The second is the word count requirement for submissions.
For the short story group, the word limit is 5,000-10,000 words.
For the long-form category, the final word count is 150,000-300,000 words.
No one would object to this. The organizer does not force you to participate in the short story group or the long novel group. Contestants can choose according to their actual situation. If you are an experienced author, you can challenge the long novel. Novices may not be able to master the story of long novels.
In terms of rhythm, the short story group is the best choice. The two groups are not in the same track.
The third is the competition process.
The short story group has a one-month cycle, from November 15th to December 15th, when the publication is published. The manuscripts sent to the magazine during this period are the first cycle, and the submission period is from December 15th to January 15th, 2006.
The received manuscripts are automatically classified into the next cycle, and so on. There will be a total of four preliminary rounds. In each period, three judges will select 3 outstanding manuscripts that will enter the semi-finals!
The three manuscripts selected in the first cycle before December 15th will be published in the third issue of "Spark" on January 15, 2006, and the selected manuscripts in the second cycle will be published in the fourth issue of the magazine.
By analogy, a total of 12 manuscripts from the short story group will enter the semi-finals, and the entire preliminary round spans as long as half a year.
Will this take too long?
If you ask Wen Ying, Yuan Fenghui, or even Mrs. Wang this question, you will get the same answer: Of course not soon!
If it were not considered that if it takes more than half a year, the interest of the contestants and readers will be weak, and the publicity funds invested will be too high. Wen Ying feels that this preliminary process will not matter if it lasts for a year!
As for why manuscripts should be selected on a periodic basis rather than once every six months, this is the result of many discussions between Wen Ying and others.
A summary of half a year, too little interaction with readers!
After half a year, readers may have forgotten about the essay competition and published the 12 semi-final manuscripts separately. Since January 2006, every issue of "Spark" has published the latest outstanding manuscripts.
, the reader's interest points are always kept, and the level of participation is higher.
For the judges, this split also reduces the pressure of reading manuscripts.
Of course, the main purpose is to mobilize participation, expand the influence of the competition, and promote "Spark".
Not selected in the first round?
It doesn’t matter, keep submitting, and then submit for the second and third issues. Participate in every issue, there is always a chance of being selected!
After all the entries that have entered the semi-finals have been published, the reader voting for the short story group will be started, and readers will decide the ranking of the 12 outstanding works.
The voting method has not yet been announced, but the organizer promises that the vote counting process will be notarized by a notary public to ensure that the results of the essay competition are fair and just!
On the night of the 15th, almost all literature lovers who were interested in the essay competition got the first issue of "Spark" immediately, studied it all day long, and thought they had almost understood the rules of the competition.
In the evening, a group of authors under the banyan tree gathered again in the QQ group to discuss.
This time there was no disagreement, everyone agreed: the organizer was really smart in setting up the competition format for the short story category!
In comparison, the long-form category does not have to play these tricks. There is no installment selection, and the list of candidates for the semi-finals will be directly announced in the April 2006 issue of "Spark".
There are 12 manuscripts in the short-form category that can enter the semi-finals, and only 6 in the long-form category.
This is not to discriminate against the long-form category, but the threshold for the long-form category is high, and there are far fewer contestants than there are for the short-form category!
However, there is one thing to say: the competition reward setting that all literature lovers are most concerned about, the organizers of the Spark Cup are indeed full of sincerity:
"In the short story category, there will be one first prize winner with a cash reward of RMB 200,000; three second prize winners with a cash reward of RMB 100,000; three third prize winners with a cash reward of RMB 50,000; five excellence prizes with a cash reward of RMB 20,000...a total of
There are 12 places, which means that as long as you are selected for the semi-finals, you will receive a cash prize of RMB 20,000 at best."
It's really sincere.
After all, according to the standard of 5,000-10,000 words for submissions in the short story category, calculated based on the upper limit of 10,000 words, even if you only get an excellence award after entering the semi-finals, you will be paid 2,000 yuan/1,000 words. At present, domestic manuscripts can meet this standard.
There are only a handful of bosses!
If you can win the first prize of 200,000 yuan, the standard for manuscript fees will be raised to 20,000 words per thousand words. This is the highlight of any author's life.
In the QQ group, a group of authors under the banyan tree are still discussing intensely.
The bonuses are in place, and no one cares too much about other details.
For the sake of bonuses, you can forgive the organizers for splitting the preliminary round into four cycles of routines.
"For the long-form category, there will be one first prize winner, who will be awarded a publishing contract for the first printing of 70,000 copies; two second prizes, who will be awarded a publishing contract for the first printing of 50,000 copies; and three third prizes, who will be awarded a publishing contract for the first printing of 30,000 copies.
A book publishing contract.”
The cash prize of up to RMB 200,000 for the short story group makes the authors excited.
The first prize in the novel category, a publishing contract with a first printing of 70,000 copies, made the authors' hearts beat wildly.
An annual bestseller like "Teenage Idol" has a first printing of 100,000 copies and a first printing of 70,000 copies, which means it has initially received the treatment of a bestseller!
And this is just the number of copies printed.
If it is reprinted in the future, the author will still have income.
The long-form group is indeed high-input and high-yield!
Regardless of whether it is a short-form category or a long-form category, there is a line behind the specific reward method: If the work is favored by a film and television company, additional film and television copyright fees will be paid.
Well, this really means giving money to the authors.
It is so passionate and sincere that the authors find it hard to refuse.
Collect the best ideas and the best stories in the novel genre.
The genre is very limited, so you don’t have to go out of your way to innovate in the genre, which is good because it allows everyone to focus more on the story itself.
The requirements for writing should not be high, after all, the story relies on the story to win.
However, the writing skills requirements are not low.
An author with strong writing skills can write whatever he likes. Writing horror can scare people to death, and writing cruelty can make readers burst into tears. A good story needs atmosphere, and the ability to render people immersed in the situation is the power of writing!
Analysis after analysis, that is, you must like both the judges and the readers.
After all, the preliminary competition is judged, and the semi-finals are ranked by readers' votes. The tastes of both judges and readers must be taken into consideration.
"Hey, it seems like the judges haven't been announced yet?"
"Yes, if you know the judges, you can study the judges' preferences..."
The authors are now like scholars in ancient scientific examinations. Studying the examiner's preferences before the competition is a basic competency.
At this time, no one could guess that Wen Ying was one of the judges.
No one dares to guess.
Even if Wen Ying had made a promotional video, these people would not have guessed that Wen Ying would be a judge. They thought that Wen Ying, like Yun Chen, Zhang Yangning, and Li Mengjiao, was promoting the competition.
When this news is announced, I don’t know how many people will be shocked.
Zhang Guangzhen, who wrote the script for the promotional video, hid behind the scenes and smiled, hiding his fame and success. The shameful sentence "I'm waiting for you at the first 'Tianjiao Spark Cup'" was not written in vain. The contestants took a guess.
Go, the answer has long been hidden in the promotional video.