Writing contest - 48 Hour Flash Fiction 2017

  1. 5iOGtG6i_bigger.jpg
    Jenny Jones‏ @JGJwrites Apr 22

  1. Replying to @scifilondon @partychronicles and
  2. What about the shortlist? Is that the same day?
  1. Replying to @JGJwrites @partychronicles and
  2. Should be earlier.
 
Well I assume then that they'll tell the winner privately first so they can give that person tickets to the London fest where the winner will be announced publicly?

This is annoying me. I am annoyed.
 
sinister42 said:
Well I assume then that they'll tell the winner privately first so they can give that person tickets to the London fest where the winner will be announced publicly? .
Click to expand...

Maybe they'll have all the shortlist there and you gave to practice your 'I'm so glad that you won smile'
 
I went and had a look at several short story/flash fiction contests. Most had an end date and winner announcement date. Of those, none was less than two months.

I think this London group put too much pressure on themselves. And if they don't have a winner in time, part of the winner's prizes won't be able to be used!
 
Come to think of it, if the winner isn't from Great Britain, it's probably too late to use that part of the prize, already!
 
When I won the Judge Dredd Megazine competition last year I knew around 2 months in advance. Keeping that quiet was a beeping nightmare
 
As you people are so write-ative and we're getting close to announcements, I'm posting the list of those who entered here to make life easy...

OKAY THEN THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN ARE:

Cathbad
TheDustyZebra
Serendipity
Biskit
Luiglin
sinister42
Coast
 
Serendipity said:
As you people are so write-ative and we're getting close to announcements, I'm posting the list of those who entered here to make life easy...

OKAY THEN THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN ARE:

Cathbad
TheDustyZebra
Serendipity
Biskit
Luiglin
sinister42
Coast
Click to expand...

I'll be my real life alter ego Stuart Orford :)
 
Yeah, that's just stupid. Part of the prize is a ticket to the festival that runs from April 27 to May 4, so the winner will be announced May 4. So clearly I should have written a time machine story, because I would need one in order to claim a prize.
 
TheDustyZebra said:
Yeah, that's just stupid. Part of the prize is a ticket to the festival that runs from April 27 to May 4, so the winner will be announced May 4. So clearly I should have written a time machine story, because I would need one in order to claim a prize.
Click to expand...

And if they do know ahead of time, their VIP name tag might be a give-away.
 
TheDustyZebra said:
Q: Can I sell, publish or develop my film or story after submitting to the challenge?

A: Yes. It's yours and you own own it, so exploit away! However, please remember by taking part you grant us an in-perpetuity, world-wide, royalty free, non-exclusive licence to promote, publish, sample and sub-licence the work. We will never charge any money for the story or film, but we will offer it free to anyone who wants to show it. The intellectual property in the work is yours and we do not make any claim on this, so we wont take the world or characters you develop without permission.
Click to expand...

You know, the more I read this, the more I think it's been written by an idiot with no knowledge of basic UK contract law.

Why do I say that? Well, in order for there to be a valid contract between two parties, there has to be something called "consideration" and it has to be "valuable consideration". If consideration does not exist, then there is no contract under UK law.

What does that mean? Well, if I'm going to provide my story so that you (and by "you" I mean "the contest") can publish it, then you have to give me something back in return for that licence. And if, I'm going to give you some in-perpetuity licence to print my story forever (which is what they seem to be claiming) then you have to give me something in return which is worth the value of that licence. Normally speaking, that means you have to pay me money. Or you have to give me something that is equivalent to money, which makes up for you not paying me actual money for the story I have just given you - no, I'm not sure what that is either.

What you can't do is say that I'm going to give you something and you're not going to give me anything in return.

So, what is this contest actually paying/doing in return for a story? Well, I'm happy to be convinced otherwise but my basic conclusion is - "not a lot". If you win it (and congrats to whoever does win it) you'll get £500 and 2 tickets to a film festival in London. If you don't actually live in London and you weren't planning on going to London within the next week or so, then the chances of you getting to the festival to claim your tickets seem a little slim - which does seem to make the prize of the 2 tickets seem slightly pointless. (Almost like they'd know that the eventual winners weren't going to be able to use those tickets (... did I type that out loud ... hangs head for a moment ... experiences shame ... moves on) So, you'll get £500.

If you don't win, then you don't get anything. There are no prizes for second place. You don't get paid for the story you submitted. In theory, I have no problem with that. I submit a story to a publisher, they don't like it, they don't want to print it, then that's fine. No harm, no foul. They didn't pay me for the story and I don't expect them to publish it. No consideration, no contract. Neither of us have a claim over the other and we can both go our own ways amicably and, who knows, I might sell a future story to the declining publisher and they might happily buy it.

What I wouldn't expect is for the publisher to whom I've just submitted my story to make a claim for intellectual property rights (which is effectively what this contest is claiming) over my work without the publisher paying for those rights. I also wouldn't expect said publisher to claim rights on the basis that: "it's a condition of you sending your story to me." That's just rubbish. It's entirely rubbish because the publisher has neither paid me for those rights, nor given me anything that could be regarded as "consideration" for those rights. The opportunity to submit a story is not, in my view, consideration, especially when the opportunity to submit is open to every member of the public across the world, so long as they can write in English. Without consideration, there isn't a contract - which means there's no grant of rights.


I will now make the disclaimer I should have made at the start of this little rant (and if I've been a bit too ranty then I apologise to the forum) - that I'm not a lawyer and should you find yourself wanting to dispute a contractual rights point, then you should definitely consult a lawyer about it. Should any lawyers on the forum wish to dispute anything I've said then I'm quite happy to be corrected - with case references please.
 
I think you're probably entirely right, even under US law.

But I also haven't seen any evidence that they do anything at all with any stories other than the shortlist and the winner. I don't see any past instances of other stories being published anywhere, or linked, or mentioned at all, except in the conglomerate. So if I don't make the shortlist, I would just assume it's mine again and not worry too much about it.
 
So, the shortlist of entries for the competition has been announced and you can see the list of 6 entries here. The winner will be announced on 4 May.
 
Yep, I'm also not on the list. Bah. Such is life. Got a decent story out of the thing anyway.
 
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