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RAC competition Closing 11th September

edited September 2014 in Writing
A question to anyone else who submitted an entry to the RAC competition, on Driving in Europe, on line. There seemed to be no confirmation of the entry being made on the web page and no confirmation email. Did anyone else find this? I wouldn't want to duplicate the entry unnecessarily.

http://www.rac.co.uk/short-story

Comments

  • When I submitted mine just now, the following message came up:

    Thank you for entering the RAC Driving Abroad short story competition. Your story has been received. Good Luck!
  • Thanks for that. I have re-submitted after a little re-drafting
  • Good luck with it!
  • Does anyone know if the results are out yet? I haven't been able to find anything relevant on line.
  • It says "The Winner will be notified by telephone by the Promoter within 7 days of the Closing Date for the Promotion" that was in September.
  • I assumed that an announcement would appear later on together with the opportunity to read the winning story. Do please let us all know if any of you spot anything.
  • I imagined they'd do that too as it would give them more publicity. I suppose they still might.
  • Website says - Apologies, this competition closed at 9am on the 11th September 2014. The Winner and the two runners up will be published shortly.
  • The mystery deepens! My email to the organiser mentioned in the competition briefing bounced back to me and one to a contact given on the RAC website has so far received no reply. If the competition was intended to generate publicity for the organisation, it's not doing a very good job!
  • RAC apologises for the delay and the winner and runners up will be published shortly. http://www.rac.co.uk/short-story
  • That's the same message I saw in early November.
  • They've picked the winner and two runners up and will publish the details in the near future.
  • Excellent. Do you know where the details will be published?
  • edited December 2014
    I spoke to someone regarding the competition today; they apologised for the delay. I believe it was was due to a change in personnel. I gather the judge, Ben Hatch, will tweet the winner / runners up and I assume it will be published on the website.
  • So the winner hasn't been notified yet?

    Wonder what happens if they've already submitted it or even had it accepted elsewhere? As the rules state winners will be notified within 7 days of the closing date (September) that's quite likely.
  • Just read the winning stories and loved the first two particularly. Well worth a read, if you haven't already.
  • I think the winning story was justly so; it was clearly better than my entry (The Driver).
  • So you were runner up, cc?

    That's excellent - well done!
    (Unless I've misread your post, in which case commiserations!)
  • Oh, well done, CC! I hadn't realised that was you.
  • Well done, CC. :)
  • Well done, Cheshire Cheese! I loved the way you wove golfing terminology into your story. Very clever!
  • Thanks. The vouchers came as a nice Christmas present. Any idea if they should be declared to HMRC?
  • Yes, they should if you're a writer.
  • I think it depends on whether you have a regular income from writing, in which case you should include them. If not, I think you could just count them as a prize, which wouldn't normally be taxed.
  • I read somewhere that you should add it in the other information section. As prizes from competitions are tax free.
  • They're tax free for 'normal' people, but if you're a writer they're considered part of your income.

    If in any doubt though, ask the tax office. Once you can get hold of someone, they're usually very helpful.
  • To date I have not had income as a writer, but 'normal' ...
  • That said, I do declare a small but regular income from advertising revenue on YouTube videos.
  • If you're not registered as a writer, haven't previously had any writing income and don't claim back any writing related expenses then you might not count as a writer for tax purposes.
  • I won a writing competition a few years ago and phoned HMRC about this. I had a load of work-related expenses to claim tax on and a small amount to pay on other things. I'm not a writer, so they didn't ask me to pay any tax on the prize. There are guidelines on the HMRC website somewhere.
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