The Editor Unleashed/Smashwords Flash Fiction 40
Don’t miss this groundbreaking new writing contest sponsored exclusively by two great online resources for writers: Editor Unleashed and Smashwords!
Cash prizes to 40 writers including a $500 Grand Prize and publication in the Editor Unleashed/Smashwords Flash Fiction 40 anthology.
You help choose the winner. No entry fee!
The Dates:
• May 18th – June 14, 2009: Post your story on the Editor Unleashed forum.
• June 15 – June 26, 2009: The Popular Vote. Stories ranked by members of the Editor Unleashed forum.
• June 30, 2009: 40 Winners announced!
How to Enter:
• Writers post flash fiction of 1,000 words or less on the Editor Unleashed forum. Contestants must be registered members of the forum to enter. (Membership is free. Only one entry per writer please.)
You Help Choose the Winners:
• All members of the Editor Unleashed forum will be eligible to rank stories. The popular vote will help decide the winners!
• With close consideration to popular ranking, Top 40 winners—including Grand Prize winner—will be chosen by Maria Schneider of Editor Unleashed with assistance from a select group of agents and editors.
Prizes and Promotions:
• The Grand Prize winner will receive a $500 cash prize (courtesy of Smashwords) and will be interviewed and promoted on the Editor Unleashed and Smashwords blogs. The Grand Prize winning story will appear first in The Editor Unleashed/Smashwords Flash Fiction 40 anthology.
• 39 Editor’s Choice winners will each receive $25 and have their stories included in The Editor Unleashed/Smashwords Flash Fiction 40 anthology published by Smashwords as a free ebook. Once published at Smashwords, the anthology will also be available in other online bookstores that distribute Smashwords ebooks, including Stanza,the ebook reading app used by over 1.5 million iPhone and iPod Touch users to read ebooks.
• Entrants grant Editor Unleashed and Smashwords non-exclusive digital rights to publish their story in a digital anthology available on Smashwords and in online bookstores and websites that distribute Smashwords books. You keep full rights to your story.
• All 40 winning stories will be promoted on the Editor Unleashed and Smashwords blogs.
Let us help you promote your writing!
Questions or comments? Post them on the forum.
For updates via Twitter follow mariaschneider and markcoker
About Editor Unleashed
Editor Unleashed has become a premiere online resource for writers of all genres. The site features timely interviews with publishing industry insiders, helpful articles on the craft and business of writing, and a vibrant online writers’ forum. Editor Unleashed founder and editor Maria Schneider is the former editor in chief of Writer’s Digest magazine who has overseen and judged dozens of popular writing competitions. Editor Unleashed was recently chosen as one of the Writer’s Digest 101 Best Websites for Writers.
About Smashwords
Smashwords is a popular ebook publishing platform and online bookstore for indie authors. Authors upload their manuscript as a Microsoft Word document to Smashwords which then instantly converts it into nine ebook formats, ready for immediate sale online at a price set by the author. The Smashwords service is completely free. Authors earn royalties of up to 85 percent of the net selling price (net=[price set by author minus PayPal fee]*.85). Smashwords ebooks are also distributed within the native ebook catalog of Stanza, the #1 ebook reading app on the iPhone and iPod Touch. Learn more about Smashwords by reading this interview with Smashwords founder Mark Coker or by visiting Smashwords.
For contest updates, be sure to subscribe (free) to this blog.
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Wow, nice contest Maria. Is it completely open ended? Just 1000 words, without regard to theme or topic? I will definitely be working on this. Thanks, both to you and to Mr. Coker.
~jon
Thanks Jon. Yes, any genre, any subject (with the exception of obscenity which I will remove at my discretion). Glad you’re entering!
Can we submit tasteful erotica? Or does that fall under “obscenity.”
(Don’t mean to be a pest, but I don’t want to offend anyone either.)
Tasteful (not obscenely graphic or violent) erotica is fine.
This is a great opportunity. Thank you, Maria and Mr. Coker
I’m probably being a bit dense here, but where in the forum should we be posting the flash entries?
Hi Alan, I haven’t put the forum for the stories up yet. I’ll put it up on May 18 when we start accepting stories.
Ah right – not being as dense as I thought then. Thanks!
Woo hoo! Great idea Maria, and a tag-team effort no less. How exciting! Must put the nose to the grindstone for this one! The competition will be stiff and lively.
–John
Hi Maria,
Hehe. Great minds think alike, eh?
I’m looking forward to putting in an entry and getting the word out!
I love Smashwords. So far, in less than a month my writings have been downloaded 300 times!
Cheers
George
Great contest! Is it open to anyone in the world?
Hi Nick,
Yes, the contest is open to anyone and everyone!
Maria
Maria, there’s an author named Bruce Rogers, who runs the http://www.shortshortshort.com/ site. He is a fantastic writer of short-short fiction, who has an interesting business model: you can subscribe, for $10 a year, to his stuff, and he’ll send you 3 short stories, by email, every month. I’ve been getting his stuff for a while. He has a remarkable range, from noirish pieces, to fable, to Donald Barthelme-like wordplay to slice-of-life—and all invariably quite good.
Hi Maria. Thanks for posting the contest. I’m always up for the challenge! Count me in.
Hi Sharon! I’m so glad to see you plan on joining in. That’s great. Be sure to check out the forum as well. Maria runs a great little place here.
~jon
Have just blogged about the contest – see link above.
Thanks for the plug Nick!