Enter Stranger, But Take Heed...

There's been a lot of discussion around the Vocal+ Fiction Awards Challenge, and it's finally time to add my thoughts on the matter.

It was a departunre from the usual Challenge set up, and placing came with the chosen work being published as part of Vocal's first commercially-available ebook. It's also a fairly controversial foray, and Vocal+ members have very mixed opinions on the matter. (The wording of the terms and conditions didn't really help there)

Having submitted twelve fiction short stories of my own (and counting), I thought it was time to lay out my thoughts.

What's Different About This Challenge?

In all other challenges to date, there were three winners: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Place, each taking home a different amount of money. 2nd Place recieved about half of the 1st Place prize, and 3rd Place half of 2nd. 1st Place ranged between $1000 and $5000 as the grand prize, with outliers like the Doomsday Diary $20,000 prize.

In the Fiction Awards challenge, 25 selected winners will each recieve $5000, and have their winning entry published in Vocal+ first book!

(Whether this is ebook or paperback or hardback wasn't specified; it's likely Vocal will do all three.)

An additional 1,000 runners-up will recieve a year free Vocal+ Membership. It's by far the largest payout to date, and the largest pool of potential winners.

No wonder everyone is scrambling to have their work seen!

What Are the Advantages to Entering?

For anyone who hopes to write a book one day, being published in an anthology is a great way to get your name out there and build a following before you publish in your own right. Short stories don't sell well on their own, but with Vocal/Creatd's social media presence and marketing team promoting an ebook with your name on it... it's a boost that could lead to great things.

It's also something to wave at any potential literary agents or publishing houses that you're hoping to sign a deal with. Traditional publishing was always difficult to break into, and with the rise of self-publishing, it became nearly impossible if you didn't already have an established success to prove that you were worth the risk.

The Fiction Awards will provide the basis for Vocal's first book, which suggests that there may be more in the future. Whether there are or not, does this mean that Vocal might be looking at opening their own publishing house, or even promotional servieces for members who publish? We don't know, but it's an exciting thought.

What Are the Drawbacks to Entering?

Being an Anthology, Vocal is likely to select stories based on a singular genre, if not a similar central theme. This means that a lot of stories will not be picked purely by not being the "right kind" of story. Maybe they know the theme they want going in, or maybe they'll choose after narrowing it down to the top 125, choosing a theme based on the genres of the winning stories.

The major drawback, however, comes down to an unclear phrase in the terms and conditions.

By entering the Contest, you grant Sponsor an unlimited license to use the content you enter as part of your Submission.

Realistically, this should apply only to the winning entries, meaning that anyone who doesn't win is free to take their non-winning submission and do as they please with it.

In practical terms, a lot of Vocal Writers, especially those who already write for a living and had potential plans for non-winning stories, this sent up more red flags than Pamplona in early July, with the sound of angry bulls in the background.

Would all stories entered be potentially covered by this clause? What if we wrote a longer story based off our submitted short story? Vocal Resources? Anyone?

Reaching out for clarification yielded less useful results than one might have hoped, and probably caused a number of writers to stick to the smaller challenges.

Me Personally?

I've been an Indie Author for almost six years now. I'm being cautious.

I didn't enter any of my SFS mini-series entries, because I already had plans to publish them as a novella. Same with my Jane Austen Fantasy "Changeling Child", because I'm also planning to turn that into a book, and I don't want to end up fighting for copyright, in case those entries place.

I entered the short stories that I can afford to discard, or that would have sat around waiting for me to accumulate enough similar stories for an anthology of my own.

That includes the majority of my Foggy Waters entries, a few Superhero short stories written mostly to get in the heads of my characters, and a couple of Twisted Fairytales/Myths.

For me, I'm diversifying my assets, while keeping the important ones under my control. Some people will come at it from different angles, and some will avoid entering at all. You do you, just make sure it's what you want.

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