Deadline: 31 March 2012
This competition is for short stories of all kinds accepted in the Rules below. We believe firmly in competitions as a way to encourage writers (a) to put pen to paper, and (b) to believe in themselves. Practice of your profession is essential, and this is one way to get people writing with purpose. Many people also love the challenge, and it drives them to produce material they might not otherwise have explored, developing them in unexpected ways!
PRIZES: First prize £150 second prize £75. Third prize is two of our books. Winning and Commended entries will be included in an Anthology. Note that if there are enough entries, prizes may rise in value. If there are too few, prizes will be adjusted fairly according to entry fees received.
DEADLINE FOR ENTRIES: 31 March 2012. Winners will be announced by the end of May 2012.
ENTRY FEE: £4.00 / US$8.00 / ZAR40.00 (special allowance for Africa) per entry. This can be paid either online (see bottom of page), by cheque/check, or by deposit into one of our bank accounts (USA, South Africa, UK) - email us for details.
Fees are NOT refundable - please ensure you read the rules carefully. If you are paying online below, this will automatically be charged at £4.00 - so if you are in Southern Africa, it will be more than we are asking Southern African entrants; we suggest that you email us for our SA bank details, and make a direct deposit - see details at bottom of page.
CRITIQUES: If you require a professional critique, please make a separate payment for this. Short story critiques are charged at £18.00 (this is roughly just £6/hr).
GUIDELINES:
This competition is OPEN to anyone, of all ages and levels of experience. We are also running a "Christian Writers" competition. For children aged up to (and including) 14, please see our "Young Writers" competition page.
Please DO NOT enter stories written for children. They cannot be judged equally against stories written for adults. We do not yet run a competition for children's stories.
Please be sure you have the rights to enter this competition; entrants take full responsibility for copyright issues. Plagiarism will not be tolerated.
Stories may be up to but no longer than 4,000 words, in any style and on any subject (except those outlined in the Rules below). Please do not be offensive in your stories, or use graphic sexual or violent detail or language.
Please submit by EMAIL, if at all possible. If email is absolutely impossible, then hard (paper) copy submissions will be accepted, but as these have to be scanned into our system, which is very time consuming, we discourage this.
Mark entries clearly with the competition title " Sunpenny OPEN Competition", and submit as below.
If you really can only submit hard copy, PLEASE: do not staple your work. Staples have to be removed for scanning and our fingers and our time both suffer.
We acknowledge receipt, and notify winners, by email, so please include an email address. If you do not have an email address yourself, please give us the email of a friend or relative through whom you can be contacted. If entering by post, we can only let you know your entry has been received if you include a stamped self-addressed postcard or envelope to be sent back to you.
Paper entries can not be returned, as they have ID numbers put onto every page, and are then scanned for transfer to the judges. They are in no condition to be used again.
Digital entries: We accept most file formats - MS Word, OfficeOrg, Wordperfect, RTF, PDF, text, and others. If you send us something we can't read, we'll contact you. Please scan for viruses BEFORE sending!
HOW TO FORMAT YOUR ENTRIES:
Please supply a separate cover page with Title, Entrant Name, Address, Email, and the entry's Word Count.
Each page of the story must have page number and title of the story ONLY. Do not include your name or any other identifier on any page of the entry itself. (All entries are given an ID reference number and separated from the cover page to ensure fair judging.)
Entries must be typed on one side of the paper only, and neatly set out as you would a book manuscript (indented paragraphs without blank lines between them; single spaced). We cannot accept hand-written entries.
Please, no fancy fonts! We like good old 12-point Times New Roman, or a similar serif font. We don't like sans-serif fonts like Arial; they are harder on the eyes.
As a guideline, we like a good inch of margin on both sides as well as top and bottom. We now prefer single spacing.
Please check and polish work carefully; if your entry is too liberally sprinkled with poor grammar and spelling, and careless typos, it will be marked down in the final judging. Writing is a language craft, and an artist must (a) know their craft and (b) take pride in their work. If you don't care, we won't be inclined to, either! (Exceptions are made for dyslexic or otherwise handicapped entrants; please make a note on your entry if this is the case.)
COMPETITION RULES:
Entry submission indicates acceptance of all rules, guidelines, terms and conditions.
Stories may be anything up to but no longer than 4,000 words, in any style and on any subject. However, they must not promote racism, gratuitous sex or violence, foul language, or anything else that does not conform to good family and moral values (and we get to decide!).
The competition is open to anyone worldwide provided that the fee is received in either British Pounds, Euros, US Dollars or South African Rands.
The competition closes on 31 March 2012, and winners will be announced and displayed on our web site by end of May 2012.
Prize winners will be notified by email as well as named on the web site; please ensure you supply a valid email address with your entry, even if sent in by post, unless you do not have one - in which case, please state this on your entry title page. Please also check the web site at the beginning of June, in case you don't receive an email for any reason.
Prizes will be paid via PayPal, UK £ cheque/check, deposit into your bank where possible, or any other reasonable, cost-effective method mutually agreed.
Prizes must be claimed within 30 days of being published on the web site and contacted by email. After 30 days, prizes will be forfeited.
All entries must be written in English. Other languages will not be accepted.
You may enter as many different works as you like, as long as each is accompanied by an entry fee.
Entries must be in entirety the original work of the entrant, and the entrant must fully own all necessary rights to enter this competition.
Writers retain copyright, but give permission for their work to be published on this website at our discretion, and in any one future anthology produced by Sunpenny Limited or its imprints.
The judges' decision is final; no individual correspondence or disputes will be entered into.
In extremis, deadlines and any other dates may be changed by Sunpenny Limited without notice for any legitimate reason. Likewise in extremis prizes may be adjusted, but our reasons will be good should either of these necessities arise! In the event that we simply don't receive a reasonable number of entries, we reserve the right to cancel the competition and return entry fees.
We reserve the right to adjust these rules without notice.
Entrants are responsible for completing the submission process effectively. We cannot take responsibility for entries lost in the post or in cyberspace. If you encounter problems, please let us know timeously.
TO ENTER:
Please ensure that you have read all the rules and guidelines above before entering! Submitting your entry indicates full acceptance of these rules no refunds will be given.
PAYMENT OF ENTRY FEES:
Please pay careful attention - if your payment is made out incorrectly, your entry will not be accepted until the payment is corrected.
The entry fees can be paid either online by credit card or with your account via PayPal, Google Checkout, or through the post by cheque/check or bank deposit (see special note for Southern Africans). If you make your payment online, we should receive a notification automatically, and your entry will be acknowledged by us, manually - if it has not been acknowledged within 48 hours, please contact us; something may have gone astray. Addressesfor sending your entries are at the bottom of the page.
If you are in Southern Africa and can ONLY pay directly by bank transfer/deposit, please email us for our bank details.
1. BY POST: CHEQUE/CHECK or MONEY ORDER:
US DOLLAR checks or money orders must be made out to M.AMUNDSON
UK POUND cheques or money orders must be made out to SUNPENNY LIMITED
ZA RAND cheques or money orders must be made out to A. HOLLOWAY
POST ALL THESE (but make them out ONLY as above!), with a note stating what competition category you are entering [Open, Christian, or Young Writers] and the title of your entry, to the address below.
2. ONLINE: By PAYPAL, OR GOOGLECHECKOUT:
Online Payments are via our Storefront: Click here
ADDRESSES YOU WILL NEED:
EMAIL ADDRESS FOR DIGITAL FILES ENTRIES (no matter where you are sending from):
writers-AT-sunpenny.com (replace the " -AT-" with the @ sign, no spaces either side). IF YOU HAVE PROBLEMS WITH THIS ADDRESS, please send to: info-AT-sunpenny.com
PHYSICAL ADDRESS FOR CDs, DVDs, or HARD COPY (PAPER) ENTRIES:
Sunpenny Open Short Story Competition
10 Aspen Close
Harriseahead
Staffordshire ST7 4HD
UNITED KINGDOM
CONTACT INFORMATION:
For inquiries: writers-AT-sunpenny.com
For submissions: info-AT-sunpenny.com
Website: http://www.sunpenny.com