Contest Information

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The Crossquarter Annual
Short Science Fiction Contest

NOTE: 7,500 words.

Get those stories up to speed, & send them in! Here's a summary of the rules:

• Deadline: all submissions must be officially POSTMARKED by the deadline.
• A submission form is required, as well as the $15 reading fee.
• Awards: cash amounts for 1st through 4th, plus publication for up to 15 stories, and special recognition award for a young writer (under 16). CQtr reserves the right to not award a specific place/special recognition if the judges deem that no entries were appropriate for the award.
• Every accepted entry will receive a copy of the anthology.
• Judging: all submitted stories will be rated as to: fitting with the competition theme; quality as a stand-alone story; mechanical finish (spelling, grammar, continuity, etc.).
• Award letters will be mailed approximately four (4) months after the deadline, with the official release date of the anthology about three months later.

You can request an entry packet with the submission form by sending a #10 SASE to:

Short Science Fiction Story Contest

Crossquarter Publishing Group

PO Box 23749

Santa Fe, NM 87502

Or, you can print out the entry form, complete it, & return it to us.

Contest Rules

We want your original short (up to 7,500 words) science fiction stories that demonstrate the best of the human spirit. Stories may be science fiction, fantasy, or urban fantasy. No horror. No dystopia. The down-side of life is entirely too easy to imagine; we want to see writing where the author dares to envision a better world, however strange, and demonstrates the ability to make it real for the reader.

This year we are requesting electronic files of all submissions. If you are unable to send an electronic file (either on a CD or by email attachment), we will scan your manuscript. Be sure to save your file as RTF format to ensure that we can open the document. We have noticed that the new MS Office Word documents that end in docx will NOT open on our system.

Your entry must be original, unpublished & unproduced, not accepted by any other publisher or producer at the time of submission. However, stories previously printed for copies only or for less than $10 are acceptable, provided all copyrights have reverted to you. Examples would be school newspapers, zines, & blogs. (You must, though, include information on where & when previously printed.)

The Official Entry Form is required, along with $15 readers fee for the first submission and $10 for each additional submission (check, money order, Visa, Mastercard, or American Express). We also accept PayPal payments at sales@crossquarter.com. You only need one entry form if you are submitting multiple entries.

Everyone who submits will receive one copy of the anthology, limited to one copy (regardless of the number of stories entered). Extra copies will be available at a reduced price.

If you mail a hardcopy, then your submission should be typewritten (machine-printed) on 8" x 11" (or comparable standard "typewriter"-sized sheets) white paper. Your name, address, phone number, & word count must appear in the upper-left-hand corner of the first page. Staple or paperclip the pages together.

Team writing is acceptable, but only one copy of the anthology will be sent. The "team leader" should complete the Official Entry Form.

Awards: 1st place $250 plus publication, 2nd place $125 plus publication, 3rd place $75 plus publication, 4th place $50 plus publication, 5th through15th honorable mention plus publication. Byline given. Publisher (that's us) buys all rights for five years (an early buy-out is negotiable, should you make the big time).

Every entry will be read by the judges. Judges' decisions are final. Judges reserve the right to award more than one entry per placement (which is a fancy way of saying that entries might tie for a given place among the winners).