The 2012 Young Writers Award (Information and Guidelines)

[Shaun]

Please read these guidelines carefully, as they are subject to change.

The following are details about the award, including how to submit.

About
The Young Writers Award is an annual award given to the best young writer for the year, whether the writer in question is a poet, short fiction writer, a novelist, or "all of the above." The contest will be judged on merit and execution and will serve to highlight the exceptional talents of one writer.

Prize
$100 (minimum)

Judge
The judge for the YWA this year will be announced later.

Previous Judges:

2011: Adam Callaway is a freelance baker, avid ping ponger, transdimensional neosurrealist, and a dedicated writer. He lives in Superior, Wisconsin, where summer is blissfully short and mild, with his wife and two dogs. He has had stories published in AE and Flurb. He can be found lurking at http://www.adamcallaway.net/.

2010: Jason Sanford (http://www.jasonsanford.com/). His work has appeared in Interzone, Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Tales of the Unanticipated, Intergalactic Medicine Show, Pindeldyboz, The Mississippi Review, and 3:AM Magazine. He is a Nebula Award finalist (for “Sublimation Angels” in Interzone #224), winner of the Interzone Readers’ Poll two years in a row, and a nominee for the Pushcart Prize. He is also founder of storySouth, a magazine that focuses on literature from the New South.

Award Rules
--Writers must be:
a. 21 years old or younger OR an undergraduate at a University or Community College under the age of 25 AND
b. Active members of Young Writers Online at the time of the deadline for the award. The definition of "active" is left to the discretion of the owners of Young Writers Online and will take into account post and critique frequency. It should be assumed that posting less than once a day (as a general average), whether in the discussion sections or writing sections, does not constitute "active." AND
c. Not a previous winner of the award.

--Writers may submit up to a total of 7,500 words of unpublished fiction in up to five short stories OR up to a total of 120 lines of unpublished poetry in up to 6 poems OR a combination of fiction and poetry not to exceed 5,000 words of unpublished fiction (in no more than 3 stories) and 80 lines of unpublished poetry (in no more than 4 poems). Quality over quantity is a rule of thumb (i.e., someone who submits one story that is exceptional is more likely to win over someone who submits three stories that are quite good, but not quite exceptional).

--Fiction may be of any genre and must be self-contained (i.e., do not submit a story or chapter that has been cut in half).

--Poetry may be in any style.

--Submissions for the award should be sent as .doc or .rtf files (no .docx, .pages, or any other file types, and do not post your submission in the body of the email) to arconna [at] yahoo [dot] com with the subject "Young Writers Award." Provide your real name and your YWO account name in the email. Please follow standard manuscript format (http://www.shunn.net/format/story.html) with the following alterations:
a. The text of your submission should start on the second page with the name of your submission and the page number in the header. Your first page should contain your name, your YWO account name, the title of your submission, and the word count.
b. Do not put your last name in the header of your submission. We intend for all entries to be judged blindly and will cut out the first page for submission to our judge.

--Submissions must be sent no later than March 31st, 2013. Winners will be announced no later than the end of May 2013 and the award will be distributed via Paypal (other arrangements can be made in the event that the winner cannot use Paypal).

--Questions should be sent to arconna [at] yahoo [dot] com or posted in the forum section for the award.

[Shaun]

Submissions are due in a few days, people! Don't forget to submit something!

[Eilidh]

Where do you send it once you're done?

[Shaun]

To sbsmag[at]yahoo[dot]com <--Replace the at and dot as appropriate.

[Shaun]

I've made a question correction, because there has been a lot of confusion. The word and line counts are maximums, not minimums. That means 10K is the max word count for short stories, not the required amount of words.

[Lykaios]

This is a formatting guide: http://www.shunn.net/format/story.html

It shows you what a manuscript should look like as well as the text itself being a guide on how to do the formatting and why, and I found it pretty useful last time I tried submitting somewhere. :)

[Clarissa]

Hmmm. So does it actually matter which font you use?

[Shaun]

No. Courier is preferred, but the judge can change the font as he sees fit. Just don't choose any bizarre fonts.

[Rose]

I just sent my submission.

Hope I didn't screw up. >.<

SUBMIT PEOPLE! SUBMIT!
pwease? =D

[Shaun]

It helps if you let folks know they need to submit...you know, by bugging them with VMs and annoying things like that. You folks know more about our members than I do, since you're on the front lines :)

[Majyk]

I think Lyk has gotten to the VM bit already. Every time I click on someone's profile, I see that she's told them to submit to the YWA. Except she never VMed me. But I already submitted anyway. :p

[Shaun]

That's because I told her you subbed :P. So she didn't waste time.

[Majyk]

Ah! And here I was thinking she'd forgotten me. :rolleyes:

/spam

[Lykaios]

Ah! And here I was thinking she'd forgotten me. :rolleyes:

/spam

Aww, I didn't forget you. :hug:

I wrote down the usernames of the people who have already submitted so I wouldn't send them messages about it.

[Alice Glitterhorn]

I'm on a mac, so it only saves it as a .pages file. I've been looking all over the net to see how to convert it, but I don't understand/it won't work. :/

EDIT: And of course, just after posting this, I learned how to do it. Figures. So, never mind.

[Zombified]

Good luck to everyone.

One of us is gonna be the 2010 Young Writer Of The Year!

[Peppermental]

Theoretically, if someone had already posted a piece on this site in the "Member's Only" section, could they submit it?

[Nyx]

^ I had the same question.

[Valencian]

Good Luck everybody. Hopefully, I'll be able to enter next year. I'm sure all of your stories and poems were excellent

[Clarissa]

Alright. Well, I did it. No going back now...

Hope I didn't screw up too much. :(

EDIT: Actually, I did screw up, in the email part... Can I resend and we just ignore the first email? My computer and my brain are malfunctioning. So sorry. *facepalm*

[Eilidh]

This is a formatting guide: http://www.shunn.net/format/story.html

It shows you what a manuscript should look like as well as the text itself being a guide on how to do the formatting and why, and I found it pretty useful last time I tried submitting somewhere. :)

Oh dear I didn't see this before I sent it in. Although I did put like, word count, my account name and my full name and it was on the first page. And the story started on the second page, should the rest really matter?

[Spacepirate]

sent.

all old work mind. :( mix of poetry/prose.

[Lykaios]

^ Same, Space. I didn't finish my short in time. I think I did it wrong, too . . . but it's all good fun and experience, so no matter. :)

[Peppermental]

Yeah... I was stuck between submitting two poems I'd written in the last hour while laying in the grass beside my friend, or sending in naked photo's of myself. The latter was a sure victory, no challenge there. In honor of gamesmanship, I opted to send in the poems I wrote yesterday.

[Rose]

Yeah... I was stuck between submitting two poems I'd written in the last hour while laying in the grass beside my friend, or sending in naked photo's of myself.

:laugh:

That made me laugh so hard. xD

/Spam.

[Clarissa]

In honor of gamesmanship, I opted to send in the poems I wrote yesterday.

Screw you. I wanted to see the naked pictures. Send them to me instead.

By the way, I sent my full name. As in family name too. Just so you know. I'm not so bright...

[Valencian]

Good Luck everyone I'm sure you all wrote great things

[Peppermental]

So, in total, who all submitted?

[Weirdside]

I did on the last possible day.

[the_knockon_effect]

I posted on the 31st of August. Win :P

[Majyk]

I posted on the 31st of August. Win :P

I beat that. My submission was sent on August 21st. :P

[Shaun]

Just to let you all know what's going on: I have sent all of your submissions to Jason Sanford for judging. They were sent anonymously. I suspect he'll have a response before October, but if not, the plan is to have the winner announced before the close of the year.

The winner, by the way, will receive $250 (via Paypal or postal order; Paypal preferred) and a number of free books. Other prizes may be announced, depending on available funds.

So, good luck, folks!

[Weirdside]

Just had a dream that I got an email from Sanford and you saying I won. Because of my latent psychic abilities, I think we can skip the "judging" formality and the money can be deposited directly in my Paypal account. :D

[Peppermental]

Will there be a list of like commended people? Like the "you suck slightly less than the average person" list? Because if so I'm shooting for that

[Alice Glitterhorn]

Will there be a list of like commended people? Like the "you suck slightly less than the average person" list? Because if so I'm shooting for that

I want that, too :P

[Shaun]

Theoretically, yes.

[sri krishna]

so am i supposed to write essays here?

[Shaun]

Nope. The competition is over. It was also only for fiction and poetry.

A decision is coming soon.

[Eilidh]

..Anything yet?

[Shaun]

Nope.

[Peppermental]

Out of curiosity, how many submissions did you get? Was it successful in that sense?

[Shaun]

Yes, we got enough submissions to make it worth it :). Hopefully we'll get more the next time we do it.

Winner will be announced this week.

[Peppermental]

Ya know, every time I log on I fight the urge to post in this thread for the sake of getting people all excited when they see it in their subscribed thread thing, just to be let down when they realize its me spamming.

And that, impulse control, is checkmate.

[Weirdside]

Well you succeeded on both fronts, Peppermental :)

[Peppermental]

You are now my bestfriend. We're gonna go far love.

[Weirdside]

Sounds like a plan. Always thought it'd be fun to have one'a those. :pirate:

[Carraka]

I was about to post: I DID IT. I SUBMITTED MY STORY AFTER CUTTING 1500 WORDS FROM IT IN TWO AND A HALF HOURS! AND IT'S STILL RELATIVELY OKAY. MAYBE FEWER JOKES AND ODDER PACING BUT IT'S STILL OKAY.

Then I received a Delivery Status Notification (Failure) and I really did have a need to type in all caps. Then I realized I had put in skiffyandfantasy ... I have no idea why. I must be tired, even though I don't feel tired as I normally would at this time.

You know what's sad? I really did leave it to the last minute, just like I said I would. Self-fulfilling prophecy. Okay, technically I have three and a half hours to go. But I also have class tomorrow.

[Fluke]

Question:
Since the rules stipulate that you must be 21 years old or younger, but the deadline is the end of March--would my 22nd birthday on March 13th render my submission void?

[Shaun]

Are you at Uni or a community college?

If not, don't stress it.

[Rosey]

i need help to post my stories

[Shaun]

For this award or on YWO in general?