DFTBA Short Story Contest

Greetings tumblrers, today’s post comes to you in three parts!

Part One - Update about the contest

Okay, so the logo design contest has now been going for quite a while. Specifically, it’s been almost two weeks since the prompt was released, and thus the substance of the contest was first mentioned, and it’s been almost one week since DesignersOfTumblr launched their submission page and we could get people’s designs coming in. And so far we have received… zero submissions.

I have to admit, I’m a little confused on this point. Last year, by this stage, we had almost a dozen submissions, but this year we have none? What gives? I have some ideas, mainly surrounding the fact that it’s possible I promised more prominence for the logo designer than was actually given (we said we’d design a website around it until we realised just how complicated that would be), so people don’t trust my enthusing. So to clarify a number of points, here is a few questions about the logo design contest that you might have asked, and might be why people aren’t submitting.

“Do you have to pay to submit?”

No. This is a little pre-emptive, but I can imagine that people might get confused, as you have to pay to enter the story contest, and this is a competition on top of the contest, but to be clear, no. You DO NOT have to pay to submit a design into the logo competition. That part is free. As is voting on the logos.

“Do I have to be a really skilled designer/have design qualifications?”

No. You can be self taught, a hobbyist, or just like mucking around randomly in photoshop/coraldraw etc. Whether or not your design will win is based on the vote we have at the end. There is no quality standard you have to reach before your logo will be considered. All logo designs are welcome.

“How do I draw ‘Applied 21st century research’? What does that look like?”

Just think about things that modern scientists/historians/doctors/archaeologists/sociologists etc might use/have invented and then draw them. Imagine test tubes, clipboards, textbooks, computers, microscopes, centrifuges, airship hybrids, mobile phones, hybrid cars, microfilm scanners… the list could go on. Maybe imagine the French Llama using some of these, or the nerdfighter handsign astride a history textbook with a microscope in the background. Maybe you want to riff-off of the sci-show or crash course logos. Just some thoughts.

“How widely will this logo be used? What credit do I get for it?”

The logo will be used in all of the following places

- On the Eventbrite page for the Story Contest itself

- On the Tickets that will be emailed out

- As the avatar of this Tumblr

- On almost every post made on this tumblr as part of the contest

- In the anthology itself

And I will be asking you to use elements of the logo you create to design a front cover for the final anthology. You will be credited as the cover design artist, and your tumblr/other website will be linked to from this page and regularly promoted.

“Havn’t we only got untill the 18th? That isn’t very long”

We’re talking to the people at DesignersOfTumblr and we’re going to extend the deadline if things continue to be so very quiet. So don’t worry, we’re not going to be sticklers here!

“Why are you asking for our name on the submission page”

So that we can credit you when the time comes to do so. That’s the same reason we need your e-mail etc. We promise not to flood you with Spam or anything like that! However, if enough people dislike the name requirement, we’ll change that policy, and just ask for your email so we can sort out your name later.

I hope that’s cleared up some issues some of you may have had. If I’ve just patronised some of you who already knew all of this, I apologise. I just really wanted to lay some more details down, to encourage people to take part in the contest. A reminder, you can submit your logo designs here and the brief is as follows

“A clear, fun, bright and bold logo, incorporating the themes of Nerdfighteria (the hand sign, French Llama’s, etc), creative writing, and the specific prompt of this year - applied 21st century research (of any/multiple fields). The words “DFTBA Short Story Contest 2013” must be included.”

I’m really looking forward to seeing what you guys come up with!

Part 2 - Judges

We’ve got some information on some of the new judges that will be looking over your stories in this 2013 season. Here are their names and some of their credentials

Becky Havens - A student from the Metropolitan State University of Denver, who’s getting her degree in English Writing with a minor in philosophy. You can find her tumblr here

Lies Lanckman - Whose name you may recognise as being credited on the last anthology as being the assistant editor, so she’s got a very keen eye for grammar. She’s a post graduate student from the University of Kent, looking into Gender Studies in 1930s film.

Marcy Collier - A judge who took part in our debut contest, last year. A professional critic for the Western Pennsylvania branch of the Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators as well as being the editor of the Golden Penn newsletter (a blog she regularly contributes to can be found here and her twitter is here).

We have one other judge who’s participation is somewhat conditional, based on the number of entries we receive, so I won’t be revealing their details just yet. Although these three are all great, we still need more! Anyone interested, please email

DFTBA[DOT]Short{DOT}Story(DOT)Contest<AT>inbox[DOT]Com

We look forward to your messages!

Part Three: Numbers

A short note to say “welcome!” to some of our more recent followers, and to say that this tumblr now has almost 500 followers! Wowzer! Thank you everyone for being on board. I’m really looking forward to seeing the fruits of this anthology!

God Bless, Best Wishes and DFTBA!

Dear all!

We’ve got some cover designs! Now admittedly, these are sketches that are a little rough and ready as they are just some early sketches, but I think we’ve got some really exciting possibilities here, and I know you’ll all agree.

Now this contest has been, when it comes to questions like this, a democracy, so once again, I’m going to be asking for your vote. You’ll see each picture is labelled numbers one through five, and if Tumblr isn’t making it clear enough, here is an alternative.

To vote is quite simple, and again, I’ll be asking you for first, second, and third preferences, and then tallying up accordingly (three points for a first preference, two for a second etc). You can vote here, and because we want to be moving on quickly, you’ve got until 23:59 on 1st December (no extensions this time). Once again, I give you three choices, so please use them that way!

So please, vote! The results will be announced on Sunday!

God Bless, Best Wishes and DFTBA to one and all!

Michael

Final call! This is a last message to everyone who follows this tumblr to let you know that you have slightly less than two hours to cast your votes in the DFTBA short story contest’s logo design competition! I’m not saying anything about who is winning or how close it is at this stage. All I would do is encourage you to vote, now! To see the designs to vote for click here, and to go to the voting page, click on the link above in the picture.

Number thirty nine! By thomascullendesign. Unless someone posts something in the next few minutes, this is looking like it will be the last one. I will be back to double check, as there may be some delay between when you submitted it and when it gets posted, but otherwise, time is pretty much run down. If you want to take advantage of these last few seconds, or if you want to just see all of the amazing work that’s gone into all of these, then please, click on the link in the picture.

Otherwise, as always, DFTBA and best wishes!

Number thirty eight, this one by cecart. Just over an hour left everyone! Thanks again for all your likes, reblogs, following and of course, your taking part. Looking forward to the end result next week. If you’ve got a burning design idea that you desperately want to put through, click on the link in the picture to find out how.

Best wishes and, of course DFTBA!

Number thirty four! I hope you’re all enjoying this run down! More news will be coming… tomorrow! I promise now. Tomorrow there WILL be a news post. Hand on heart! Until then, I hope you enjoy this work by juanabad, and hope you make use of the last few days of the contest to either appreciate all the various entries we’ve collected by clicking on the link in the picture, or you click on the picture link to find out how to take part yourself! Hope you’re having a good day, and enjoy whichever way you go.

Best wishes and, of course DFTBA

Good morning fellow tumblrers, we’re going two up from the last post as this update comes to you in five parts, lets get right to it!

Part 1: News

So three little pieces of contest news. Firstly, we’re up to thirty six followers on Tumblr, thank you very much to you all! Secondly, we now have a new link location. On the Nerdfighters Ning, if you hover your mouse over the tab button marked “NF Projects” you will see a tab for this project descend, and link you directly here. Thanks very much to the Ningmaster known as “The Lone Wanderer” for his help on that one. Thirdly, the contest now has its own dedicated e-mail address.

DFTBA[DOT]Short[DOT]Story[DOT]Contest[AT]Inbox[DOT]Com

This will be important in posts to come. Lets move on.

Part 2: Familiar faces, new roles

Because this is a big project, and because a fair bit of it involves things that I don’t know how to do, there’s going to be one or two other people on board. Today, I’m pleased to announce that Chris Dolman, the man who did the excellent video discussing initial details of the project, to be our head web design man. Although I’m a dab hand with Tumblr, this chap has the much more daunting task of creating our own dedicated web site, specificity for the contest, with specific sections which can only be accessed by people who have submitted their entrance fee. That’s really important I feel, since really, this is as much about charity as it is about writing, and I really don’t want people who are participating who arn’t entering into the spirit of both parts of what we’re about here.

Part 3: Definite dates

So I know that in the last post I said that we were thinking that we’d probably do this from between October 2nd and November 2nd but people have, in discussions on this, said two things to me.

- Why wait so long!

- That’s cutting it a bit fine, isn’t it?

Now originally, the reason I wanted to wait was because I wanted to link it in directly to the project for awesome, and also I was thinking that this was a big project, which would take a lot of organising, and would be very very difficult to get done. But then I stopped and thought, and I realised that there are only really two big obstacles that need to be got over before the contest can start. Getting all the judges sorted, and getting the website up and running.

So with that in mind, now that Mr Dolman is on board and helping us out, I’m pleased to say that I have a definite date for when the contest is going to start. This is going to be the date that the prompt for the contest is revealed, the website is going to go live and when you can start submitting your stories. And that date is…

April 21st!

And the contest will close on…

October 2nd

And the results will be out on…

Well that one’s trickier. It mainly involves how many people will be entering. Hopefully though, it will be before December 17th, and so in time for the Project for Awesome.

Part 4: A contest within a contest

So as I’ve said before, I’d like this to be something that Nerdfighters take part in on every level, as much as is possible. This isn’t just going to be something for people who like writing. Therefore, what I’d like to do is to open up a very important part of the contest to the wider Nerdfighter community, or at least, to a different slice of it. I’d like the attention of anyone interested in…

Graphic Design

We’re looking for people to design the logo for the DFTBA short story contest of 2012. And as far as I can tell, that’s the only real hard and fast rule. The logo has to contain the words “DFTBA Short Story Contest 2012”. Beyond that, we’re pretty free and easy. For contest submission & information, go here

The deadline for this part of the contest will be…

February 8th

Whereupon, I will select a number of the best of the submissions, to be voted on by the wider nerdfighter community. The voting for this will close on…

February 22nd

So that will be the day that everyone knows what the contest’s logo will be

A couple of guidelines. Remember, this is part of the Nerdfighter community, so using images and symbols that Nerdfighteria is familiar with, will be a good route to go down. The nerd hands gesture, puppy sized elephants, french the Llamma etc.

Also, its for charity, so if you could incorperate that, it would be good too. Maybe also use some of the fonts that have been used for other things, or take design ideas from past logos, that sort of thing.

Finally, although the rule is that you must include the words “DFTBA Short Story Contest 2012” in the logo, if you can make a logo that could easily have part of it be made a kind of…icon… a little picture that by itself could be the symbol for the contest, that would be good too. There probably is a technical name for that, I’m not sure.

None of these ideas are hard and fast rules. If you create something great that breaks them all, all the better for us and you. These are just thoughts that I had. I stopped doing graphic design when I was 16, so don’t consider me an expert on that!

Also, one final note, you will be credited, and there is a very very good chance we will ask you to design the front cover for the anthology, when it is released, also!

Part 5: More judges! Nerdfighter judges!

So as you know, we already have two excellent judges lined up! Marcy Collier and Katie Biela, but I’m thinking…more…

Specificity, as one person mentioned earlier in their question, we need some nerdfighter judges. This should be a contest run by nerdfighters, for nerdfighters (although others are of course allowed in). Now I’m still in contact with other groups who themselves are outside the nerdfighter community, but who would be more than eminently suitable for this task, but there is nothing wrong with making this more in house also.

However, we should keep in mind that the role of a judge is one that comes with some degree of authority, and as I’m sure you’ll agree, as editor of a magazine that reviews books, and as an English Lit teacher at one of the USAs best prep schools, Ms Biela and Ms Collier are eminently qualified. The thing is, out there, I’m sure there are plenty of other very qualified people, but for the task of judging stories like this, you really do have to be qualified in some way.

This doesn’t mean you have to be a teacher or an editor. Maybe you’ve read and reviewed many a book for a personal site. Maybe your a well practiced beta reader, who’s helped many stories reach their full potential. Maybe you’ve written a lot and feel you would be well placed to be able to look at others work and tell where its good, where it’s bad and what would make it better. Maybe you’ve got a keen reading eye, and noticed my earlier spelling mistake with “your” and “you’re” etc.

The point is, you are out there, nerdfighter judges! So come forth! We’ll be selecting a total of twelve of you (just like in a real jury) so there are ten spots left. Please e-mail the following address and include a resume/CV of why you think you are qualified to be a judge on the DFTBA short story contest of 2012. Include as much detail as you can. Also, put the word “JUDGE” in all caps as part of the subject line.

DFTBA[DOT]Short[DOT]Story[DOT]Contest[AT]Inbox[DOT]Com

The deadline for judges entries will be…

April 8th

After that, the judges will be announced on…

April 21st

When the website goes live.

There’s been a lot of dates in this post, so to clarify with a calander at the bottom here.

January 8th - Opening of the contest for designing a logo, and opening of positions to be in the panel of Nerdfighter judges

February 8th - Deadline for submitting a design for the logo

February 22nd - Last day of voting for which logo design will become the official one for the contest

April 8th - Deadline for submitting a CV/Resume applying for a Nerdfighter judging position.

April 21st - The main, dedicated website goes live, the judges are announced, the prompt is revealed and people can begin entering.

October 2nd - The deadline for the last story entrant.

Hope that has clarified things for everyone! If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask.

Best wishes, and as always, DFTBA.