[FONT="]Since we now have Anne's permission to proceed, I believe it's time to get the contest started. Based on the comments made in an earlier thread, I've made a few changes to the rules of the contest.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Rules*[/FONT]
[FONT="]1. The contest will run for three weeks, from February 25 to March 15, closing at 6:00 pm PST.[/FONT]
[FONT="]2. Each entry must have a strong nature or animal theme. It can be either fiction or nonfiction, in any genre, as long as the story is suitable to be posted in the Share Your Work forum and read by all members of AW.[/FONT]
[FONT="]3. The maximum word count is 2000 words.[/FONT]
[FONT="]4. You can enter as many stories as you like; however, be kind and don't try to "choke" the contest. Remember that we have to get people to read all the entries and vote. You retain all rights to your entries.[/FONT]
[FONT="]5. The contest will be blind entry. That is, the name of the writers of the entries will not be revealed until the end of the contest. Derek (dpaterso) has kindly offered to post the entries. Using this address to send him your entry: http://absolutewrite.com/forums/private.php?do=newpm&u=19 [/FONT]
[FONT="]Include the words Animal Story Contest and the title of your story in the message title. He will then post the entries in the appropriate section of Share Your Work.[/FONT]
[FONT="]6. Most of us are aware that there can be formatting problem when posting something here on AW. Derek is aware of this and can do some very minor tinkering if needed. It would help if you went ahead and used single line spacing with double line spacing between paragraphs rather than indents. If you need to, you can make a copy of your story, and make these changes before sending it to Derek.[/FONT]
[FONT="]7. aka eraser has kindly offered to help moderate the contest. I hope no problems come up, but if they do and it's something we can't solve amongst ourselves, aka will be the final judge of the rules (even if he has to create a new one on the spot).[/FONT]
[FONT="]8. Derek will post the rules for voting when he posts the entry thread in SYW.[/FONT]
[FONT="]9. Have fun. If you feel like it, please put a notice in your signature to alert others of the contest with a link back to this thread.[/FONT]
[FONT="]*I've tried to cover everything, but I could easily have missed something. If something needs to be clarified, please let me know. If needed, I will defer to aka eraser.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Prizes:[/FONT]
[FONT="]Grand prize: A $25 Amazon gift certificate (or $25 USD if you can accept payment by PayPal e-mail), and the choice of either a book by Anne (awatkins) or aka eraser.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Second prize: A $10 Amazon gift certificate (or $10 USD if you can accept payment by PayPal e-mail), and the book by Anne or aka eraser not chosen by the grand prize winner.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Third prize: A $10 Amazon gift certificate (or $10 USD if you can accept payment by PayPal e-mail).[/FONT]
---
I'm including these comments from Derek from a post below so that no one will miss them:
. . . contestants should submit their entries to me via Private Message, so I'm expecting to find text in the body of the PM, not as a file attachment. (I don't think you can attach files to a PM!)
Note that if you're copy/pasting from a word processor, you may lose formatting (e.g. italics or underlines) which you'll have to re-apply manually in the PM editor window.
You may also want to insert spaces between paragraphs to break up big chunks of text and give readers an easier read. Your choice.
Always preview your PM before sending to make sure things look just the way you expect!
[FONT="]Rules*[/FONT]
[FONT="]1. The contest will run for three weeks, from February 25 to March 15, closing at 6:00 pm PST.[/FONT]
[FONT="]2. Each entry must have a strong nature or animal theme. It can be either fiction or nonfiction, in any genre, as long as the story is suitable to be posted in the Share Your Work forum and read by all members of AW.[/FONT]
[FONT="]3. The maximum word count is 2000 words.[/FONT]
[FONT="]4. You can enter as many stories as you like; however, be kind and don't try to "choke" the contest. Remember that we have to get people to read all the entries and vote. You retain all rights to your entries.[/FONT]
[FONT="]5. The contest will be blind entry. That is, the name of the writers of the entries will not be revealed until the end of the contest. Derek (dpaterso) has kindly offered to post the entries. Using this address to send him your entry: http://absolutewrite.com/forums/private.php?do=newpm&u=19 [/FONT]
[FONT="]Include the words Animal Story Contest and the title of your story in the message title. He will then post the entries in the appropriate section of Share Your Work.[/FONT]
[FONT="]6. Most of us are aware that there can be formatting problem when posting something here on AW. Derek is aware of this and can do some very minor tinkering if needed. It would help if you went ahead and used single line spacing with double line spacing between paragraphs rather than indents. If you need to, you can make a copy of your story, and make these changes before sending it to Derek.[/FONT]
[FONT="]7. aka eraser has kindly offered to help moderate the contest. I hope no problems come up, but if they do and it's something we can't solve amongst ourselves, aka will be the final judge of the rules (even if he has to create a new one on the spot).[/FONT]
[FONT="]8. Derek will post the rules for voting when he posts the entry thread in SYW.[/FONT]
[FONT="]9. Have fun. If you feel like it, please put a notice in your signature to alert others of the contest with a link back to this thread.[/FONT]
[FONT="]*I've tried to cover everything, but I could easily have missed something. If something needs to be clarified, please let me know. If needed, I will defer to aka eraser.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Prizes:[/FONT]
[FONT="]Grand prize: A $25 Amazon gift certificate (or $25 USD if you can accept payment by PayPal e-mail), and the choice of either a book by Anne (awatkins) or aka eraser.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Second prize: A $10 Amazon gift certificate (or $10 USD if you can accept payment by PayPal e-mail), and the book by Anne or aka eraser not chosen by the grand prize winner.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Third prize: A $10 Amazon gift certificate (or $10 USD if you can accept payment by PayPal e-mail).[/FONT]
---
I'm including these comments from Derek from a post below so that no one will miss them:
. . . contestants should submit their entries to me via Private Message, so I'm expecting to find text in the body of the PM, not as a file attachment. (I don't think you can attach files to a PM!)
Note that if you're copy/pasting from a word processor, you may lose formatting (e.g. italics or underlines) which you'll have to re-apply manually in the PM editor window.
You may also want to insert spaces between paragraphs to break up big chunks of text and give readers an easier read. Your choice.
Always preview your PM before sending to make sure things look just the way you expect!
Last edited: