short story contest

here are the contest guidelines:
work must be fiction, 300 - 5000 words
entry deadline is friday may 15, 2009
submit in the body of an email to brandongorrell[at]gmail.com with 'contest' in the subject heading
paypal your entry fee/ agree to mail cash or check to mailing address provided at the same time as submitting your story. stories without entry fees will not be considered

more information:
i will be the judge of the contest
winner and runner-up will be announced no later than june 1, 2009

entry fee is 7$, payable through paypaling brandongorrell[at]gmail.com. if you are unable to paypal but would like to send cash or check, please email the above email address and i will give you a mailing address

winner will receive 70% of the total pooled money, plus my forthcoming poetry book, if they want it/haven't already ordered it. for example, if 10 people enter, the winner will be paypaled $49 and sent a copy of my book. i will keep the remaining 30%

a runner-up will also be chosen. the runner up will be sent a copy of my forthcoming poetry book, if they want it. if they've already ordered my book, i will compensate them in some other way (sending them another book or something)

i have decided on this system because a) it ensures that i will not have to pay prize money, b) with a relatively low entry fee, it may encourage, in a 'domino-effect', or something, additional people to join after a certain number of people join because (and also reason c)) as the number of participants gets higher, prize money does as well, creating a situation where, if a lot of people join, relatively little can be paid, by the author, with a potentially large payoff (possibly increasing your money x5 or even x10)

another factor you may want to consider when deciding to enter this contest is that if a very low number of people enter, like 2 or 3, you have a high chance of making a couple of dollars + getting my book for free, or getting my book at almost half the cost

while one of my motivations for doing this contest is to gain money, money gained will be relatively little. for example, if 10 people enter, i will make $21, minus a book (retail $12). that is a net profit of $9. that will probably equal $3 an hour or less, considering that i'll be reading submissions, tracking progress of contest, spending time in front of computer for the sole purpose of running the contest, etc. other motivations for this contest include attracting visitors to my blog, thus potentially increasing book sales, 'networking' and/or 'building relationships', and giving writers an opportunity to make money off their 'work' (rather than working for someone/something else)

to ensure certain levels of transparency, i will soon create a new link at the top of this blog called 'contest' or something. here i will post the rules of and some info about this contest, and the number of people that have joined. this way, a person can decide if he/she wants to join the contest based on the number of people that have joined, and thus the amount of money that could potentially be gained

i encourage everyone that reads this blog post to enter this contest. soon, you will be able to use the number of participants, the specific story you might send, the tone of this entire blog + linked pages, and literary references you have seen me use in the past, to roughly estimate your odds of victory

the winning and runner-up entries will both be posted on my blog after the contest is over

additional notes:
chelsea martin, when asked about the possibility of doing this contest, said 'i don't like it'

colin bassett said '"honestly" a "good idea"'

see this link for more information on the contest