Oh. My. Goodness.
Well!
Hmm.
Thank you for your patience. Some of the problems encountered during the submission process were due to user error.
As in, you didn't follow directions.
And some were due to odd, unforeseen circumstances.
And a bunch were caused by the goofiness of hotmail. If you sent your submission via hotmail and were not able to get qualified, my apologies. It seems hotmail's silly signature (tagged onto the end of all your outgoing emails) messed things up and included itself in your word count.
That was an unanticipated problem, and I apologize. Then again, I hate hotmail and have no patience for it.
*takes a moment to breathe deeply*
Specific Issues:
*People submitting more than once for no apparent reason
*People not formatting the SCREEN NAME/TITLE/GENRE the way I told you to.
*People making spelling errors in the SCREEN NAME/TITLE/GENRE fields (not your actual titles/genres, obviously)
Anyway.
We've got our 50 entrants and 2 alternates.
I thank you for giving us grace. I apologize (sincerely!) if you were unable to get a qualified entry in and you couldn't figure out why.
I tried to cover everything prior to the opening of submissions, but it's impossible to anticipate everything that may be a problem.
So. Chalk it up. We'll do an in-house critique session very soon, which will help us to further work out the kinks. Overall, the system worked well.
Oh. And if you couldn't get in and you are baffled, please forward your original entry to me at facelesswords(at)gmail.com and explain to me exactly what happened (i.e., what rejection message did you receive).
Please DO NOT send your questions/concerns to the authoress.submissions address. That address is for contest entries only.
*HUGS!*
Miss Snark's First Victim
Thank you very much for all of your hard work. You do an incredible service for us and we appreciate your efforts.
ReplyDeleteOk, I admit it. It took me six tries to finally have one go through. But I didn't give up. lol. It kept telling me that the headings weren't included. I finally pasted the headings exactly as they were from the guidelines and filled in my info and it worked. Thanks for doing this! Very generous with your time and it's appreciated.
ReplyDeleteCreepy Query Girl - How do you know it worked? I sent my submission in at 12:10 and didn't hear back either way, accepted or rejected. Did you get a response when everything went through correctly?
ReplyDeleteI blame Murphy. No matter how well you plan, how deeply you strategize, that insidious imp will sneak in and foil even the most clever of us. However, without vision and the will to move forward, we'd still be drawing pictures on cave walls.
ReplyDeleteKudos to you for both the vision and the will!
duwarr - I submitted first through hotmail, got an immediate rejection, immediately realized the stupid hotmail problem, resubmitted with my family's email address, and got nothing. I checked the site, it said nothing about being closed, so I assume I'm in. Since it was after 12:10, I'm assuming you're in. Fair enough?
ReplyDeleteSadly, that's the wrong assumption.
ReplyDeleteIf you DID NOT receive a confirmation email and post number, you ARE NOT IN.
Please check your spam filters to see if there is a response hidden in there.
If there isn't, then something went wrong with your submission. :(
I sent mine at 12.01, got rejected, removed the signature and sent it again. No sign of a second rejection, but no confirmation either so I guess I missed out too. Damn, I'm in Australia and had to get up at 1.45 in the morning to do this.
ReplyDeleteOh well, good luck to everyone who made it, and thanks authoress, it is a great opportunity for writers.:-)
Drats. That's not the response I was hoping for, Authoress. Unfortunately, there's no confirmation hiding in any of my folders. Since I didn't get any sort of rejection or error when I sent the email, can I shoot the email to your regular emaill address so you can tell me what was wrong with it so this doesn't happen again?
ReplyDeleteYep, I knew assume had that hidden meaning in there somewhere. I also hate hotmail. Even more now. Ahh, well, onward.
ReplyDeleteduwarr-- Yes, please! Shoot it to my regular email, including an explanation of exactly what you experienced.
ReplyDeleteDee-- UGH, I'm sorry! :( Hopefully it will make you feel a little better to know that future SA contests are going to have 2 separate submission windows 6 hours apart. So next time you won't have to get up in the middle of the night!
Well, I apologize because I probably helped compound the problem by submitting more than once.
ReplyDeleteBUT, I would get a congratulatory email with an entry number, then less than a minute later get a rejection email with a reason why it was rejected. And it was rejected for different reasons that didn't make sense.
So many apologies from me. And many thanks for being so gracious about everything. You're made of tougher stuff than I am, Authoress!
melody -- I'm eating expensive chocolate right now. :D
ReplyDeleteFeel free to forward any of the submission emails you have questions about to my main address.
(Make sure it's the EXACT email. Some people have forwarded what they said was what they had sent, but my All-Knowing programmer knows better!)
I used my gmail account to send to your gmail account, and it worked like a charm. I got my confirmation and I'm excited!
ReplyDeleteThere's no way to start something like this without having problems. I figured something must've gone awry when you still had openings over two hours after the contest opened.
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine the time and energy this is taking, and - aren't you trying to get published too? Thanks for doing all of this.
Thanks Authoress, that sounds like a great idea, having two submission windows. I know I got up early, but I still think I'd rather be me than you, today. I wouldn't want your stress:-)
ReplyDeleteHope it's all sorted out for you soon, and thanks again for giving writers this fantastic opportunity.
Dee
Awe man. It's true, I felt kind of like a fly trying to get through a glass screen. And here I thought my post had made it! Turns out it died of exertion. Oh well. Thanks for hosting the contest anyway! In truth I had to strip my opening sequence down to its bare bones to meet the word count and low and behold- I liked it better that way. Isn't that alwasy the way of it? So it wasn't a lost cause.
ReplyDelete