​Our competitions exist to encourage and reward writing

You are invited to enter our

OPEN SHORT STORY COMPETITION 2021

Judged by Helen Baggott

Six prizes to be awarded:
£100 First, £70 Second, £30 Third 
two 'Highly Commended' each win 2022 comp free entry
and a charitable donation will be made*

2,500 words maximum

closes Thursday 22nd July 2021

Entry fee: £3.00 for one entry,
£5.00 for two, £2.50 thereon

There is no theme for this competition, you can write anything you like.
No minimum word count, maximum 2,500 words.

See full details in our RULES OF ENTRY below.

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​We are delighted Helen Baggott is our judge.                                                                                                      
                                                                                            

Helen Baggott is a freelance editor and writer. Her first short story success was with 
​Writers' Forum in the late 1990s. Since then she has also written articles for magazines with a focus on history and genealogy. Her latest book, Posted in the Past, has been featured in Family Tree magazine, the i newspaper, and has been a bestseller on Amazon.

Helen enjoys reading short fiction and has worked on a number of collections. Judging a short story competition is, she says, a stimulating and challenging experience. 

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RULES OF ENTRY

1) Entry by email only to erewashwriterscomps2@gmail.com. 

We are currently not accepting postal entries but are hopeful we can receive postal entries from January 2021. 
If you would prefer to enter via post, please email Debbie at erewashwriterscomps2@gmail.com

Please follow link to complete our entry form details then paste them into the body of an email:
https://erewashwriterscompetition.weebly.com/entry-form-open-short-story-competition-with-helen-baggott.html
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2 How to present your entry

Attachments are acceptable for this competition.
Entries written in to the body of an email are acceptable for this competition.
All entries must be in English.
Double line spacing is preferable.
Use a font size of 12 or 14.
Include word count at the end of your entry and on the entry form.
Don't include your name on any page of your entry, only on the entry form.
Page number and title of entry is permitted on each page. 
As entries will be judged anonymously you must ensure the entry form is completed. It is acceptable
to key the details on the form into the body of an email. You can find the entry form using this link: 
​https://erewashwriterscompetition.weebly.com/entry-form-open-short-story-competition-with-helen-baggott.html

If you have any problems email Debbie at erewashwriterscomps2@gmail.com


3 (i) How to send your email entry to us

Submit your entry by email only.  We're not currently accepting postal entries although we are hoping this will change in 2021.  If we do later accept postal entries, we will put the address into these rules of entry.

It is acceptable to write your entry into the body of an email following your entry form details, or you may prefer to attach it to an email with your entry form details in the body of the email.

If you choose to attach your entry, please send each entry as a separate attachment in WORD and make sure the title of the attachment or file is exactly the same as the story title you put on the entry form.  It is possible we may contact you to ask you convert your entry to a more appropriate format if there are problems reading your entry.

Attachments will be opened when your payment has cleared.  Expect a slight delay between sending your entry and confirmation of receipt. For this reason, we suggest the earlier you send your entry, the better it will be for your peace of mind and will help our admin process.  Entries sent in the last few minutes may have problems reaching us in time.  Entries are not read in the order they are received.  You may decide sending your entry in at the last minute suits you better but we advise, as it will not be the last entry read by our team of readers and we would rather NOT have to manage receipt of your entry in the last minute, please try to send your entry in earlier if at all possible.  

You can currently pay using Paypal or bank transfer.  Email Debbie for the information you need to make a payment.

3 (ii) Entry by by post: We are not currently accepting postal entries although we may do so in 2021, depending on what is happening with Coronvirus.  Our website will be updated if we are to allow postal entries in 2021.


4 Entries will be acknowledged 

Your email address is seen by only our competition organiser and is not passed to anyone. It is used only to contact entrants to confirm receipt of entry, to inform of our further competitions and to confirm to the winner they have won.  We will endeavour to email you as soon as we can, but sometimes delays will occur.


5 Content of your entry

It is an OPEN themed competition. You can write about anything.


6 Word count

No minimum word count, maximum 2,500 words, not including title. This means you can write any amount of words but must not exceed 2,500 words.  Please ensure you include the word count on your entry form and at the end of your entry.


7 Fee to enter this competition

£3.00 for one entry, £5.00 for two entries, £2.50 per entry thereon. We currently only accept payment by Paypal or bank transfer. If you are not in the UK and wish to pay via Paypal, please add £1.00 to your total amount.  Only Debbie will have sight of payment information.  

You can enter as many times as you wish but only one entry per entrant can win a prize. Every entry must be accompanied by the appropriate payment.

If you wish to pay by Paypal, please email your entry form and entry first, then contact Debbie for the Paypal address.  Please ensure you add £1.00 to pay online via Paypal if you are not in the UK. You're welcome to email Debbie if you want to clarify the total amount payable before making payment.  If we only receive a part-payment from you, it is possible your entry may not be included in the competition but we will retain the part-payment.
Email Debbie for the bank transfer details, again, after your entry form and entry has been emailed.


8 Entrants can be any age

All entries will be judged anonymously and no allowance made for age.


9 Publication of winning entries

We will publish winning entries on this website for those placed first, second and third.  We will remove at a later date if required to do so. You are welcome to put a link to your blog, website or email with your winning entry if you wish (subject to editorial approval).  Winners may also be mentioned by us on Twitter.

Website pages and blog
http://erewashwriterscompetition.weebly.com/blog.html

Twitter @EWGCompetition       Please follow us on Twitter @EWGCompetition


10 Copyright

Copyright remains with author.


11 We only want original and non-published writing 

Please do not send entries which have been previously published. Entries must be the original work of the entrant. For this competition, we do not want to read entries found to be in print or online anywhere, including blogs.


12  Please respect our rules

Do not send entries that have received an award from other competitions, or anywhere else. Please do not send entries currently waiting to be judged in other competitions, or that have been submitted for publication and are awaiting response.  Please do not send an entry to us which you will also submit to another competition or for publication elsewhere before our competition results have been announced.


13 Closing date 

Noon (GMT) Thursday 22nd July 2021.  Entries received after this date may not be entered into the competition although we will retain the fee. Winners will be announced on this site, on or before Monday 20th September 2021.

14 Prizes

Six prizes - £100 First, £70 Second, £30 Third.  Two 'Highly Commended' each win free entry to our 2022 comp.
A charitable donation will be made* if we receive enough funds to do so.    


15 Judge's decision is final.  No correspondence will be entered into.

16 No corrections will be accepted.

17 Critique service: We can provide a basic critique for £6.00.  A detailed critique can be provided for £12.00. Email Debbie erewashwriterscomps2@gmail.com if you require this service.

18  Entry implies acceptance of the rules.

19 No refunds given. Only exception to this rule will be if we decide to cancel the competition (eg if not enough entries have been received to cover the prize fund). 

20 We donate to charity if we receive funds in excess of the prize fund. If you are aware of a small charity in the UK that would appreciate a donation from our competition if we were to make one to them, please email Debbie with full details about how and why our donation would be useful to them.

Erewash Writing Competitions is non-profit making and exists to encourage and reward writing.  If we have cash remaining after our prize fund has been paid out, we donate to a charity or voluntary organisation.

More info here about where and how we have donated cash:
​https://erewashwriterscompetition.weebly.com/about-our-charity-donations.html
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