The Genre Contest 2019 [ J U D G I N G]

Questions

Everyone has questions. It's not uncommon and we'll try to answer them all. Never be afraid to ask!

1. Why isn't the submission form on Wattpad?

While we would love to be able to put it here, we also want to make the contest as easy as possible, for you and the judges! This allows us to collect all of the answers in one place, and nicely and neatly to avoid any confusion.

2. Is there any limitation to what I can write?

This contest is supposed to allow you to submit what YOU want. You can write whatever you'd like, so long as it follows a short list of guidelines that has been published. We're trying to make this contest as user friendly and open prompt as possible. There are no word count limits, no part count limits, so you can write and have fun with whatever you want!

3. How do I know that you've received my submission?

Our main judge has tested the submission form many times. We assure you, as long as you have an internet connection, we will receive it. You can also check our reading lists that are updated every once in a while!

4. What are you judging us on?

While it would be unfair to divulge our specific rubric, we can offer a slice of information that will be helpful: we judge on grammar, sentence structure, capitalization, punctuation and all of the things that a normal English teacher would score you on. We also look for creativity and attention to detail, plot and story.

5. Who's judging?

We've been recruiting authors. We have four judges so far, including our founder. We promise that we have some of the best people that we have contact with judging your entries.

6. Why can't my story have been published in 2018 or earlier?

We would love brand new stories, and this is the 2019 awards. Having anything other than that would totally defeat the purpose of stating the year in our book. As long as it hasn't been published before 2029, it's eligible. Plus, we want stories to become popular in 2019 that are written in 2019!

7. Can it have mature content?

Absolutely. We do not work strictly by Wattpad's rules, though it would be amazing if there was a disclaimer before any extreme mature content. Sexual content, depressing content, and suicidal content is welcome, but not EXPLICITLY. We implore you to be free in writing, and wish that you will have the chance to express yourself like you want to.

8. Why is the period of submission so long?

We want to let you have as long of a period to draft, write, and edit. Remember, all stories have to be written and published in 2019. We love it when writers wait right up to the deadline to submit their work because they've been editing and revising and everything. We love early submissions too!

9. How do I get the link to my story?

It should be easy. Here's the step by step for mobile devices and desktops:
1. Open your browser
2. Go to Wattpad.com
3. Login (if not done so already)
4. Go to your works
5. Click on the story that you wish to submit
6. Copy the link
7. Paste it on the form

10. Can I enter more than one story?

When the idea for this contest was being developed, the answer was no. We were going to start out small this year and only allow one submission per person. Due to our lack of rules and trying to cut them down as much as possible to allow our writers to write whatever they want, we forgot to include this rule. So, submit as many stories as you'd like, we'll judge them all, though you can only win with a single story. (You may win more, depending on if there are any other stories in the genre that you entered.)

11. Can we keep editing and adding chapters after we've submitted our story?

This is a little hard, because we've allowed it up until now and we've answered a question allowing it, but here's the problem with adding chapters. When you fill out the form saying that either "Yes, it's complete", or "No, it isn't", then that is going to be there and we'll see that as incomplete.

You don't have to change your form or make a new one, but for future submissions, wait as long as possible until it's complete. If it's coming up on the deadline, go ahead and submit it.

Editing and correcting already existing parts is perfectly fine, and we encourage you to make sure that you submit the best story that you can.

12. I submitted my story. Why do I have to re-submit?

We realized that when we added genres in the Primary and Secondary genre categories, there were too few, and other problems. So, please re-submit your entry, and we'll judge them.

13. Will certain genres be closed after so many entries?

Nope! We'll take as many as we can get! Even if there's thirty submissions in a genre, we won't close it down and take it off of the submission form. Don't worry about rushing to get into a certain genre, because they'll all be open until August 1st!

14. Why was the submission date shortened?

We have so many entries now, and Emma can't keep up with all of the things happening, so we can't keep them open for as long as we wanted to. It's very unfortunate, because we wanted to.

More questions will be answered all the time!