Short Story Contest #6!

As you might have noticed, we’ve been hard at work bringing you a list of places you can submit your short stories. We now have Volume 1 and Volume 2 of Short Story Markets available in our store.

For this short story contest, we want you to choose a market from either of our Short Story Markets books and check their guidelines. When you have done that, write a short story, but do it in such a way that your story would be rejected if you were to really submit it. Think of it as an exercise in reading guidelines carefully.

Create a name for the publication for fun, but keep it close to the original so that we know which one you chose. For example, if you chose “Strange Horizons”, you could change the name to “Crazy Horizons”. That way, when you post the story, you have a fictional market to submit to. It just makes it more fun for the readers 🙂

The winner will be the one who makes the biggest/best mistake when submitting the story. Be creative!

The prize? A $20 payment via PayPal (or another currency, if you prefer). Your winning story will, of course, be promoted through a post on the SSFFS site, and we’ll tweet about it, too.

So before we begin, let’s go over the rules:

• You must choose a market from one of our Short Story Markets ebooks. If you already own a copy, great! If you haven’t purchased either of them yet, go here to purchase Volume One, and here to purchase Volume Two. You’ll get a link in your email to download the books. [Note: You don’t have to purchase both to participate!]
• Must be no longer than 1600 words in length; we request works between 1200-1600. (Please do not email asking for exceptions.)
• This work must be original. Please do not submit anything you’ve published before.
• Post the story on your blog and leave a comment here with the link. If you do not have a blog, you may email us your story at shortstory.flashfictionsociety@gmail(dot)com. Formats accepted include .doc, .docx, .rtf. DO NOT SEND A PDF. We’ll confirm receipt.
• Do NOT post your full story in the comments (just a link to it, if it’s on your blog). If you do this, your comment will be deleted.
• After you’ve bought the book and entered, you cannot request to change your story. There will be no refunds if you suddenly want to withdraw. So make sure you’re 100% confident before you submit!
• You may only enter once.
• You have until 11:59 pm Chicago Central Time US, March 29th, to complete your story.

Good luck! We’ve had wonderful entries in the past, and we’re confident that you can come up with a great story!

Again, please purchase the Volume One or Volume Two first. You will be emailed a link to download the book(s). Make sure to check spam folders if you don’t see it right away!