Sinister-Lurker
TMF Regular
- Joined
- Mar 5, 2011
- Messages
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Hello, everyone. My name is Jon Essex and I’ve been helping Oblesklk out with some of Agency Publishing’s editorial chores. To continue the celebration of The Agencies’ 10-year anniversary, I am pleased to announce that we’re holding a fiction-writing contest!
We’re asking you, the members of the community, to submit a tickling-themed short story set in the world of The Agencies and The Agencies: Frontiers comics. These stories will be considered “canon,” so bring your A game.
I’ll be judging all short stories submitted and will pick the top five to win some exciting prizes!
Full guidelines are listed below. Some nonbinding advice on your submissions however:
Finally, if you have questions about the contest itself, please email me at [email protected]. I will reply to legitimate questions as soon as possible. Note that I will not talk about the status of your submissions, offer feedback, nor discuss any results of the contest. I also cannot reply to posts or private messages through online forums in a timely manner, so I will not be doing so at all.
Agency Publishing Fiction Contest Submission Guidelines
Please review all guidelines before submitting material. Submissions will be rejected automatically if they do not follow the guidelines presented here. Agency Publishing’s decision is final in all matters concerning submissions.
Number of Submissions
You may send as many submissions as you feel you want to, but keep in mind that we are looking for quality not quantity. It may be worthwhile to keep to your very best idea first.
Submission Format
All submissions must be in a prose, short story format. The short story must be between 3,000 and 10,000 words in length. We can only accept submissions that are presented in the English language.
For this contest, we are looking for submissions set in the rich world shown in The Agencies and The Agencies: Frontiers comics. We will not accept a story set in any of Agency Publishing’s other settings, nor any generic fantasy or science fiction. The submission’s protagonists must be existing characters seen in The Agencies and/or The Agencies: Frontiers. We are will not accept stories with original protagonists. Note that this only applies to characters that are very important to the story. Including a hot dog stand owner with one line doesn’t count, even if we’ve yet to see a hot dog vendor in The Agencies.
All submissions should be sent to [email protected]. When submitting, send an email containing your preferred contact information and attach the submission as a single Microsoft Word-compatible file (.doc or .docx are preferred). Please note that there is no automated receipt message, and we are unable to confirm the receipt of specific submissions. We cannot accept submissions by post, in person, or through any electronic means except the above email.
Agency Publishing reserves the right to reject any submission, without stating the reason.
Submissions Window
The submissions mailbox will be open from today through Sunday, July 22, based on the United States’ Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). Any submissions sent outside this period will be rejected automatically.
Winner Publication
All winners will be asked to sign a writing contract. Full details will be in the contract, but in short we will ask you to sign over all copyright of the work to Agency Publishing. This is the only way in which we can publish your submission.
Feedback
We are unable to enter into correspondence with any submitting writer. This includes any sort of feedback. We feel such time would be better spent ensuring our products will be as fantastic as possible.
We’re asking you, the members of the community, to submit a tickling-themed short story set in the world of The Agencies and The Agencies: Frontiers comics. These stories will be considered “canon,” so bring your A game.
I’ll be judging all short stories submitted and will pick the top five to win some exciting prizes!
1st place: Your story will be illustrated by the art team of The Agencies and you will receive a $50 credit usable on Agency Publishing's comics website.
Up to five other entries will be published on Agency Publishing’s website and you will receive a $30 credit usable on Agency Publishing's comics website.
All prizes must be redeemed within one week of announcing the winners.Up to five other entries will be published on Agency Publishing’s website and you will receive a $30 credit usable on Agency Publishing's comics website.
Full guidelines are listed below. Some nonbinding advice on your submissions however:
- Make it as professional-looking as possible. Before submitting, check for grammatical and copy/paste errors. Run spellcheck. These sorts of things are worth their proverbial weight in gold.
- Check the canon. Making sure your story is fits as neatly as possible into the existing canon is worth its proverbial weight in silver, shall we say.
- Don’t wander. You only have a relatively short space to work with, so avoid narrative alleyways. Stay on your story’s Main Street. And keep in mind this is a tickling story, so that should be prominent.
- Don’t be gratuitous. Violence, swearing, graphic sexual acts, etc. are not prohibited, but they should only be used to further the narrative and not for their own sake. Moderation in these is also a plus.
- Be nice. Any writing I feel aims to belittle or insult certain groups (genders, races, ethnic groups, religions, etc.) will get very low scores. Bad guys saying mean things is OK (they are bad and this is an example) but themes on such will not be tolerated. All in all, bigoted language should be handled very carefully and, again, in moderation.
Finally, if you have questions about the contest itself, please email me at [email protected]. I will reply to legitimate questions as soon as possible. Note that I will not talk about the status of your submissions, offer feedback, nor discuss any results of the contest. I also cannot reply to posts or private messages through online forums in a timely manner, so I will not be doing so at all.
Agency Publishing Fiction Contest Submission Guidelines
Please review all guidelines before submitting material. Submissions will be rejected automatically if they do not follow the guidelines presented here. Agency Publishing’s decision is final in all matters concerning submissions.
Number of Submissions
You may send as many submissions as you feel you want to, but keep in mind that we are looking for quality not quantity. It may be worthwhile to keep to your very best idea first.
Submission Format
All submissions must be in a prose, short story format. The short story must be between 3,000 and 10,000 words in length. We can only accept submissions that are presented in the English language.
For this contest, we are looking for submissions set in the rich world shown in The Agencies and The Agencies: Frontiers comics. We will not accept a story set in any of Agency Publishing’s other settings, nor any generic fantasy or science fiction. The submission’s protagonists must be existing characters seen in The Agencies and/or The Agencies: Frontiers. We are will not accept stories with original protagonists. Note that this only applies to characters that are very important to the story. Including a hot dog stand owner with one line doesn’t count, even if we’ve yet to see a hot dog vendor in The Agencies.
All submissions should be sent to [email protected]. When submitting, send an email containing your preferred contact information and attach the submission as a single Microsoft Word-compatible file (.doc or .docx are preferred). Please note that there is no automated receipt message, and we are unable to confirm the receipt of specific submissions. We cannot accept submissions by post, in person, or through any electronic means except the above email.
Agency Publishing reserves the right to reject any submission, without stating the reason.
Submissions Window
The submissions mailbox will be open from today through Sunday, July 22, based on the United States’ Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). Any submissions sent outside this period will be rejected automatically.
Winner Publication
All winners will be asked to sign a writing contract. Full details will be in the contract, but in short we will ask you to sign over all copyright of the work to Agency Publishing. This is the only way in which we can publish your submission.
Feedback
We are unable to enter into correspondence with any submitting writer. This includes any sort of feedback. We feel such time would be better spent ensuring our products will be as fantastic as possible.
