Thank you so much to everyone who participated in our Genre Wars contest, either by entering your work, by spreading the word, or simply by not calling us names when you heard about it.
We closed our submissions late Tuesday night, ending with far more entries than we had anticipated. (I was personally hoping for 50 pieces, and we got a lot more than 50.) Michelle, Scott, and I are now in the process of reading and reviewing each story. All three of us have our own ranking scales, and--though we agree on some great stories--there are plenty that we will have to debate and discuss when we're done. I think we're all excited about that and hope that we don't resort to cannibalism as a way of making our case.
When we sell the anthology (as a POD publication) all of the proceeds will be donated to one of the charity groups we feature here--we're not done with that part of things yet. The charity group will be voted on by readers.
As you all know, the submissions process was kept anonymous to the three of us. All emails sent to our joined address was only opened by our very dedicated and selfless helper, Becca Brown--thank you so much, Becca! Occasionally she forwarded some non-contest-related messages to us, but everything else was kept secret. Only after our decision process is over will we allow ourselves to see the names of the authors, and we're still not sure if we will look at writers of the stories we don't accept.
Do you all have opinions on that?
Next, we're going to finish all of our work and put together the anthology. Winners from each genre will be announced on January 7th, and the "best of show" winner will be announced as well. Each of these stories will be in the anthology, and we'll also post them up on our blog, along with interviews of the writers. Additionally, several other stories will be selected for the anthology. And, of course our little prizes.
When we sell the anthology (as a POD publication) all of the proceeds will be donated to one of the charity groups we feature here--we're not done with that part of things yet. The charity group will be voted on by readers.
And, since the three of us have been debating on what to do about the cover of the anthology, we thought we'd invite anyone who is interested to submit a cover idea. So, spread the word to your artist friends! We'll also be coming up with some ideas of our own, hopefully. That's right, it's a contest for a contest. But a far less organized one.
Send your entries as a .jpg attachment to LiteraryLab (at) gmail (dot) com by December 21st 12:00 p.m. PST. All artwork must be original and you must be the copyright holder in order for us to use your cover art!
Send your entries as a .jpg attachment to LiteraryLab (at) gmail (dot) com by December 21st 12:00 p.m. PST. All artwork must be original and you must be the copyright holder in order for us to use your cover art!
I wanted to enter a picture book that I have worked up for the Genre Wars contest. But I figured picture books were not really what you wanted so I decided not to enter. I had it ready by Tuesday night and then didn't enter.
ReplyDeleteI wish everyone good luck though. Can't wait to read the winners. And thank you to Becca for offering her services. What a great thing to do. :)
Thanks guys for sponsoring the contest. I had loads of fun. I have no expectations at all competing with accomplished short-story writers, but I learned quite a lot trying to make my point in under 2000 words. It’s a totally different animal than a novel. (No, I’m not calling myself a 'novelist.' Just let the comment go. lol)
ReplyDeleteOkay, what’s next year’s contest?
Actually, I imagine an annual publication of the anthology, with contributions from winners who may be future famous writers, would be worth a bundle. I know a good investment when I see one. Everyone buy a dozen.
Robyn, I hate the fact that even when we try to include every genre, we end up excluding something. I'm not sure we'll be able to get around that if we try this again next year. Picture books are a hard format for me wrap my head around. But, I'll try and keep it in mind!
ReplyDeleteCharlie, Nice to see you around! I'm excited that you entered something, and more importantly I'm really glad you feel like you learned something. I almost always learn from trying new things.
Andrei: How are things in Romania? Thanks for spamming our blog! I'm going to delete your post! Have a swell day! xxxooo, Scott
ReplyDeleteScott, we're getting so few comments today, maybe you should leave it up. Wink wink.
ReplyDeleteYeah, where is everybody?
ReplyDeletedon't
ReplyDeleteknow.
ReplyDeleteHey, at least we can up the comment number this way. ;)
ReplyDeleteSo, what's the weather like where you are? Here it's sunny but bitter cold. *teeth chatter*
ReplyDeleteSunny and warm over here!
ReplyDeleteLet's switch.
ReplyDeleteIt got below freezing here last night. There was a layer of frost on everything. The water in the birdbath was frozen solid and I'm sure our few remaining roses have called it quits for the year. I think it's about 40°F here now, but the sun is out, only half-obscured by clouds.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the Genre Wars Anthology: Maybe some of our readers can nominate charities for the profits?
Scott, I think that's a good idea. We're having everyone vote on that, right? Wow, your poor rosebushes. It has frozen here several nights, but my sage bush outside my door is still growing strong. It's a hardy little thing!
ReplyDeleteOur palm trees are indifferent to the seasons.
ReplyDeleteScott, you're making our readers do all the work. :)
Do you even have seasons, Davin?
ReplyDeleteI think I do, but whenever I tell anyone else that, they laugh at me.
ReplyDeleteI would love to see you in a blizzard, Davin. Have you even seen much snow? Did it snow in Paris?
ReplyDeleteYes, we had snow in Paris. I got to wear a long coat, which was pretty exciting! I'll send some pictures to your email. :)
ReplyDeleteWoohoo! How lovely! I'd love to see snow in Paris. When I went there it was, like, 100 degrees in July.
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to say on the public record that Becca did a great job. There were a couple technical questions about my entries and she was not only perceptive enough to notice the issues, but resolved them in a quick and thoughtful way. (Assuming it was Becca I was corresponding with... lol)
ReplyDeleteC. N., it was indeed Becca! I'm glad she helped you out. We didn't give her much instruction, so I think she was forced to wing it most of the time. She was great!
ReplyDeleteMy son had operations on both his feet at one year old by Shriner's Hospital for Children. I hear they do a lot of nice things for children everywhere, not just USA. Borders shouldn't limit a kids' medical care, nor should a lack of funds.
ReplyDeleteJust a thought.
It rained last night in New York, but it turned out nice.
ReplyDeleteCharlie, and very good thoughts at that! Thank you. And, it's nice when the rain scrubs the air clean. In LA, our air needs a lot of scrubbing.
ReplyDeleteDavin, Michelle, and Scott, you are obviously having too much fun on the blog today! :)
ReplyDeleteI'm very excited to see the results of the contest. I'm sure there are some fantastic stories in the bunch.
Crimey, obviously we're not at the party everyone else is at. Sigh. Can't wait to announce winners! Fist we have to decide...
ReplyDeleteCrimey, obviously we're not at the party everyone else is at. Sigh. Can't wait to announce winners! Fist we have to decide...
ReplyDeleteShoot, I just revealed that we only rely on recorded comments at this blog.
ReplyDeleteSo, when are you going to tell us how many entries you had in all? I'm curious.
ReplyDeleteMy thanks to Becca, also.
And, if you care, the temperature is dropping to 10 degrees here in Salt Lake City tonight. nippy.
So if you don't select a story, you won't look at the name of the writer? Hmmm I can see the positives and negatives of that but then the writer won't get any feedback...not that you were doing this to offer feedback but you know how needy we all are for acknowledgment.
ReplyDeleteI only regret that I've just recently discovered your amazing site.
I agree with Charlie. An anthology could be an important investment.
I think its a great idea that you three do not see the names of the author's with the writing. No undue influence there.
ReplyDeleteI'm really glad you posted this contest. It actually made me sit down and work up a short story for it. As I've said before, I'm a lazy writer and need prompting to write. I'm obsessive once I start, but starting . . .
Good luck with reading all the submissions.
.........dhole
Just thought I would mention that it's been raining seemingly nonstop in NC since August.
ReplyDeleteI made the cover of one of my high school yearbooks, so I'm really excited you guys are letting anybody try!
Paperback Writer, I hope you are staying warm! Let us discuss again on the actual number of stories. We weren't sure if we should announce since we don't know how many stories we are accepting yet, and thus how many stories we have to reject.
ReplyDeleteYvonne, we are currently undecided about whether or not we will see all of the names. We have discussed giving feedback. That's still on the table if we feel like that's what people want.
Thanks, Donna! I'm the same way. It hard for me to get started, but once I start, it's hard to stop. It's all about inertia.
Mariah--August was a long time ago! Hope you get some sun soon. I hope you'll try to make a cover for us! I'm getting warmed up to try and do some artwork as well!
Oonch is actually a word. I did not know that. John Gardner used it, it must be real.
ReplyDeleteJohn Gardner's On Becomming A Novelist has become my bible.
ReplyDeleteIf he says it's so, it must be.
And, David, are those manuscript pages you're hanging on the line?
I mean DAVIN....
ReplyDeleteSorry.
Hang me.