time.
Read more of my works on Patreon.