I need some Million Writers Award help!

Nope, I don't need help with reading 190 f&!#ing stories. (Note: I'm actually enjoying thereading, but it's fun to gripe about it.)  And we don't need help with the prize money, which thanks to our generous donors is looking great.

No, my problem is with the public vote for the overall winners. I recently discovered the survey tool I've always used before is dead and buried, so I need another way to conduct the public voting.

I'm considering Survey Monkey, but I'm not sure how secure they are. Anyone have experience with them? Is there a way to set up their paid system so people can only vote once? Are there any other reliable and reasonably priced online polling and/or voting systems I should consider?

Bowing to the reality of reading 190 stories

I haven't posted much in the last two weeks for a very simple reason: I have 190 stories to read for the Million Writers Award!

Unfortunately, I'm not on track to make my self-imposed May 1st deadline for posting the top ten stories and starting the public vote for the best story. If anyone wants to know why, the delay is due to a mix of work overload, family hijinks, more work overload, and oh, did I mention the 190 STORIES I HAVE TO READ!

I'm now planning to have the top ten stories up by May 15th.

And in some good news, we have another $50 donation to add to the prize money. The donation is from Zahir Publishing, so be nice and check out their wonderful speculative fiction magazine. Just FYI, in January of this year Zahir transitioned from a print magazine to purely online.

Is Online Genre Fiction All Powerful?

I received an interesting email the other day from Tom Dooley, the editor of Eclectica Magazine. After Tom crunched his own statistics around this year's Million Writers Award—arriving at similar if slightly different numbers as Robert Laughlin, whose stats I reported on last week—he noticed something interesting. Among the top 18 magazines with the most notable stories in this year's Million Writers Award, genre magazines held the top five spots, and overall landed 33 of those magazines' 69 notable stories (or 48%).

This general pattern also holds over the last two years. However, if one looks at the overall notable story stats for the entire seven years of the award, then genre fiction doesn't do as well. Only three of the top 13 magazines with the most notable stories over that seven-year span are genre magazines, and their stories only account for 44 of those magazines' 236 notable stories (or 19%). This means non-genre magazines used to do much better in the Million Writers Award.

As Tom said, "The statistics show the MWA has come to be dominated by genre fiction. What they don't show, or at least, what THESE statistics don't show, is why."

I should note that Tom isn't condemning genre fiction, nor is he complaining. His magazine regularly publishes high-quality genre fiction alongside non-genre stories. He's also long been a vocal supporter of the Million Writers Award, which is open to both genre and non-genre stories and tries to be a level playing field where different stories compete against each other. After reading Tom's email and looking at his stats, I was also curious whether or not genre fiction now dominates the Million Writers Award—and by extension online fiction in general.

To figure this out, I counted the magazines with notable stories in this year's award. There are approximately 108 magazines on the notable story list, with 81 of those being "non-genre" and 27 being magazines focused on SF/fantasy/horror/crime or other mixes of genre fiction. Please note these estimates are rough. I could have miscounted, and I'm sure I didn't slot some magazines into the proper category. There are also magazines like Eclectica which, while counted as non-genre, also publish genre fiction. The simple truth is it's sometimes difficult to divide magazines and fiction into convenient categories.

But assuming my counts and category cramming are close to correct, that means about a quarter of online magazines on the notable list are genre magazines, while around 75% are non-genre or more general "literary" magazines. And if the MWA notable story list is truly representative of online fiction today—I know, another assumption, but one I believe is likely true—that means genre magazines probably make up a quarter of all online fiction magazines.

Yet here are online genre magazines holding down the top spots in this award for the last two years, a fact out of proportion to the number of genre magazines out there. Why is this happening?

I think the reason is simple: The best genre fiction magazines now occupy an equal weight to genre print magazines.

For example, when you look at this year's list of genre magazines with the most notable story selections—Fantasy Magazine, Clarkesworld Magazine, Strange Horizons, Subterranean, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Thuglit, and Apex Magazine—it is interesting to note that almost all of these are professional-level speculative fiction magazines (with Thuglit instead being a crime magazine). Why so many spec fic magazines on this list? I believe it is because this genre has, to a large degree, accepted online magazines as a legitimate place to publish and read short fiction.

In the speculative fiction genre, there are a handful of English-language professional print magazines with large circulations, such as Analog, Asimov's, Black Static, Fantasy and Science Fiction, Interzone, Realms of Fantasy, and Weird Tales. There's also another handful of great print magazines like Greatest Uncommon Denominator, Necrotic Tissue, and On Spec which are also extremely professional but have slightly lower circulations and distribution.

My point? I just named what many people would consider the top speculative fiction print magazines. But there are an equal number of professional online magazines in this genre. By professional, I mean these online magazines publish works by top writers, pay professional rates, have top editorial standards, and have large readerships. That means over half of all the professional-level magazines in speculative fiction are now online magazines. Because of this, they publish some of the best stories online, carry critical weight both inside and outside their genre, and are very hard to compete against.

Compare this to non-genre or literary magazines, where the majority of top magazines are still in print. While there are great online magazines like The Barcelona Review, Eclectica, Storyglossia, and Word Riot, if you want to read the vast majority of fiction influencing today's literary world you must turn to The New Yorker, The Southern Review, Granta, The Paris Review, The Atlantic Monthly (through their annual fiction issue), and so on. Yes, some of these print magazines also cross-publish online, but in most ways they still consider the web a mere afterthought. And while some non-genre online magazines like Blackbird and Narrative are seen as the equal of The New Yorkers of the world, proportionately they make up a much smaller percentage of the top-end literary fiction market than in the speculative fiction genre.

Please note this is not an attempt to put down online literary magazines like The Barcelona Review or Eclectica, which for my money often publish better fiction than The New Yorker. But the simple truth is that despite all the changes of the last decade, the world of non-genre or literary fiction still considers print as superior to online publishing.

That's why I believe genre fiction is doing so well these days, both online and in the Million Writers Award. It's like a professional baseball team competing against a college team. While the college team may have some great players who play at a professional level, overall they'd have a tough time against the New York Yankees. And at the moment the Yankees of the online fiction world are speculative fiction magazines.
 

Note: Below are some of the Million Writers Award stats referenced in this post.

2009 Notable Story Leaders
(genre magazines are bolded)

Fantasy Magazine, 7 notable stories
Clarkesworld Magazine, 5
Strange Horizons, 5
Subterranean, 5
Beneath Ceaseless Skies, 4
Blackbird, 4
Kill Author, 4
Thuglit, 4
Writers' Bloc Magazine, 4
Agni Online, 3
Apex Magazine, 3
Eclectica Magazine, 3
Kenyon Review Online, 3
Knee-Jerk Magazine, 3
Prick of the Spindle    3
Storyglossia, 3
Toasted Cheese, 3
Word Riot, 3

2008-09 Notable Story Leaders
(genre magazines are bolded)

Fantasy Magazine, 13 notable stories
Strange Horizons, 11
Narrative Magazine, 9
Clarkesword Magazine, 9
Blackbird, 8
Storyglossia, 8
Eclectica Magazine, 7
Agni Online, 7
Subterranean, 7
Carve Magazine, 7
Word Riot, 6
Thuglit, 6
Apex Magazine, 6
Beneath Ceaseless Skies, 6

All Time Notable Story Leaders
(genre magazines are bolded)

Eclectica Magazine, 38 notable stories
Pindeldyboz, 31
Strange Horizons, 27
Narrative Magazine, 24
Agni Online, 22
Word Riot, 22
Blackbird    19
Storyglossia, 19
Clarkesword Magazine, 17
failbetter    17
Fantasy Magazine, 5
King's English, 15
Mississippi Review, 15

Flash fiction selections from the Million Writers Award judges

When the preliminary judges sent me their selections for the Million Writers Award notable stories, there were three flash fiction stories I couldn't include. The award rules specifically state eligible stories must be longer than 1000 words. So while I hated removing these stories from the list, I had no choice.

Since the judges thought these stories were worth selecting, I wanted to mention them here. They are:

Each of these stories is well worth the read, so check them out.

More Million Writers Award stats

From Robert Laughlin comes an in-depth analysis of this year's Million Writers Award notable stories.

Of the 190 Notable Stories, 74 came off the editors' list, 30 came off the readers' list and 5 were on both lists. That leaves 81 stories that weren't nominated by either editors or readers and were picked solely by the preliminary judges.

Robert also worked up a list of journals with more than one notable story not submitted for competition by either readers or editors. Here are the "cult favorites" of the judges (titles followed by an asterisk had no nominations submitted by either readers or editors).

  • 5 stories--Subterranean*
  • 4 stories--Strange Horizons, Thuglit*
  • 3 stories--Prick of the Spindle*, Toasted Cheese*, Word Riot*
  • 2 stories--Apex, Blackbird, Carve*, ChiZine*, Clarkesworld, Fantasy, Flurb*, Hot Metal Bridge*, Identity Theory*, kill author, The King's English*, Literal Latte*, Mississippi Review Online*, Stirring: A Literary Collection*, Storyglossia, Web Conjunctions* (Note: I tired of cutting and pasting links, so see the notable stories page for links to these magazines.)

It's also worth noting wunderkind Roxane Gay had only one notable story chosen from outside the editor and reader nominations. Four of her stories were nominated by editors, and one was nominated by an editor and a reader.

Finally, Eclectica Magazine still has not lost its lead as the all-time notable stories champion. Here is a breakdown of the online magazines with the most notable stories since the Million Writers Award began in 2004:

Many thanks to Robert for pulling together all this information.

A few Million Writers Award stats

Here are a few stats on this year's list of Million Writers Award notable stories. Thanks to Robert Laughlin for pointing out the first two.

  • Roxane Gay is this year's Tom Hanks of the online writing world for landing so many nominations. As people may remember, I granted Kyle Minor that title last year when he landed four stories on the notable list (and I should note Kyle returns this year with the story "Ill Nature" from Plots With Guns). Well, Roxane does two up on Kyle, having six stories picked for this year's list. These are "Gravity at the End of the World" from Knee-Jerk Magazine, "Things I Know About Fairy Tales" from Necessary Fiction, "The Mark of Cain" fron Night Train, "Between Things" from Pindeldyboz, "This Program Contains Actual Surgical Procedures" from Twelve Stories, and "Bone Density" from Word Riot. Considering that Roxane published all these stories with different magazines, and they were picked by different judges (with some landing nominations from more than one judge), this is an amazing accomplishment. Check out her fiction. And if I was an agent or publisher, I'd consider snapping up this hot young writer.
     
  • There are 190 stories on this year's notable list, making it the longest in Million Writers Award history. It's worth noting that there are also more online magazines publishing quality fiction than ever before. Among the impressive new magazines starting up last year were Kill Author, Cerise Press, Knee Jerk Magazine, and Slush Pile.
     
  • Among the previously honored magazines which stopped publishing last year were Baen's Universe, Lone Star Stories, and Farrago's Wainscot. I was sorry to see all of these magazines go, but Farrago's Wainscot was a true loss. As people may remember, Farrago's Wainscot won our best new magazine award a few year's back.

Million Writers Award notable online stories of 2009

The Million Writers Award notable stories of 2009 have now been posted. Check them out here. A big congratulations to all the authors on the list. And an equal congrats to the magazines which won this year's overall awards:

Obviously I have a lot of reading ahead of me. I plan to select my top ten stories by May 1st; the public vote for the best story will start at that point. I want to thank the editors and readers who nominated stories. And a big thanks to the preliminary judges who screened the nominations and/or nominated their own favorites: Beverly Akerman, Forrest Anderson, Thom Didato, Roxanne Halpine, Rusty Keele, Travis Kurowski, Dorothee Lang, Judah Mahay, Erica Naone, Karen L. Newman, Nick Ripatrazone, Alexis Enrico Santí, Beth Staples, D. Antwan Stewart, Wayne E. Yang (along with several judges who wished to remain anonymous).

Finally, thanks to our donors, whose support enables us to give away the following prizes:

  • First place: $400, plus the $100 ThinkGeek gift certificate and a one-year Greatest Uncommon Denominator subscription;
  • Runner-up: $200, plus PDFs of GUD magazine;
  • Honorable mention (third place): $50, plus PDFs of GUD magazine.

Free GUD subscription for Million Writers Award winner

I'm now compiling the list of notable stories for this year's storySouth Million WritersAward. Look for the release of the notable stories on April 1.

In addition, we now have a new prize for the award winners. Greatest Uncommon Denominator magazine has offered a year's subscription to the overall winner, and PDFs of the magazine to the runner-up and third place winners. That means the prizes break down as follows:

  • $400, plus the $100 ThinkGeek gift certificate and a GUD Magazine subscription, for the first place winner;
  • $200 for the runner-up, plus PDFs of GUD magazine;
  • $50 for the honorable mention (third place), plus PDFs of GUD magazine.

Million Writers Award prize money

The preliminary judges have been sending me their picks for this year's list of storySouth Million WritersAward notable stories. I'm still waiting for a few final selections, but it looks like we're still set to announce the notable stories on April 1.

Thank to generous donations, we now have $650 in total prize money, along with a $100 gift certificate from the great people at ThinkGeek. This means the prize money for the 2010 Million Writers Award breaks down as follows:

  • $400, plus the $100 ThinkGeek gift certificate, for the first place winner
  • $200 for the runner-up
  • $50 for the honorable mention (third place)

Of course, if more donations come in we'll bump those prize amounts even higher.

Below are the donors who have pitched in for this year's prize money. Many, many thanks to them. Without their support we wouldn't be able to bring as much attention to deserving online stories.

$100 donations

$50 donations

$25 donations

Other donations

Shine anthology, Million Writers Award, other updates

Shine A few updates:

  • The most eagerly awaited anthology of 2010 has to be Shine: An Anthology of Optimistic SF, edited by Jetse de Vries. I've already pre-ordered a copy, and I suggest others do the same. As a sweetener, I have a very very short prose poem in the anthology--a piece of Twitter fiction I wrote last year for the Outshine Twitter magazine will help introduce Holly Phillips' story "Summer Ice." I'm thrilled to have a tiny part in the anthology, and can't wait to read the book.
     
  • The preliminary judges have started submitting their selections for the Million Writers Award notable stories of 2009. So far it looks like a great lineup, and I'm eager to read the stories. I will release the complete list of notable stories on April 1st--and April Fool's Day be damned!
     
  • One story beloved by the judges was "Quella, Querida, Quintessa" by Matt Bell, published in Guernica. Unfortunately, the story was published this year so can't be considered for the award, but I wanted to still mention it here.
     
  • Finally, Mark Watson gave a very nice review of my Interzone story "Here We Are, Falling Through Shadows" on his Best SF website, while on IncWriters Andy Hedgecock mentions me alongside other great Interzone authors "who offer idiosyncratic revelation, in rich but elegant language and in a form that, however fragmented, however innovative, has what Graham Joyce has called the primal pulse of storytelling at its heart." Many thanks to both Mark and Andy for the kind words!

A few updates, and an apology

At midnight this year's storySouth Million WritersAward closed to reader and editor nominations. I'm still sorting everything out, but it looks like we experienced the most nominations ever. Look for an update on all this in a day or two. The next step is for the preliminary judges to report back to me with their selections for the notable stories of the year, which will be released by April 1st.

In other news, I recorded an editorial discussing the recent Nebula Award finalists and also supporting StarShipSofa for a Best Fanzine Hugo. Unfortunately, I messed up a few facts, so I apologize to everyone for that, and especially to Cheryl Morgan and John Klima. I've now recorded a corrected editorial, which you can listen to here. The editorial will also be released on Wednesday as part of StarShipSofa's new podcast. Thanks to Tony and all of the Sofa's listeners for putting up with my irritatingly mistaken ways on this.

Finally, I received my contributor's copies of Tales of the Unanticipated issue 30. While I'm still reading the issue, it looks to be a strong one. So far Martha Hood's story "Personal Jesus" (based on the Johnny Cash cover of that famous song) and Matthew S. Rotundo's "Ashes, Ashes" are my favorites. Consider ordering your issue ASAP.

Final days to nominate stories for the Million Writers Award

There are only a few days left to nominate stories for the storySouth Million WritersAward. We currently have more than 65 sets of nominations from editors of online magazines, and almost too many reader nominations to count. Remember, the deadline to make a nomination is February 28. Go here for reader nominations and here for editor nominations.

Thank to generous donations, we now have over $600 in total prize money, along with a $100 gift certificate from the great people at ThinkGeek. This means the prize money for the 2010 Million Writers Award will break down as follows:

  • $400 plus the $100 ThinkGeek gift certificate for the first place winner
  • $150 for the runner-up
  • $50 for the honorable mention (third place)

Of course, if more donations come in we'll bump those prize amounts even higher.

Million Writers Award update

I've behind on storySouth Million WritersAward updates, so here we go:

  • A ton of reader and editor nominations are coming in. So far, editors at 56 online magazines have nominated their favorite stories for the award. The deadline to make a nomination is February 28. If you want to make a nomination or see what others have nominated, check out the reader nominations here and the editor nominations here.
     
  • Thank to generous donations, we now have over $500 in total prize money, along with a $100 gift certificate from the great people at ThinkGeek. I'm behind on creating the page listing the donors, but I plan to have that up soon. At the moment, this means the prize money for the 2010 Million Writers Award will break down as $350 plus the $100 ThinkGeek gift certificate for the first place winner, and $150 for the runner-up.

In addition to these updates, I also wanted to draw attention to some of the stories which are catching the eyes of our preliminary judges. This doesn't mean the judges will select these as notable stories of the years. But these are stories some judges have mentioned in excited tones, so take that as you will.

The judge who mentioned those two stories to me said both "take topics that have been covered a million times before and do something really fresh and surprising with them. While I'm at it, I was impressed by the overall quality of stories from both these publications."

The judge who mentioned this tale said "I loved this story! Great writing, fun characters, and very imaginative. I wouldn't mind seeing this one get lots of attention."

FictionDaily

In my introduction the other day to this year's Million Writers Award, I mentioned how the award brings attention to worthy stories and new writers. With so many online magazines and journals out there, this goal--trying to cut through the clutter, so to speak--is vitally important for readers and writers.

So imagine my excitement when I discovered a new website attempting to do the same thing: FictionDaily. Selecting and aggregating content from the "independent" publishing world, FictionDaily presents three new stories each day--a short, a long, and a genre story. Excerpt of stories in each of these categories are presented without reference to the author's name, the title, or the story's publication. If you're interested, you click over to the original publisher to read the story.

I think this is an exciting way for readers to keep on top of online fiction, and I hope FictionDaily succeeds.

To get a sense of the site's goals, I asked FictionDaily's editor David Backer a few questions.
 

Why did you start FictionDaily?

I started FictionDaily after I read an article in Mother Jones by Ted Genoways, the editor of The Virginia Quarterly Review, called "The Death of Fiction." The entire thing--article and comments--reads like an informal, emergent dissertation on the state of contemporary fiction. In my mind, its grand thesis is that fiction isn't necessarily dead. It's just changing, existing in a myriad electronic formats as opposed to the old university journals.

Genoways's article appeared at a serendipitous moment for me. I've been trying to find a mainstream publisher for my first novel, and I actually found an agent that liked it and an editor at a major house that liked it, but both of them said that they couldn't sell it. They thought it was good literature, but that it wasn't marketable. This seemed incredible to me: that the market would dictate what gets read and what doesn't. Why should the market, that gasping monster, decide what's good literature? So I thought "screw them" and started looking at the world of publishing that exists now outside of Border's Books and the major houses. This is where I found contemporary literature, iterating itself in spite of the market, just as the MJ article had confirmed. But even as an avid reader and writer, I didn't know where to look for literature on the Internet. There's just so much of it--I had no way of knowing where to click or why.

Arts and Letters Daily provides a service for finding good essays and reviews on the Internet. Their set up is wonderful--simple, attractive, organized. I look at it every day and read essays I would've never found otherwise. So, given this content-abundance problem in literature, I thought to make FictionDaily, which is the same kind of resource--but for fiction.

In the end, I made the site to get a better idea of where literature is now, but also to help our culture have the kind of conversation with itself that literature affords. We need to read stories that our contemporaries write. It's a healthy thing, an ancient human thing. It's part of our progress as individuals. But we need to adapt to our own technological advancements if we're going to continue this healthy habit. FictionDaily is trying to make that whole process easier.
 

On your website, you mention that literature’s pulse is changing, and that the old places which once supported this pulse can no longer keep up. How do you see Fiction Daily's role in creating a new place for literature to thrive?

FictionDaily "aggregates" online fiction. This is a word that my great friend Chadwick Matlin at TheBigMoney.com taught me, as it relates to websites: "aggregate" means to collect together into one place. (And it's a groovy word too: the root 'grex' is Latin for "flock," like in "congregate" or "gregarious.") There are a lot of aggregation websites for news, science, business, etc. But there isn't a good, elegant one for fiction. That's where FD comes in.

The wonderful thing about the Internet is its plurality: it's like a huge room with thousands of voices, all talking at the same time. But this plurality presents us with a problem, at least in fiction: If all these voices are talking at once, who do I listen to? When? Why? How do I find someone whose voice I like a lot? And, at the group level, how do we give these voices an opportunity to communicate to people who want to listen? FD tries to provide this kind of service for stories.
 

I like that you provide daily links to compelling examples of short, long, and genre fiction. How do you select the stories you link to?

I surf. I read and let my eyes roam the first sentences of stories. If I like a voice, if I like the images, then I keep reading. The stories that I want to finish I select and put up. It's actually a lot like channel-surfing in that way, only with words. (A weird thing I'm finding: I get turned off by rhetorical questions in stories. Like: "He went to the bathtub. Was it a turtle? Why was he feeling so anxious?" I don't like that for some reason. But that's just me.)
 

What made you decide to highlight excerpts from the stories themselves instead of the author's name, the story title, or the original publication?

That, I'm both proud and embarrassed to say, is ALDaily's idea. I like this approach for two reasons, the first is pretentious and the second isn't. First, pretentiously, I like it because the link is about the words. That's what fiction is supposed to be about, at least primarily. It's about the feeling I get from the words I'm reading. It's not about who is writing it or where it's published. That's secondary. I feel like we get so lost in the ego of our writing: who wrote it, where it's published, etc. I think ego gets in the way of stuff (this comes from some Hindu sympathies I have, philosophically). Ego is a lot of noise. I just want to read something good. Second, and less pretentiously, this approach creates a certain mystery. When I go to ALDaily and I look at a link, I ask "I wonder where that's published? I wonder who wrote it?" By withholding the name of the author and the magazine, it creates more reader-momentum towards the magazines and the writers.
 

Do you accept recommendations from readers and writers?

Absolutely. Editors also. Send me links! I'm trying to compile a more thorough resource of magazines, blogs, journals, etc. david.backer@gmail.com. (The only rub is this: I'm more interested in finding stories myself in the magazines. So I might have a bias against writers who email me saying, "Hey, look at my story. It's real good." Let your writing speak for itself from the magazine where it's been published, or from your blog. If you don't think I'll find you in my surfing, then email me. I really enjoy email correspondence.) I'm also starting to do interviews with editors and writers whose stuff I like. Look for Amber Sparks's new interview underneath the masthead where it says, "Interviews." I'm going to try and update this weekly.

Million Writers Award prize money update

The storySouth Million WritersAward is clicking along nicely, with plenty of reader and editor nominations coming in. If you're interested in making a nomination, or simply want to check out the fiction others have nominated, the reader nominations can be found here and the editor nominations here.

The other thing coming along nicely are donations to help fund the award's prize money. We now have $400 in prize money, along with a $100 gift certificate from the great people at ThinkGeek.

At the moment, this means the prize money for the 2010 Million Writers Award will break down as follows:

  • $300 for the first place winner, plus a $100 ThinkGeek gift certificate
  • $100 for the runner-up

As I've mentioned before, last year there were three cash prizes: $500 for the overall winner, $200 for the runner-up, and $100 for the honorable mention/third place. If more donations come in, we'll be further along the road to matching last year's prizes.

So if you'd like to help us reach this goal, please consider a donation!

Please note that since these donations do not go through Spring Garden Press (storySouth's publisher), donations are not tax deductible. But your entire donated amount will be used for prize money, minus the small fee PayPal deducts for transmitting the money.

Thanks to everyone who has already donated. I'm still sorting through which people want to remain anonymous, and which desire to be named. Once that's done, I'll post a preliminary list of donors.

storySouth Million Writers Award now open

The storySouth Million Writers Award is now open. I will be running the reader and editor nominations from this blog; the main award page on storySouth will be where the notable stories and top ten stories are posted.

For background information on the award, please see my introduction to the award and the award rules. In short, the award is for any fictional short story of at least a 1,000 words first published in an online publication during 2009. By "publication," I mean an online magazine or journal with an editorial process (so self-published stories are not eligible).

  • Reader nominations can be made here.
  • Editor nominations can be made here.

The deadline for nominations is February 28, 2010. The list of notable stories of the year will be released by April 1, 2010, with the top ten stories released by the first of May. Voting on the top stories of the year will last for one month after the top ten stories are released.

Donations Needed for Prize Money!

Here's the big thing: We need donations to fund this year's prize money. Last year there were three cash prizes: $500 for the overall winner, $200 for the runner-up, and $100 for the honorable mention/third place. The majority of this prize money was raised through donations from writers, editors and readers. I hope we can reach these amounts again.

Myself and storySouth, together with a few minor donations left over from last year, have already put forth over $100 for this year's prize money. If no additional donations come in, that will be the prize money for the 1st place winner. But I'm optimistic we can quickly raise much more than that.

Please note that since these donations do not go through Spring Garden Press (storySouth's publisher), donations are not tax deductible. However, your entire donated amount will be used for the prize money, minus the small fee PayPal deducts for transmitting the money. All donors will have the option of having their name and donation listed on the Million Writers Award page. Donors may also remain anonymous.

To donate, go here.

Thanks to everyone who has taken part in the award in previous years, and I hope you enjoy it again this year. I will be posting updates on this blog throughout the award process. For more frequent updates, be sure to check out my Twitter account.

Introduction to the 2010 Million Writers Award

In 2001, I helped found storySouth out of the belief that a quality literary journal could exist completely online and still have an impact equal to any print publication. After all, it wasn't the medium people cared about, but the writing.

However, I quickly ran up against a big problem: Many people believed online publications weren't legitimate. The editor of one of the year's best anthologies said that while storySouth looked great, and published (in his words) very good fiction, he couldn't consider anything from our journal. Basically, he didn't consider storySouth to be a real publication.

Of course, that was almost 10 years ago, and my how things have changed. Few people today would dispute that online publications are the equal of print publications. In fact, while print magazines and journals see declining circulations, and are betting their future on electronic distribution via the Kindle and other ebook readers, online magazines are stronger than ever. We even have our own year's best anthologies.

As we start the seventh annual Million Writers Award, you may wonder if the award is still needed. To that, I shout a strong "Hell Yes!" With more online publications than ever, it can be difficult for readers to find the best online fiction out there. The Million Writers Award plays a vital role each year in promoting new and established writers, and bringing attention to worthy stories.

So yes, things have changed in the last 10 years, and I'd like to think both storySouth and the Million Writers Award played a part in creating this change. It'll be interesting to see what the coming decade brings.

Reader nominations for 2010 Million Writers Award

The 2010 Million Writers Award is now open for nominations. This page is for READERS to nominate one short story published in an online magazine during 2009. Editor nominations are here.

Nominations will be accepted through February 28, 2010. As always, there is no fee to nominate a story or to take part in the award process. If a story is already nominated below, there is no need to nominate that story multiple times. Attempts to "stuff" multiple nominations of the same story by one reader or a group of readers will be deleted.

To nominate a story, please first read the rules, then use the following format to place information in the comment box at the bottom of this page. You will enter your nomination into the comment box at the bottom of this page.

Apex Magazine
http://www.apexbookcompany.com/apex-online
Story: "Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast" by Eugie Foster
Story URL: http://www.apexbookcompany.com/apex-online/...gentleman-beast-by-eugie-foster

Please note that the above story--while an amazing piece of fiction--is not eligible for the Million Writers Award since it was first published in a print magazine.

Failure to use the above format when making a nomination can result in nominations not being considered. Be sure to provide your name and a valid e-mail address or your nomination will not be considered.

If you like what we're doing with the Million Writers Award, please consider making a donation to increase the amount of prize money we can offer.

Editor nominations for 2010 Million Writers Award

The 2010 Million Writers Award is now open for nominations. This page is for EDITORS to nominate three short stories published in their online magazine. Individual nominations are here.

Nominations will be accepted through February 28, 2010. As always, there is no fee to nominate a story, and no fee to take part. To nominate stories from your online magazine or journal, please first read the rules, then use the format below to place information in the comment box below. Failure to use this format can result in nominations not being considered. Please also provide a valid e-mail with your story nominations. All editor nominations will be verified.

Correction nomination format (which should be entered into the comment box at the bottom of this page):

storySouth
http://www.storysouth.com
Story 1: "7 Cornish Hens" by Erich Sysak
http://www.storysouth.com/fiction/2006/11/7_cornish_hens_1.html
Story 2: "Letters from Mercury" by Jessica Schneider
http://www.storysouth.com/fiction/2006/01/letters_from_mercury.html
Story 3: "Grappling" by Jacob M. Appel
http://www.storysouth.com/fiction/2006/09/grappling_by_jacob_m_appel.html

If you like what we're doing with the Million Writers Award, please consider making a donation to increase the amount of prize money we can offer.

2010 Million Writers Award Rules

The purpose of the storySouth Million Writers Award is to honor and promote the best fiction published in online literary journals and magazines during 2009. 

To make a nomination, go here.

The Reason

The reason for the Million Writers Award is that most of the major literary prizes for short fiction (such as the Best American Short Stories series and the O. Henry Awards) have traditionally ignored web-published fiction. This award aims to show that world-class fiction is being published online and to promote this fiction to the larger reading and literary community.

How It Works

The Million Writers Award takes its name from the idea that we in the online writing community have the power to promote the great stories we are creating. If only a few hundred writers took the time to tell fifteen of their friends about a great online short story--and if these friends then passed the word about this fiction to their friends (and so on and so on)--this one story would soon have a larger readership than all of the stories in Best American Short Stories.

To help promote online stories, the Million Writers Award accepts nominations from readers, writers, and editors (and the volunteer preliminary judges who assist with the award). There is no entry fee.

Prizes

Last year there were three cash prizes: $500 for the overall winner, $200 for the runner-up, and $100 for the honorable mention/third place. The majority of this prize money was raised through donations from writers, editors and readers.

The 2010 Million Writers Award is starting off with an award base of $100, which has been donated by Jason Sanford and Spring Garden Press (storySouth's publisher), along with a few small donations which came in too late to be given for last year's award. To help raise the amount we can give for prize money, we are seeking additional donations. To donate, go here.

Please note that since these donations do not go through Spring Garden Press (storySouth's publisher), donations are not tax deductible. However, the entire donated amount will be used for prize money, minus the small fee PayPal deducts for transmitting the money.

All donors will have the option of having their name and donation listed on the Million Writers Award page. Donors may also remain anonymous.

Please note that the all prizes will be transferred to the winners by PayPal. In order to receive the prize money, winners must have a PayPal account.

Best Online Publication Award

In addition to the award for best fiction, the online magazine or journal that ends up with the most stories selected as "Notable Stories of the Year" will be honored as the year's best publication for online fiction.

Why Should I Do This?

The general gripe among writers is that no one pays attention to quality writings, while bad or mediocre writings get lots of attention because they are published in prestigious magazines or written by authors who are good at gaining media attention. This award is about countering this trend by promoting the best online writers.

The Rules

1) Only stories first published in online literary journals, magazines, and e-zines that have an editorial process, during the 2009 calendar year, are eligible for nomination. This means that an editor must have selected the story for publication. Self-published stories are not eligible. Stories published in the online versions of print journal or magazines are eligible provided that the online version of the journal or magazine is accessible by the general public, and the story was first published in their online edition. Stories reprinted online, but originally published in a print edition, are not eligible.

2) Anyone may nominate ONE story for the award. This means that readers of magazines can nominate one story and that writers can nominate one their own stories, provided the story was published in 2009 in an online magazine. Editors of online magazines and journals can nominate up to THREE of the stories published in their magazine during 2009.

3) To be eligible for nomination, a story must be longer than 1,000 words.

4) In addition to nominations from writers, readers, and editors, the Million Writers Award also uses preliminary judges to nominate stories for the award and to screen nominations from writers, readers, and editors. The names of the preliminary judges will be released after the award has been announced.

5) From all of the nominees, the judges will select the "Notable Stories of the Year." From this list of notable stories, Jason Sanford, a founding editor of storySouth, will chose the top ten stories of the year. The overall winner of the year's award will be selected by a public vote from among the top ten stories of the year. The public vote will use a secure voting system.

6) The online journal or magazine gaining the most "notable story" selections will be named as the Million Writers Award publication of the year. The editors will also select one publication as the Million Writers Award new magazine or journal of the year. Other awards for excellence may also be given out, if the editors feel there is a reason for doing so (such as highlighting a journal or magazine for doing something new or unusual which added to the overall prestige of online publishing).

7) Nominations of stories will begin January 30, 2010 and end February 28, 2010. The list of notable stories of the year will be released by April 1, 2010, with the top ten stories released by the first of May. Voting on the top story of the year will last for one month 16 days from May 16 through May 31.

8) Any attempt by writers to distort or manipulate the public vote will result in the disqualification of their respected stories. Writers are allowed to promote their own stories during the vote and to ask others to vote for them. Attempts to repeatedly vote for their own story or to compromise the secure voting system will result in disqualification. The editors of storySouth have final authority to determine if any writer is attempting to distort or manipulate the public vote and the editors' decisions regarding disqualification are final and can not be appealed.

To Nominate a Story

To nominate a story, readers and editors will submit their name, a valid e-mail address, the name of the nominated author, the name of the magazine or journal, and a URL hyperlink to the story. The URL must go directly to the story's page in the online magazine or journal that originally published it. Links to author home pages where the story is posted are not eligible. DO NOT e-mail the entire story to any storySouth editor. Doing so will guarantee that a story is not considered for the award.

To nominate a story, go here.

Please make sure that the e-mail you use to nominate a story is the same e-mail the judges can contact you with later on. Your e-mail address will only be used to contact you with information about the award and the winners. It will not be given out to anyone else.

How Can I Help?

If you want to help promote this award and online writers in general, please pass the word about this contest or link to this page. Also, please consider supporting the Million Writers Award by making a donation to help increase the award money we give out.

For more information, please e-mail Jason Sanford at lapthai@yahoo.com.