First Chapters Romance Writing Competition Voting Guidelines

Kristen, I have Featured this article and your other articles on the First Chapters Romance Writing Competition in Writing Essentials Wednesdays.

"Authors who rate their own chapters will be disqualified."

Dang...don't accidentally hit any of those stars.

Thanks, Kathryn!

This is a great next step for Gather and the readers/writers who frequent the community. Moving to genres is huge--I hope you and publishers consider literary fiction in an upcoming contest. Also, the voting idea seems good too. It might not hurt to install a lockout on all contestants so touching that "disqualification" rating button by accident is not possible.

Congrats on another step forward and Best Wishes to all the contestants!!

I am looking forward, with a tiny bit of trepidation, to submitting my entry. Good luck to all that enter; and may the Muses polish your words to a bright shine.

This is very exciting! And it is wonderful for "Gather". I am still a little confused about the term"erotica". Does this mean , for instance, a phrase like he gently caressed her ----- , and continued his search for more of her ", is not allowed? How hot a love affair, romantic in nature, are you allowing ? Perhaps a few samples of NOT ALLOWED would be great for the passionate writer? Thanks, and editing with blanks is fine! Ellen B.

As a reader, I am always looking for interesting new stuff. This is not my usual genre, but, hey, I'll give anything a shot when there's Borders gift cards involved. Thanks for helping potential new authors. That makes Gather a pretty great place in my opinion.

"Each account may only vote once, regardless of how many namespaces or pen names you have. "

Isn't it one account per namespace/pen name? I'm confused.

Clear, concise explanations. Thanks.

Ellen, the details concerning what Erotica is defined by for this contest are stated in on of the three articles.

I like the voting system that you've come up with. Now we just have to wait and see if it works.

My only problem is that this is still a, How Many People Can You Call To Rate Your Chapter A Ten, popularity contest.

I am a Gather member for Science Fiction and Fantasy. Do I have to sign up as a romance member to vote for the Romance competition? I won't be submitting a romance novel.

Hi Jude - You don't have to join the First Chapters Romance Group in order to vote, only if you're submitting a novel. Thanks!

kitchenMage - what we are trying to convey is that each person (regardless of how many pen names you have on Gather) may vote once per chapter. For example, you are not allowed to vote three times for one chapter, even if you have three different Gather identities. Is that clear?

It's perfectly clear what you're aiming for, Kristen (though kitchenMage has a point about the account being the namespace). The question is, how are you going to know? By the IP address? Then call it one vote for household, and make it clear that if more than one household member is active on Gather, only one of them can vote. This will not prevent them, of course, from voting from work, the public library, etc....

Also, the new voting system eliminates malicious 1's (or 2's, etc, were it announced that 1's will be ignored), but let's face it, this way it will just be even more of a popularity contest. In the previous system, if a friend asked for a vote on their submission, you could read it and decide it was good but probably not the best, and give it an 8. Now you'll probably just give a 10 to everyone who asks and whose work seems reasonable, not looking at whether other submissions might be better.

There's no good way of doing this, because the entire concept is wrong. It should be qualified judges who pick the winner, not Gather members.

Krsten,

Can a writer enter their manuscript in the Romance Genre and a Fantasy genre if Simon and Schuster are considering other categories for submission?

Thanks Kristen. Great weather here today in Massachusetts!

Hi Aniko~
Thanks for your comments! Probably the best explanation I can give you comes from this article from our CEO, Tom: http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977053658

To quote, he wrote:
"On the competition front, I think you raise a valid concern: authors who market their work effectively may receive more votes than those that write well. To address this, we currently rely on two factors:

1) The size and power of the community: Last competition, we had tens of thousands of voters. The larger the voting population becomes, the smaller the impact of any one author's recruiting efforts on the result.

2) Gather editors: as I mention to Ian above, our editors look for gems that the community might not find. We advance those for community consideration in each round.

These systems work together over time as well. Since more voters are focused on fewer stories in later rounds, the impact of individual-author recruiting decreases over time. Our editors can also focus more attention on the best work in later rounds.

To be sure, we are still learning here! We have work to do and will continue to improve for future competitions. We are proud of our first result, excited for this next step, and hope we'll earn your trust for a future First Chapters round."

Thank you!

Hi Jude~ Right now, we are only accepting submissions that qualify as romance. You can check out our Official Rules for an exact definition (http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977053478). Thank you!

I am ready to post my first chapter~ but where?

Hi Pattimari - please take a look at our submission guidelines for info on how to publish your chapter - just scroll down to the "How to Enter" part. Here is the link: http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977053480

Hi again Kristen,
Just reading over a more thorough version of the submission instructions I discovered some info I did not see before, though I have a vision problem. I am a little off on my formatting, and was wondering if I should resubmit? My font was set on Areial. And I think that was all that was wrong. I may not have the right subject line precisely either. Am I in the Dog House now?
Destin Tanero

Hi Destin~
As we go through the submissions, we will contact any entrants who have eligibility issues. You will definitely hear from us if there is a problem. Thanks!

Kristen, Thanks for writing this article. It has been very imformative. To the comment that readers may just give each chapter a 10, I don't believe we will have to worry about. I do a lot of reading and I have read many articles by gather members. I am quite impressed by the literary ability of most gather writers. I for one would not give a 10 to a chapter I felt was not worthy of a 10. Of coarse, there is the possiblility that all chapters submitted would be 10's. That might make it interesting and difficult. I loved the first chapters contest. I loved reading the critiqueing by the gather readers. It was excellent. I did not submit a first chapter in the First Chapter Contest. But I do have a manuscript I would love to submit in this Romance Novel Contest. Although, I am not sure I am eligible as right now I am doing volunteer work in Honduras. Our home is in Independence, Missouri. Could you answer that question for me Kristen? Thanks for your wonderful work.

Kristen, THANKS for the post on Tom's comments that the editors will also be choosing those entries that are worthy of being moved forward. That means that the contestants don't just have a 'popularity' contest, especially as the editors have the full manuscript to read--that will be a lot of reading for you guys, lol! That seems to make it more fair, especially if the contestant doesn't have hundreds of people to get to drop a '10' vote for them. I am looking forward to reading the 'insightful' critiques on my entry. We can always use feedback. QUESTION: the url address that we are assigned when we submit the first chapter and manuscript, is that what we use for those that want to read my first chapter? Or will there be a separate section for all the entries with the names of the writers? I was asked that and haven't a clue.
Sylvia MacKye Danzo

Kristen: someone told me today that they think the submissions won't be listed alphabetically, but by date entered, with the earlier submissions toward the end of the list and the more recent ones toward the top of the list....is that right?

And am I right that people do NOT VOTE on our individual pages, but only at the central Romance Group listing of submissions??

Thanks for having been so patient with my endless questions...I am really not am imbecile! ;-)

Bonnie~
People DO vote on your individual pages, using the starred ranking system at the end of each article. As far as how submissions will be listed, in the group, the chapters will show up by date. However, the top article will be one published by me, containing all of the entries listed alphabetically. Thanks!

Hi Sylvia~
When directing friends and family where to vote for your entry, feel free to send them directly to the link to your chapter. If they are interested in reviewing other entries, simply direct them to romancenovel.gather.com, where we will have an article containing links to all entries. Thank you!

Here are some things to consider while voting: On Romance Writing

In Over Her Head

Great, concise and helpful, thanks! If I'd read your notes, earlier, I'd have had the right answers for many of my friends and family who have been pestering me all day about the competition! The potential problem of voting for oneself is handled...there are no stars on my article (Hideaway) so everyone can heave a huge sigh of relief!

I'm really looking forward to reading other entries.

Why are some of the entries not available to read?

Kristen - as a newer member of Gather and really not a fan of fictional romance, I will tell you that I am more than pleasantly surprised at how well you have coordinated this process.

I referred a friend to this contest and now I am hooked. not only am I a fan of hers (my referral,) but I see that there are so many more talented writers that have an audience and deserve praise and recognition. Gather has created an effective forum for people who love to read.

I am thrilled that I couldn't decide on a good summer book - instead, I'll settle for 299 of them!

thanks again for a superb job - well done!

Hi Kristen - Another newbie here, and my preferences for pleasure reading are more biography, history, and art criticism. Nevaduhless . . . I heard your contest was happening so why not romance my way through a chapter or two, or three ... So far so good. Only question is, do you display all commenters, or only those who assigned a given entry the full 10 points. Thanks !

Thanks Andrea!

Hi Relle~
Any comments made on a chapter will be displayed below the chapter, regardless of the rating the commenter chooses to give. Thanks for your question!

Kristen:

Thank you. Good luck to all the contestants for all of their fine work. There really are no losers here, so I won't say may the best person win.

Everyone has won thus far. No matter what, I hope everyone keeps writing!