An all-new writing contest sponsored by two great online resources for writers: Editor Unleashed and Smashwords!
You help choose the $500 Grand Prize winner.
No entry fee!
The Dates:
• Post Your Entry on the Forum: Monday, November 9 – Thursday, December 31
• Popular Ranking: Monday, January 4 – Friday, January 29
• Winners Announced: Monday, February 1
How to Enter:
• Writers post their essays of 750 words or fewer 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 entries. The popular vote will help decide the winners!
• With consideration to popular ranking, the Grand Prize winner will be chosen by Maria Schneider of Editor Unleashed.
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 essay will appear first in The “Why I Write” anthology.
• 50 writers will have their essays included in The “Why I Write” anthology published via 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 and the Sony Reader.
• Entrants grant Editor Unleashed and Smashwords non-exclusive digital rights to publish their essay in a digital anthology available on Smashwords and in online bookstores and websites that distribute Smashwords books. You keep full rights to your essay.
• All 50 essays will be promoted by Editor Unleashed and Smashwords.
Let us help you promote your writing!
Questions or comments? Post them here in the comments.
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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.
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I can’t find the relevant thread in the forums. Any chance of a direct link for us to post to?
Also, you ask for essays but can we take that request broadly? For example, a fiction piece addressing the issue or something like that? Just wondering how much we can stretch our wings here.
Are non-US writers eligible to enter this contest as well?
Thanks :)
@Alan, I’ll put up a new forum next Monday when we start taking submissions. I’ll post rules as to what defines essay, but I intend to interpret it broadly.
@Diar, Yes, non-U.S. writers are more than welcome to join in. :)
I have been trying to login to the forum to read some of the essays that have been submited and the pages are not loading correctly. Is anyone else having this problem?