The following is a list of questions that have been frequently asked of this blog. So we’re going to do are best to answer them now. If any more come up, we’ll be adjusting the page accordingly.
- How do I submit a story?
There are several steps to go through, but the basic ones are as follows
1. Write a story based on the prompt. The story must be between 1000 and 5000 words in length (not including the title).
2. Buy a ticket.
3. Email the story, complete with an attached receipt of your ticket to
dftba(DOT)short[DOT]story{DOT}contest”AT”inbox<DOT>com
Exact details as to what format you will want to email the story in will be forthcoming in a new page entitled “Submissions”
- When is the deadline?
August 31st 2013.
- What charity is the money going to?
We are planning to donate all the ticket fees and proceeds from the sale of the anthology to “The Foundation To Decrease Worldsuck”. If you don’t know what that is, let me explain. Every year since, on December 17th, the Vlogbrothers have been heading up an event called “The Project For Awesome” where people make You Tube videos about charities, to raise awareness and money for those good causes. Recently, what has also happened is that the Vlogbrothers organised an event where people can vote for their favourite videos, and then the videos with the most votes have their charities given money from a fund that anyone can donate to. That fund is the “Foundation to Decrease Worldsuck” and we are donating to it!
- What’s the Prompt?
It will be released on January 31st 2013
- Can I submit more than one story?
Okay, I’ve made a decision on the answer to this question. YES you can submit more than one story BUT you must buy more than one ticket to do so AND the final anthology will only contain ONE story per author.
- What anthology?
This question isn’t asked that often, but I’ll explain anyway since I mentioned it above. The final result of this contest will be that there will be an anthology of selected winners of the contest, available to download for Kindle.
- How many stories will be in the anthology?
That depends. Each judge has a yay/nay vote on whether a story should enter the anthology. If a majority of judges decide they want a story in, it will go in.
- Can I co-write a story with a friend?
Yes, that’s absolutely fine.
- Can me and a friend write two stories in the same world, submit them, and have the events/characters overlap?
Theoretically yes, but I can’t see that helping you in terms of winning the contest. But if you want to, go nuts.
- Can we submit fan fiction?
Sorry, no. Absolutely not. No way. Nada. Nyet. Nein. Non. No.
Any story that is found to have been based on, set within the world of, or somehow or other directly used material from another franchise or book will not be entered into the contest, and you will not receive a refund for your ticket.
This is because A) We’re planning to publish this as an anthology, and I do not want to have to deal with the monster of copyright issues that spew forth from publishing fan fiction and B) this is about creativity. Although you might take inspiration from other people’s work, this contest is NOT about being derivative. So please, don’t send us fan fiction. Even if it involves the theme.
- How much can we go over the word limit?
The word limit is fairly strict (minimum 1000, maximum 5000). To give you an idea, it comes up as part of the judging criteria, specifically the Spelling, Punctuation, Aesthetic, Grammar and Word Count section, which is marked out of ten. Here’s a quote about it.
(5-20 words over -1pts, 21-40 words over -2pts, 41-60 words over -3pts, 61-80 words over -4pts, 81-100 words over -5 pts, >100 words over -10pts)
- How liberally can we interpret the prompt?
The prompt can be interpreted very liberally, but crucially it must not be tangential. If your story can work well without including the part that is supposed to relate to the prompt, you have done something wrong.
- Who will be judging
That will be announced soon.
