When @[zerohour] asked me if I was interested in judging for a fiction contest, I said yes without really thinking about it. As things are, I already write reviews for fanfiction (read my blog) and felt that it would be up my alley. Then I came here and actually READ this forum thread last week. Holy Smokes! The level of enthusiasm and prize pot had me stunned. In fact, I nearly threw in a STEAM game to the pot myself. I say 'nearly' because my internet went out before I could reply and I had a night to sleep over the matter. I'm still interested in chipping something to the prize pot - won't look good to be the only judge who isn't, but I'm going to take a few more days to decide exactly what my donation will be.
Speaking of judge-chat, I'm almost always on skype. Will PM @[zerohour] and @[Meinos Kaen] my username later. We'll need to formalize exactly how this should be done.
Judging aside, I would like to raise some concerns about how this is organized. This would be easier if its all handled by a single person, so until we decide who it will be (more likely zerohour as far as I'm concerned), I'll refer to this individual as the STEWARD.
First off, it looks like we're planning to actually publish an Anthology of all the stories on Amazon - the good ones anyway. Can we have all participants sign over publishing rights for all submitted entries to the STEWARD? The idea being that the STEWARD will be free to re-publish the stories with another publisher (perhaps smashwords?) at a later date without informing anyone and can make a personal profit from the sale? Let us assume that the money made will be re-invested into the next iteration of the contest, but those rights should be handed over to the STEWARD.
Please note, I'm talking about publishing rights and NOT copyright. Simple example - if @[byakuryuu] submitted "Mary Sue adventures:year 1" for the contest, the STEWARD will be free to take his work,possibly edit, publish, make a profit off it without sharing the money with byakuryuu (or TFF). The characters, locations, scenes ...etc are of course the property of byakuryuu and he can write another book if he wants, but in regards to the submitted entry, he can't stop the STEWARD from publishing for a price or even just giving it away for free.
Since the copyright for the work remains with byakuryuu, if he wants to, he can (legally) demand that no-one write fanfiction off his property. Just because we are a fanfiction site, does NOT mean that anyone can (legally) write up fanfiction based on original stories that came from here. That right (to be a jerk) belongs exclusively to the author.
Call me a pain-in-the-ass if you want, but since we're talking about original fiction here, I think it best to clear up the legal air first rather than getting into a messy situation later.
On the matter of prize money, I think it best to transfer the donations to the STEWARD before the contest starts. i.e. before September 1st, so that we actually know its there. Not to accuse anyone, but I've seen strange things happen when money is involved.
Speaking of which, to avoid publishing bias, can we prevent the donors from participating in the contest? I would like to set a reasonably high standard for the 'published' stories and don't want a situation where "he/she donated, so we will put his/her story in the anthology regardless of its quality". Or we could just have all the participants chip in some money as well. My vote is for the former option.
About the anthology - the participants should be clear about what name they want us to use. i.e. their forum handle, their real name or some personal nickname? Speaking of which can I request (for ego reasons) to have the judges names be on the anthology as well? Would give me a reason to buy and show off the book. And if the author doesn't mind, can we know their country of origin? To write next to their name on the table of contents like,
Story 1 by authorA (USA)
Story 2 by authorB (UK)
Story 3 by authorC (Russia)
Story 4 by authorD (India)
Story 5 by authorE (USA)
...
etc.
There was some discussion about 'theme' earlier and I strongly feel that we need one - would make the published book better, IMO. To keep things fair, let this be hidden until September 1st. i.e. when the contest starts.
I'll let judging issues be decided by zerohour, but I'm curious - as a participant, what do you folks expect/want? That every chapter be judged, or that everything be judged at the end of the contest?
Am pretty sure I'm forgetting something,
chronodekar
Speaking of judge-chat, I'm almost always on skype. Will PM @[zerohour] and @[Meinos Kaen] my username later. We'll need to formalize exactly how this should be done.
Judging aside, I would like to raise some concerns about how this is organized. This would be easier if its all handled by a single person, so until we decide who it will be (more likely zerohour as far as I'm concerned), I'll refer to this individual as the STEWARD.
First off, it looks like we're planning to actually publish an Anthology of all the stories on Amazon - the good ones anyway. Can we have all participants sign over publishing rights for all submitted entries to the STEWARD? The idea being that the STEWARD will be free to re-publish the stories with another publisher (perhaps smashwords?) at a later date without informing anyone and can make a personal profit from the sale? Let us assume that the money made will be re-invested into the next iteration of the contest, but those rights should be handed over to the STEWARD.
Please note, I'm talking about publishing rights and NOT copyright. Simple example - if @[byakuryuu] submitted "Mary Sue adventures:year 1" for the contest, the STEWARD will be free to take his work,possibly edit, publish, make a profit off it without sharing the money with byakuryuu (or TFF). The characters, locations, scenes ...etc are of course the property of byakuryuu and he can write another book if he wants, but in regards to the submitted entry, he can't stop the STEWARD from publishing for a price or even just giving it away for free.
Since the copyright for the work remains with byakuryuu, if he wants to, he can (legally) demand that no-one write fanfiction off his property. Just because we are a fanfiction site, does NOT mean that anyone can (legally) write up fanfiction based on original stories that came from here. That right (to be a jerk) belongs exclusively to the author.
Call me a pain-in-the-ass if you want, but since we're talking about original fiction here, I think it best to clear up the legal air first rather than getting into a messy situation later.
On the matter of prize money, I think it best to transfer the donations to the STEWARD before the contest starts. i.e. before September 1st, so that we actually know its there. Not to accuse anyone, but I've seen strange things happen when money is involved.
Speaking of which, to avoid publishing bias, can we prevent the donors from participating in the contest? I would like to set a reasonably high standard for the 'published' stories and don't want a situation where "he/she donated, so we will put his/her story in the anthology regardless of its quality". Or we could just have all the participants chip in some money as well. My vote is for the former option.
About the anthology - the participants should be clear about what name they want us to use. i.e. their forum handle, their real name or some personal nickname? Speaking of which can I request (for ego reasons) to have the judges names be on the anthology as well? Would give me a reason to buy and show off the book. And if the author doesn't mind, can we know their country of origin? To write next to their name on the table of contents like,
Story 1 by authorA (USA)
Story 2 by authorB (UK)
Story 3 by authorC (Russia)
Story 4 by authorD (India)
Story 5 by authorE (USA)
...
etc.
There was some discussion about 'theme' earlier and I strongly feel that we need one - would make the published book better, IMO. To keep things fair, let this be hidden until September 1st. i.e. when the contest starts.
I'll let judging issues be decided by zerohour, but I'm curious - as a participant, what do you folks expect/want? That every chapter be judged, or that everything be judged at the end of the contest?
Am pretty sure I'm forgetting something,
chronodekar