Gather / Short Fiction Competition

Judi Bee · Dec 24, 2005

Does anyone have any information about the 2005 Gather Short Fiction
Competition on gatherinc.com? Once before I entered a contest, and won, and never even got a certificate! This one sounds legit but so did the other one. At least there's no entry fee. My main concern is that the entries have to be in by
Jan. 15 and the short listed authors are notified by January 31. But to be
eligible, you have to publish the story on their site, though judging is
only on the emailed entry. Then, I assume, it's considered officially
published and if it doesn't win you couldn't sell it elsewhere.

If you've ever heard anything about this competition--good, bad, or
otherwise--please let me know. Thanks!

JerseyGirl1962 · Dec 29, 2005

I did some basic googling and found a blog entry with this:

...the brand new 2005 Gather Short Fiction Competition sponsored by Houghton Mifflin...The winning story will be reviewed by Houghton Mifflin's in-house editor for "The Best American Short Stories" series and will be featured on Gather.com and VoidMagazine.com. The winner receives a cash prize of $500, a selection of best-selling titles from Houghton Mifflin, and a subscription to "Believer" literary magazine. Submissions are due by January 15, 2006.

Stories can't be more than 3,000 words. The website for the contest is:

http://www.gather.com

I saw a piece on Publisher's Weekly about it:

http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6290501.html?pubdate=12/12/2005&display=current

Looks legit.

Hope this helps.

~ Nancy

Judi Bee · Dec 29, 2005

Short story contest info

Nancy,

Thank you so much! I had the basic information, but had not seen the PW column. That helps a lot.

I knew somebody on this forum would have an answer.

JerseyGirl1962 · Dec 30, 2005

Judi,

You're quite welcome.

Good luck!

~Nancy

NicoleJLeBoeuf · Dec 30, 2005

JerseyGirl1962 said:
The website for the contest is:

http://www.gather.com

That just takes you to the front page of gather.com, from which I totally failed to find the contest.

A Google search on "contest site:gather.com" found me this:

http://fictioncontest.gather.com/

That appears to be it.

I probably won't be entering, myself--the price of admission is first publication rights, and I don't have any stories I'm willing to give that up on. But it looks interesting. Good luck to everyone who will be trying their luck!

kdnxdr · Jan 20, 2006

Maybe I am just not understanding how the world of publishing works. I'm a newbie to getting public with my writing and trying to learn alot fast! Someone invited me to join Gather. I went to their privacy statement and read the whole thing. My questions came up regarding article #6 and the way that I interpreted that portion of the contract was that, essentially, they can do just about anything with your posted work unbeknownst to you. Maybe that's my misunderstanding.

kdnxdr

JeanneTGC · Nov 21, 2006

Has anyone further investigated the legal ramifications of publishing anything on Gather, or a similar type of website?

They really promote their Amazon short story contests, but I can't tell if this is a good thing to be a part of or if, as Nicole said, it's unwise to lose your first publication rights in this way. As in, are you better off sending to every single potential magazine first, then every single potential internet e-zine second, and then, if no one bites, going for some sort of publication on Gather?

James D. Macdonald · Nov 21, 2006

I'd definitely seek legitimate publication long before I'd even consider sending a story to a contest.

CaoPaux · Jun 8, 2008

Adding link for writers' section: http://writing.gather.com/

heatercat · Jun 8, 2008

Gather's Legit

If you think winning a Gather contest won't be worth something, might want to google "Meredith Duran".

CaoPaux · Dec 4, 2016

Gather was sold to Kitara Media in '14, and closed in '15.

Gather / Short Fiction Competition

Judi Bee

JerseyGirl1962

I heart Malamutes! :-)

Judi Bee

JerseyGirl1962

I heart Malamutes! :-)

NicoleJLeBoeuf

a work in progress

kdnxdr

One of the most important people in the world

JeanneTGC

I am Catwoman...and Gini Koch

James D. Macdonald

Your Genial Uncle

CaoPaux

Mostly Harmless

heatercat

CaoPaux

Mostly Harmless

Gather / Short Fiction Competition

I heart Malamutes! :-)

I heart Malamutes! :-)

a work in progress

One of the most important people in the world

I *am* Catwoman...and Gini Koch

Your Genial Uncle

Mostly Harmless

Mostly Harmless

I am Catwoman...and Gini Koch