Authors Wanted

The first step in starting an Authors' Choice Short Story Writers' Contest is to find five authors. If I find five authors who agree to do this, we will have a contest.

Here's how it works: Each author will contribute three books; they can be all the same. Mine are all short story collections, but valued at only about $6 each, so these don't have to be huge books. They can all (3) be the same, because they will go to first, second, and third place winners. Each winner will receive a set of five books from different authors as part of their prize.

So let's say 100 people enter, each paying $1 to enter. First place winner gets $50 + five books. Hopefully the five books will be worthwhile enough for them as a prize. The way I figure, I can't lose.

The authors have to do one more thing: Participate in the grading. You may read 100, or you may read 50, or you may read only a few. You will distribute points according to how you think they deserve them. If the deadline is in November, you will have about a month to read and grade. It should be possible. All this stuff is negotiable.

I take it back about not being able to lose. Two ways we could lose are: Receive thousands of entries, and receive only seven entries. If I receive a thousand, I'll distribute them in batches, and make each grader read 50. Then I'll take the top ones from each batch, and make the graders read those top ones. So it's like they'll read two batches of 50, with the second batch being the top ones from each group. And people can have the time they need to grade.

In the case of only seven entries though, it's a little trickier. We may have to come up with $100 minimum pot, or, I guess, if response was so bad, we could just cancel the whole thing. I'm thinking, I can probably just come up with that myself.

Ideally, though, I have five writers at least. And we share these decisions, share the risk, share the joy, share the grading. Any takers? Let me know. If I find five, we're on, and I'll tell you where to send the books. Use my e-mail leverett @ siu.edu, with no spaces.