WM Competitions

Claudia

Claudia

Does anyone know of a quick way (short of phoning) to contact the magazine with a question?  I want to know what is going to happen with the DSJT competition entries.  Does anyone know if WM will continue to publish them?  What's happened/going to happen to the ones that are already in the system?  I ask because I've been busy writing and submitting ghost/love/crime stories and now the rules have changed!  WM blithly states that they will continue to give us details of the DSJT competitions without telling us how the current entries will be handled.  (Or am I being dense and have missed something?) Incidentally, I live on the other side of the world which is why it's not so easy to pick up the phone.  Has anyone already asked WM about this?  Thanks and happy new year!

Random

Is there a link to the changes? I have not heard anything about this...

Claudia

Look under 'Competitions' to see the changes.  My point is: they haven't explained what is going to happen to the existing system.  I'm working on a couple of stories with February deadlines for the DSJT competitions and now I don't know if I should forget them!

Carol

I've just had a look, thanks for the suggestion.
It seems to suggest that they will still let people know about them, but are only going to publish their own competition winners.
Just looked at the competition supplement in November's WM to see what it says there. There appears to be a definite cut off.
The trust will be continuing, but details seem vague.
Perhaps you should e-mail the editor and ask for clarification. In the comp. supp. it's derek.hudson at writersnews.co.uk.

Claudia

Thanks for the editor's e-mail address Carol.  I'll post the feedback as and when I get a reply from him.

Random

Thanks for the tip. Took a look and it does seem as though the changes may be for the better. To be honest the stories that have won in previous issues, while without doubt being sound examples of writing, have failed to float my boat.

The only one that stands out in my mind is the "recently returned long-term kidnapp victim coming to terms with his life again" (can't remember the title).

Others have been very middle-of-the-road and not very exciting in terms of pushing writing or exploring new directions... Just my point of view of course, I am aware that there is a huge market for these types of stories and that loads of people enjoy them.

Carol

I suspect it's more to do with turn round time, and costs. If the magazine controls the competitions, they also get the money from entry fees, which previously they wouldn't have; so giving the trust all the publicity and space for the stories cost the magazine owners, money.

Claudia

Okay, I've received a reply from Derek Hudson: "It is our intention to publish winning entries in all those DSJT competitions arranged before we decided to organise our own programme.  Therefore the story with a February deadline falls into this category."
So now we know.

Ali

That's good news, since I'm thinking about entering one or two of them -- thanks for finding out, Claudia! :-)

Claudia

You're very welcome - and good luck one and all...