Our first round filled up in less than a minute. Not that I'm surprised by that. What I AM surprised by is the number of entries that received "CONTEST FULL" notifications after that.
83. Seriously.
Okay. Round 2 for adult submissions will open at 6:00 pm EST.
Because it's come up in conversation: DO NOT WAIT FOR BLOG OR EMAIL NOTIFICATION. I'm not posting; it wouldn't be worth the time. I'm certain the contest would fill up before the post showed up for many of you.
So watch a reliable online clock and submit on time. Please don't rely on me.
What's REALLY super is that there were hardly any errors on submissions--things like word count, headers, etc. YOU ALL DID A GREAT JOB SUBMITTING PROPERLY!!
Okay. I'm truly sorry that so many of you are getting turned away. I knew this would be big, but my expectations have been exceeded.
*hugs*
Miss Snark's First Victim
Your expectations have been exceeded?!?!?!?! OMG, Authoress, this is such an amazing--and fun--opportunity! You shattered my expectations for awesomeness into a million tiny scraps of paper coloured glass when you announced this contest. You know awesome, and you pwnd exceeding expectations!
ReplyDeleteBest of luck to those who got through!
If we submitted, but never received a response, should we just assume it is lost in the email black hole?
ReplyDeleteAuthoress ... thank you, thank you, thank you! I was lucky enough to get through and I'm ten kinds of excited!
ReplyDeleteTo all contestants - best of luck!!!
You help us all, as we help each other. That's that. Please don't feel anything but proud of the work that you do. We all appreciate your awesomeness. And really, you know the YA round is gonna be worse (I mean better?) Good luck everyone!
ReplyDeleteIf you thought this was crazy, wait until the YA/MG round. Now that's going to be scary. ;)
ReplyDeleteAnonymous - Everyone should have received a response from the bot. Check your spam filter. If you still didn't get one, something didn't go through correctly. Make sure you followed all the instructions, and you can try again later. :)
ReplyDeleteStina -- I KNOOOOOOOOOOOWW!!! O.O
ReplyDeleteJust thinking about the YA round gives me palpitations, and I don't even write YA. Of course, I was on the verge of having a coronary when I sent my entry, but I'm now able to type.
ReplyDeleteOMG, I got in!
Authoress, my entry was in the SA contest two months ago, but along with the changes I made to the opening/the story, I changed the title. Just thought I'd mention it in case you're comparing past entries to see if enough changes were made to fit the criteria of the Baker's Dozen contest.
Thank you, Authoress, for all you do. This whole thing is amazing. Exciting. Scary. And I'm loving it.
Good luck to all.
hmm...Still no response. Gotta love hotmail. Just to make sure I have the address right, it's authoress.submissions(at)gmail.com, right?
ReplyDeleteYes, that's correct. If you want, you can give me your email address and I'll look for you.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteRubyRed0...of course! :)
ReplyDeleteI've actually been having a problem with hotmail lately with it just eating my emails. I just created a gmail account and tested the sending speeds. Gmail sends instantly while hotmail had a 3 minute lag in reaching the recipient. Gonna rely on gmail for this one! Thanks everyone!
I did a search on "ruby" and you're not in there! Which means either a) you typed the address wrong, or b)hotmail decided not to send it.
ReplyDeleteYES YES YES, use gmail!!
Anonymous.. LoL, I didn't the first time I entered SA. I used (at). I was so nervous about making it I didn't focus. ;-)
ReplyDeleteAuthoress, I didn't enter this one. I think that one was for Anonymous. ;-)
ReplyDeleteI'm so confused! :P
ReplyDeleteSorry, my fault. I sent Anon a comment, my name is right under. You probably saw that. ;-)
ReplyDeleteSorry about the confusion. I was responding to Ruby's comment above mine, then after posting I realized the previous post deleted...thus the confusion. Authoress, email has susaninvt. I keep forgetting which email address I used for that blogger name, thus anonymous is easier to use rather than spending 30 min trying to track it down....oh the guilt...
ReplyDeleteCount me in the 83. I am SO disapointed :( I will try again later. I submitted at 12:00:03 and got rejected. So much for the "three-second rule."
ReplyDeleteJust wondering, Authoress. Is there a difference between the bot message for submitting too early and the bot message for submitting too late? Because comparing the two times I tried submitting, one was from your name (inside was a bot-generated rejection message) and the other was addressed (something along the lines of) bot-generated message. The message inside was kinda the same though.
ReplyDeleteGood luck for the second round everyone!
ReplyDeleteAGH!!!! I run in the front door from work, pull up the world clock just as it turn 5:59:53...
ReplyDeleteAck. No submission for me!
Oh no Bethany...I'm so sorry to hear that. Did you at least try? Maybe you could make it!
ReplyDeleteI tried at 5:59 and 6:00 and the messages said it had already received 50 entries.
ReplyDeleteViolet
I got an email rejection from the bot for the 12:00 submission window, but using this same computer and email, I didn't get an email from the bot for this 6:00 window. My email shows it was sent at 6:00, but no response from the bot yet...
ReplyDeleteOh me oh my. I was so excited for this.
Anon - it was SO tough. I subbed as soon as my accurate-to-the-second computer clock turned 6:00 and by the time it got through it was already #33 (#13 for this round). Very, very stiff competition. I am sorry, I know how frustrating it is, bec at noon I didn't get in either.
ReplyDeleteI received a contest full bot reply to my submission, which I submitted at three seconds past 6:00 (according to my Gmail time stamp).
ReplyDeleteI made it! And now I'm freaking out a little bit.
ReplyDeleteI had a draft saved in Gmail, and as soon as my clock ticked over to the correct time, I hit send, and got the smiley face acceptance email. (Of course, I did the same thing this morning and was too slow.) Now to keep my fingers crossed that I make it to auction.
Thank you so, so much for running this, Authoress, and best of luck to all the other entrants!
I agree with anonymous @6:15. I, too, was one of the sad 83 who missed the first window, and like Anon@6:15 I got in during the second one. I had my finger on the send button, ready to go, and as soon as my clock ticked over to 6:00EST I hit "send"...only to discover that my computer had windowed when I moused over the clock and I had to hit "send" again. I was #23 (#3 in that window, I guess - which I mention only because our numbers will necessarily change IF we get into the 15 that make it). From the sound of it, the difference between #3 and #13 was less than three seconds, if that.
ReplyDeleteAuthoress, you're amazing. I can't imagine how excited and overwhelmed you must be with all this excitement about your contest - we are all SO grateful to you for your work on our behalf!!
I made it this time! Woohoo!
ReplyDeleteAuthoress, thank you for all the awesomeness that is you and for spreading it around to all of us. It is greatly appreciated. :)
Woohoo and good luck to everyone who got in! And thank you to Authoress!
ReplyDeleteAlso, Authoress, I just thought I'd let you know I had major issues a few months ago with my Hotmail account- I sent my submission from that account twice and never received a reply. However, I got an instant message from the bot from my Gmail account. It sounds like you already know from the above comments, but Gmail is definitely the way to go for everyone trying to submit.
Thanks again- getting my submission in today made my day!
I'm still shaking! Along with so many out there, I missed the first round by nano-seconds("Missed it by that much!" for any of you "Get Smart" fans). And so I reorganized my day to be at my computer for the second round. What the heck- the kidlets can find their own way home.
ReplyDeleteJust kidding- we have cats! But I made it in the second round, and now the terror sets in. There are so many excellent writers out there- how can I ever compete? My submission sucks. What was I thinking? Aaaaaaaaa!
But thank you so much Authoress, for this incredible though spine-chilling opportunity. I am so looking forward to reading the submissions, and cheers & best of luck to all of you!
I found the same thing, Stephanie. I actually opened a Gmail account for the sole purpose of entering this contest. :)
ReplyDeleteso here's my question--and sorry it's in the wrong place--I entered the YA contest today. I sent from my iPhone from a gmail acct and got an immediate response from the bot saying:
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry; your entry has been disqualified for the following reason: You must include the following at the top of your submission:
SCREEN NAME: (name you use when posting comments)
TITLE: (title of submission)
GENRE: (literary genre)
(your submission goes here)
But I had all that in place.
So I'm going to try again at six. But I'm wondering what I did wrong. Is it that screen name can only be one word? Or the genre was wrong? I put "Sally Apokedak" for a screen name and "YA fantasy" for genre.
Anyway, I don't expect you to answer--you do plenty for free--I just thought I'd let you know in case you're interested in hearing about bot glitches or ways we can err as we enter.