[Community] Figment / The Requiem Writing Contest

c.e.lawson · Jan 7, 2013

Saw a link on Twitter for this Requiem contest for writers 13-21 years of age, sponsored by Figment and HarperCollins. My daughter is almost fifteen and might be interested. Grand prize is a trip to New York and a day at HarperCollins, as well as an unpaid writing position as a columnist for Teen.com, to write at least 12 columns.

Here's a link: http://dailyfig.figment.com/requiem-contest-rules/

I'd love some opinions on whether this is a worthwhile contest to enter. Here is a paragraph from the link above, of the rules, which gave me pause.

You retain all right, title, and interest in and to your Submission, including the copyright, provided, however, that by participating in the Promotion, you hereby grant Sponsors and Prize Providers the non-exclusive, royalty-free right and license to publish your Submission, in whole or in part, and your name, image, likeness, and biographical information for publicity, advertising, and promotional purposes, without limitation, and without consideration whether or not such Submission is selected as a winning Submission. You additionally grant sponsors the right, but not the obligation to, edit, amend, or cut your submission for publication, the time and format determined solely by the sponsors.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

c.e.

victoriastrauss · Jan 7, 2013

By submitting, entrants are consenting to non-paid publication not just if they win, but for "publicity, advertising, and promotional purposes," and granting the sponsor the right to edit, amend, or cut their entry at will. For a professional author those would not be appealing terms (at least, they wouldn't be for me), but for a budding writer who's jazzed about being judged by Lauren Oliver and tempted by the grand prize (a day at HarperCollins--meh, but the year of columns could be a solid entry on a writing resume), I don't see the harm.

- Victoria

c.e.lawson · Jan 7, 2013

Thank you so much, Victoria. Yes, for an almost fifteen year-old, it sounds exciting. And the story is only 1500 words -- I'll just warn her not to become too attached to any of them.

I've appreciated your help so many times here at AW. You're a wonderful resource.

c.e.

DaveKuzminski · Jan 7, 2013

Have to agree with Victoria. It could be an exciting year of learning how to deal with real life deadlines.

c.e.lawson · Jan 8, 2013

DaveKuzminski said:
Have to agree with Victoria. It could be an exciting year of learning how to deal with real life deadlines.

Excellent. Thank you! She's already spilling over with possible story ideas. Win or not, this will be fun.

c.e.

tiakall · Feb 9, 2016

[YADS] Figment

http://figment.com

Run of the mill display site, aimed at teens and young adults (and teachers) - looking at what's available, seems like a smaller, fanfiction.net-esque Wattpad? Lots of flash fiction/abandoned works, for one.

I would love to know if their current "featured" author has Disney's permission to use their font on one of their covers (and even if they did, the story itself doesn't seem to have anything to do with Disney, so that's a poor choice.)

Samsonet · Feb 9, 2016

The current featured author is 16. There'll be a new Featured Author in a week. I know it's kinda silly for me to be the one saying it, but I don't think we should talk about her in a discussion of Figment as a site.

Scarodactyl · Feb 10, 2016

tiakall said:
Disney's permission to use their font

Odd as it sounds, fonts are generally not eligible for copyright protection, though their specific logo is of course protected by their trademark. It generally doesn't look professional to use that font for obvious reasons but I doubt there would be any legal issues with it.

[Community] Figment / The Requiem Writing Contest

c.e.lawson

victoriastrauss

Writer Beware Goddess

c.e.lawson

DaveKuzminski

Preditors & Editors

c.e.lawson

tiakall

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Samsonet

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Scarodactyl

[Community] Figment / The Requiem Writing Contest

Writer Beware Goddess

Preditors & Editors

*lurk*

Just visiting

lurk