Zebuloning Into 2018
Published
Readers, we have a guest post from SM, this year’s Zebulon Contest Coordinator. The Zebulon could not be in better hands. Take a look. -Gabrielle Brown, editor.
Hello, my name is SM, and I’m your new Zebulon Contest Coordinator. Living in the Great White North, I may at times add a touch of the Canadian spirit to the contest, but fear not, the Rocky Mountains are close to my heart.
Readers, we have a guest post from SM, this year’s Zebulon Contest Coordinator. The Zebulon could not be in better hands. Take a look. -Gabrielle Brown, editor.First off, I’d like to thank our outgoing coordinator, Dawn Smit Miller. She’s done an extraordinary job at organizing past Zebulons, PPW’s premier fiction writing contest. I feel I have mighty big shoes to fill, so bear with me as I find my own voice.
For now, nothing major will change, but I do encourage you to read all the rules. In reviewing last year’s results, I found that some entries didn’t make it past the Query Round simply because the entrant did not follow the instructions. And sadly, in a couple of cases, they didn’t make the cut by simply choosing the wrong font. Nuf said.
As a writer, I feel any contest that offers some sort of feedback is always a big win, even if you don’t receive an award. Honest reviews are crucial in making a good book great. I’m a fan of CinemaSins on YouTube, where no movie is without sin. I apply that same philosophy with writing where no book cannot be improved by feedback (you have a critique partner(s), yes?).I strongly encourage you to take this opportunity and enter. It’s only $20 and more than worth the investment in the judges’ comments alone. You can also pay an additional $20 for a critique. But, it doesn’t stop there. If your entry wins, there are prizes—up to and including a full refund of your PPWC2018 registration fee! And, as a side-note, when clicking on the link below, shuffle over to the PPW Conference pages and check them out.So, what do you need to do? Easy-peasy, just:
- Provide the first 2500 words from an unpublished fiction novel. It cannot be part of a published series nor can it have won first prize in a previous Zebulon
- Provide one query letter in standard format, up to one page in length
- Provide one synopsis, up to 500 words in length
- READ AND FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS THOROUGHLY
- Submit with courage
Attending next year’s PPW Conference is of itself a memory waiting to happen. Attending as a Zebulon winner, even more so.Eager to know more about this year’s Zebulon? Begin here:https://www.pikespeakwriters.com/contest/The contest’s starting gun went off on September 01st, and the checkered flag drops on Nov 01st. This may sound like lots of time to get your ducks crossed and “T”s in a line, but be a tortoise; slow and steady wins the race. Being a hare and doing everything on All Hallow’s Eve can be stressful, make you rush, and can lead to errors in your submission—possibly using the wrong font. :-)I hope that I’ve mangled enough mixed metaphors to spin your head and get you thinking about entering early. That early bird and all that…Questions? Comments? I welcome your e-mail at: contest@pikespeakwriters.com
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