Monday, November 8, 2010

Submissions Are Now Open

Your submission for this contest should be formatted EXACTLY as follows:

SCREEN NAME: Your Screen Name Here
TITLE: Your Title Here
GENRE: Your Genre Here

(Followed by the excerpt here.)

* No "chapter one," chapter titles, etc.
* You will receive a confirmation email with your post number.
* Submissions go to authoress.submissions(at)gmail.com. They DO NOT GO to my facelesswords address. Or any other address.
*PLAIN TEXT is your best bet! And if you receive a rejection notice that claims you didn't include TITLE, etc., please TYPE THE SCREEN NAME, TITLE, AND GENRE BY HAND and resubmit. (In other words, don't copy and paste that part.)

This month's contest will include the following genres:

Adult fiction, all genres (including SFF)
Literary YA

33 comments:

  1. It's been a year since I entered one of these....so excited! Most of the time I forget or miss the submission time...this time I formatted everything ahead of time and then set an alarm on my phone! LOL. Looking forward to it.

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  2. Authoress,
    I received a reject for too many words and I'm befuddled....and sad!!!

    You said it's 266 and it's only
    258. I've checked and checked and checked. You said you granted 5 words extra, and to finish sentences....and I don't understand. It's only 3 words over.

    I just checked AGAIN. I can't figure out where you are getting 266. I'm so sad. I was so excited. I don't get it. And it's in plain text format. So confused.

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  3. Sharla,

    Your word processor is putting invisible gobblety-gook in that we can't see, but the bot can.

    Resubmit in PLAIN TEXT. That is, swipe from plain text document to a plain text email (set your email to plain text first).

    If that's in any way confusing, then set your email to PLAIN TEXT and type your entire entry in by hand. Then there won't be any invisible "junk" throwing off your word count. :)

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  4. Also the word count is 255. Not 266. I must've typed it wrong in my response to you! o.o But the official word count is always 255.

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  5. I did do it in plain text...twice. I even took out some words and it's at 254. Rejected again and told it was 262. Wanting to cry now. I'm at work and I don't think they'll understand! LOL.

    I will retype it manually now, probably won't make this first deadline. Crossing fingers...

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  6. I, too, am having problems. I've resaved and pasted 4 times now. I'm getting a message that I'm at 260 words. It's only 243. I think it's counting my screen and stuff.

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  7. LOL, well I've just sent the sixth submission. I changed my email to plain text the fifth time (thanks authoress, didn't know about that) and then I got another reject for not recognizing the title like your blog post said, so I just sent the last one with that part manually typed....and I just checked and it rejected it AGAIN! Same reason. Says I don't have a title. Oh. My. God. I need to do some deep breathing.

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  8. Authoress,

    Hi, I just wanted to know something, on the last logline contest I never received a confirmation email and I got in. I am number 10. This time I sent it at exactly noon. I like I did the last time. I would like to know if I got in this time too. I haven't received an email from you, so I don't know if I didn't get in or I did get in and was not informed. Can you please clear this up for me. I would appreciate it.

    Michael

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  9. Shannyn -- No, it is not counting your screen, etc. You've got to type it in plain text into a plain text email; your word processor is adding invisible junk.

    Sharla, you've got to type the colons after the screen name, etc., or the bot won't read them.

    EXACTLY like this:

    SCREEN NAME: blahblah
    TITLE: blahblah
    GENRE: blahblah

    I've extended the deadline so you can both try again (not quite filled up yet)

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  10. You are awesome, Authoress. I just ended up retyping in the email. I did save the doc as plain text before. Don't know why it didn't work.

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  11. Gideon -- the bot ALWAYS sends a confirmation email. Do you have a spam box?

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  12. Yes, and I looked. I just received an email but only to tell me of the contest.. nothing else. Should I resubmit it?

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  13. Yes, and I looked. I just received an email but only to tell me of the contest.. nothing else. Should I resubmit it?

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  14. The contest will only accept 1 entry per person, so if you were accepted and are in, it will just reject you.

    What email addy are you sending from?

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  15. I am sending from safari on apple. mculi@aol.com

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  16. gideon, I don't see that address anywhere in my database. Did you sent to the right address? authoress.submissions(at)gmail.com

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  17. Yes, I sent it at 11am central, NY Noon. I even looked in my sent box at authoress.submissions@gmail.com. It is eastern time, isn't it?

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  18. Yes, gideon. I'm not sure what's up!

    Try again.

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  19. WAIT!!!!! I found you.

    You're entry #1.

    WHAT IS YOUR EMAIL DOING WITH YOUR CONFIRMATIONS????

    *dies*

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  20. I have no idea. I wish I knew. Thank you so much for checking for me. I receive all the other emails from you, just not the confirmations for some reason.

    I am very excited to make it and I look forward to reading the other entries.

    Thanks again,

    Michael

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  21. LOL...well, I stopped getting rejections, but I didn't receive a confirmation either.

    Authoress, you are the bomb, and I wouldn't want to be you today! I know you are scrambling to try to help us and I appreciate it!

    Can you check to see if I'm in?

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  22. This is my first time entering. First I got a message not recognizing the email address, then a reject because I didn't format the intro properly.

    But... I'm in!

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  23. Oh my gosh, I got in! Squeaked in right under the wire as #25 after trying 3 times then realizing...duh...I needed to change e-mail to plain text. *headdesk*

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  24. thanks for all your help today, Authoress! Wasn't meant to happen.

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  25. Waa! You've stumped me, Sharla! :(

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  26. Was going to submit and then did a double take: Literary YA...I've written a YA urban fantasy. Maybe next time? :-)

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  27. I submitted at 1:01 and was sent a rejection at 1:01. I read that you said you extended the time so I'm confused as to why I was rejected. I will try again this evening. 7 EST right?

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  28. I found the best way to submit is to paste your entire message to notepad and then copy and paste it to your email message. This eliminates all the hidden characters.

    Good luck to everyone.

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  29. Jenn, I have no idea what time zone you're in, but the first submission window did fill up. Your rejection message will tell you the reason for your rejection.

    Anon, that's excellent advice, thank you.

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  30. Thanks Authoress- I'm in central time zone . I thought that the window started at 2 EST but I'm guessing that maybe it was 12 EST?
    Hopefully I'll have better luck at 7!

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  31. Yes, the window opened at noon Eastern.

    The next window opens at 7 Eastern, which is 6 Central. Half an hour from now!

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  32. when will the submissions be posted and ready for critique?

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  33. I am very impressed by Authoress and her helpful feedback for the tech have-nots such as myself.
    12th time was the charm! Good luck to everyone who got in!

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