The 2013 Short Story Competition
We are pleased to announce our 2013 short story competition will be open for entries between 1st March 2013 and 1st June 2013!
The competition raises funds for our charity of the year Emmaus Cambridge, a charity that supports formerly homeless people to regain control of their lives. This year’s prize is £250, kindly donated by our sponsor Fine & Country Cambridge. The theme of this year’s competition is “home” and we welcome entries between 1500 and 6000 words in length. We encourage entries from outside of the UK and this year we have changed the age limit to 15 years or over to encourage younger writers. Up to 20 entries will be selected for publication in the Askance 2014 Short Story Collection. The entry fee is just £15 – of which £5 will be donated to Emmaus. In tandem with our competition, Cambridge International Arts is running an art competition for a book cover design of the same theme. Please click here for more information
Results of the 2012 Short Story Competion can be found here
When your story is ready, follow these steps:-
1. Check that your story satisfies the rules of entry below.
2. Click here to pay the entry fee via Paypal using your Paypal account OR a credit card. (Emmaus companions click here). If you are sending a cheque or postal order then write it out and post it now!)
3. Make a note of the Paypal reference for the transaction and include that reference in the details of an email to askance.publishing@gmail.com with your story as an attachment.
Rules For The 2013 Short Story Competition
1. ‘The competition’ is the Askance Short Story Competition 2013.
2. The competition is open to all writers aged 15 or over.
3. The general theme or background for each story should be ‘home’. Entrants are strongly encouraged to use ‘home’ in its widest sense. Consider, for example, homecoming, homesickness, homelessness, home-grown, exile, housing, homeward-bound, re-homed, amongst many other possible aspects.
4. Each story should be no more than 6000 words and no less than 1500 words.
5. Each story submitted must be the author’s own work of fiction, written in English. Joint authorship by two or more writers is allowed.
6. The competition is open to any writer aged 15 or over on 1st June 2013.
7. Entrants may be resident anywhere in the world.
8. Up to 20 stories from the competition entries will be selected by a panel of judges including the Askance editorial team and independent readers. The judges decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.
9. All stories selected will be included in the Askance 2014 Short Story Collection which will be published in both paper and digital formats in 2013 and 2014.
10. Authors of each story included will receive a paper copy of the book.
11. From the stories selected, a panel of judges including at least one nominee each from Askance, Fine & Country Cambridge and Emmaus Cambridge, will select the overall winners.
12. The overall winner will be given a £250 prize donated by Fine & Country Cambridge. Payment to the winner will be by bank transfer or PayPal. The winner will be notified no later than 30th September 2013. If no story of sufficient quality is submitted then the prize may be withheld.
13. Submissions must be previously unpublished in any form, including digital formats, peer review websites, blogs, author’s own websites. If a story is published elsewhere after submission to the competition, then the author must advise Askance immediately and the story may be withdrawn from the competition without refund.
14. By submitting a story the author warrants that it is their own work and contains no words or references which will infringe any other copyright.
15. By submitting a story the author indemnifies Askance against all costs, losses or actions which might arise from publication of a submitted story.
16. The copyright of each submission is retained by the author.
17. By submitting a story to the competition the author grants an exclusive one-year licence to Askance Publishing to publish the work in any form without any further royalty or payment to the author from 1st October 2013.
18. By submitting a story to the competition, the author accepts all rules and outcomes.
19. Askance reserves the right to edit any story chosen for publication where such editing may include altering the title, shortening or correcting the text.
20. Authors will be credited by name for any story published. Authors who feel that anonymity is required because of any special circumstances should indicate this when submitting their stories.
21. Entries must be received between 1st March 2013 and 12 noon 1st June 2013. They must be sent as an attachment to an email addressed to askance.publishing@gmail.com .
a) The story must be in one of the following document formats: .doc, .docx, .odt, .rtf, .txt .
b) The document must be page numbered and have the title of the story on each page.
c) The document must NOT have the author’s name anywhere on it.
d) The submission email must contain the PayPal payment reference, the author’s full name, address (with postal code) and daytime telephone number.
e) The subject of the submission email must be ‘Askance Short Story 2013’ followed by the title of the story. Emmaus companions should add ‘(Companion)’ after the title.
f) Please check and double-check your story before submitting it!
22. Stories should be presented in size 12 font, preferably Arial or similar, and be 1.5 or double spaced.
23. Any genre of writing will be considered apart from stories designed for children or stories requiring graphic illustration.
24. Authors may submit more than one entry.
25. A fee of £15 is required for each entry in the competition (Emmaus companions entry fee is £5). This must be sent via PayPal to askance.publishing@gmail.com (entrants will be encouraged to use the link provided at the top of this page direct to PayPal) OR by cheque (drawn on a UK bank) or postal order payable to “Askance”, 73 Bishop’s Road, Cambridge, CB2 9NQ, United Kingdom. Please do not send printed stories to this address. The author’s name and the title of the story should be included as references in the payment process.
26. No refund of entry fees will be made for any story which is found to be in breach of any of the stated rules of entry.
27. Entries from the Askance editorial team or anyone directly associated with Askance or the competition will not be considered for prizes but they may submit stories which may be included in the published collection.
If you have any queries about the terms and conditions please contact editor@askance-publishing.com
