OMFG... Do I dare wait until October 1 to submit my rigger story, or should I submit it to the General?

Oooh... Tough one.

(This would be a diabolical plan to get more fiction, or probably none at all.)

No, each contest is an individual contest with individual prize awarded. Participate in as many or as few as you wish. The specific topics were to help overcome writers block and for fans to make suggestions they want to read.

Topics are still open for suggestion, as I have many books I can put up for prizes. If it looks like I'll run out, I'll get some more. If other people want to help sponsor prizes, I'm sure we can work it out. Maybe even award some second place prizes if there are some really outstanding entries and/or lots of entries.

And just a reminder, because it keeps getting omitted, Title your story and include it with your submission.

There are currently 6 contests with deadlines, and I don't see any from you in my messages, so I can just block you.

Those 6 are yours. I was talking about you and the official contest. If there are four more people running contests, I must have missed them.

*groans*

No thanks. I prefer my own "set of core characters."

Oh, and it's pretty much never going to happen where someone wins both because if E or someone else at Fanpro found out about the dual submission they'd probably shitcan it and save themselves any potential trouble. I can't send a letter to the editor of multiple papers without someone getting their nipple twisted, and this is for a prize.

For the record, FanPro is not holding a contest - what has been posted on the official website are "submission guidelines for website fiction". As such there is no competition nor are there any "winners", only submissions that are accepted and those that are rejected.

The guidelines provided are in many respects similar to the normal freelancer submission guidelines and reflect the normal weeding process developers have to go through on SR books: first you submit an outline/synopsis for review and then, if it's approved, you are asked to write up the full story. Submissions picked up by FanPro are to be compensated with complementary book(s) as payment (rather than as a prize) and published on the official website (becoming the property of FanPro LLC).

Open website fiction submissions were something that was planned long before SR4 came out (in fact something similar was in the works for SR3 when SR4 was announced) and were put on a backburner given the need to first establish the 2070's setting and provide potential writers with some foundations to build on.

Unsaid is the fact that these open submissions allow FanPro to sound out potential talents as to their grip and understanding of the setting, its themes and style as FanPro sees it. So those of you interested in getting your toe in the door towards freelancing on Shadowrun books in the future, this provides an ideal opportunity to showcase your work.

Regarding the references to core characters, this simply goes to the fact that SR4 will be addressing some of the problems inherent to the old Shadowland format (such as the proliferation of one-post shadowtalkers, the open-access nature of the posting system and lack of character identification this led too) by focusing on a core group of runners and developing these characters in relevant fiction as well as the setting. This does not mean that these will be the sole protagonists or even the main ones, but hopefully they will become the kind of signature characters people fondly remember from the days of SR1.

Ok, so the difference is I am publishing all submissions here on Dumpshock and FanPro is only showing the ones they are buying with complimentary product. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it may be a duck.

I think I mentioned this part, you ignore how it differs from the norm and how, IMO, it looked familiar to the guidelines for my (non)contest. (Yes, I think I'm going to call this something other than a contest since it is getting "published" online. Then all the submissions can claim a writing credit, too.

So the stories I feel are acceptable are now going to be compensated with complimentary book(s) as payment (rather than prize) [quack, quack ], published on Dumpshock, and perhaps some of the other websites that have queried, but the author will retain all rights.

This rights thing kind of pisses me off. Yeah, it is a good way to get your foot in the door to write for low pay. But, what if your story is great, turns out to be the premise for The Shadowrun Movie, that spawns the whole series of Movies, comic books, and TV spinoffs? (Far Fetched, but maybe not so.) You get nada, not a friggin' dime more than that complimentary book. If FanPro wanted to be ethical, like an actual magazine publisher of short story fiction, the rights would be for first run of the material, or limited to the media it was published. This is where the moneygrubbing slight comes in. Sure, as a negotiator, I would want as much as possible for as little as possible (which FanPro's deal has in spades, it would be hard to get a worse deal), but they are structuring this deal like all their other submissions and it should be structured differently.

FanPro has open submissions for everything! It must. All the work is done by freelancers. All the work is done by one full time person and a majority of work by freelancers. Thanks for the selective history for the uninitiated.

Agreed, it is the main incentive for tolerating exploitation. Established writers may enter stories they have already written, or write on going after a credit (that looks good on a submission for work that actually pays), but if they do it for the compensation being offered, they value their labor on par with contest entrants. (quack, quack)

Winterhawk11, Robyn, explained this in the other thread. Labeling them core characters is misleading, and until explained, totally confusing the matter. If 2 or 3 people can not brain storm a better term, I would not want them to be the guiding creative force behind my product.

Thanks for posting, Synner. I am glad you cleared things up, especially how the official FanPro short story submissions is far superior to my little, two bit fiction contests. I doubt anyone associated with FanPro, or looking for writers would ever waste their time actually reading any of the submissions to my contest, after all, they are all about abandoned product. But I have a feeling they are...

Please remember that FanPro doesn't own the rights to Shadowrun, and that rights ownership issues are not dictated by FanPro.

I hope I said, I find the whole thing humorous, and I like the possibility of more fiction, especially essentially free fiction.

I don't think it is us versus them, or a competition. And my post was in general just good natured bitching, if that is possible, and complaining. I was trying to point out some semantics and just plain antics. (Also, it seems like a lopsided deal, as I hear the entire RPG freelancer industry is.) If it causes FanPro (or whomever) to rethink their policy, or writers to negotiate the rights they are selling, I have succeeded. As it is, I think FanPro or WizKids or whoever owns/controls them will just tell the writer to not bother submitting. One of the submissions I got, I told the writer he would not win, as it didn't conform to my guidelines. It is still going to be entered though, to be enjoyed by everyone.

The fiction ownership issue I'm sure is more boilerplate. I could substitute WizKids for FanPro, but then I might still be wrong and it should be whatever company owns them. Sorry for perpetuating the fallicy, but I think readers understood the writer was giving up ownership to a business entity for little compensation. In fact, I haven't thoroughly read all the Dumpshock fine print to see if my posting the submissions here gives ownership of the stories to Dumpshock. Please notify me if this is the case!

Damn, I keep wanting to keep these short and simple, because it is not a big deal to me as I know how I will deal with the issue, but I am not sure if others see the ramifications I try to point out. It's all good, but maybe not as good as it seems. (My 2 bit contest included.)

Certainly not the case.

Nope, the difference is that a contest by definition is a competition, where there is a winner or winners (those that get the prizes) and there are runners up (who might get some prizes) and there are those that lose (and don't get prizes).
Normally someone gets to judge submissions to whatever standards and pick the best of the lot, I had assumed that would be the case with your fiction contest. From all I've read of this and your previous thread I had been lead to believe this was what was intended, that you were (laudably) promoting a fiction writing contest (and even more laudably were giving out prizes from your own pocket). I apologize if I misunderstood your intent.

I attempted to clarify the distinction. FanPro has made an open call for submissions for website fiction. There is no competition involved (nor as far as I can see any conflict with what you're doing). Any submission that follows the guidelines will be accepted and reviewed. If it is then green-lighted, it gets published, and the author gets a complementary copy of a book instead of monetary compensation. As Robyn explained elsewhere, potentially all submissions that meet the guidelines could eventually be published (if they're good enough) - as such there is no competition involved. FanPro is specifically looking for fiction to complement the SR4 setting and writers who seem to have a handle on the new style and feel (which is why this is a condition of the guidelines).

As for the low pay and rights, I'm pretty sure you'd be in for an even greater shock if you actually ever submitted for a book. Nobody writes for RPGs for the money.

I have a number of unfinished short stories in my folders, but the vast majority of unfinished drafts I have lying round are bits and pieces of setting material. However, that's not what is really keeping me from submitting - I simply don't have the time at this point to polish any of those into shape - otherwise I would have submitted. Though if I did, you can be sure it wouldn't be for the prize or recognition.

No. When all I have to go on is the little timeline blub that I vaguely remember from the beginning of SR3 it dosen't exactly inspire me to write a story.

Besides, I'm planning to write one for "initiation" instead.

Really, what more do you need to know to write a story taking place that night? Create a character and put them in the situation. I even gave hints for different types of characters. I thought this would be one of the easier topics to write, so put it first.

A well written piece demonstrating such characteristics of humanity is when mere fiction transforms itself into literature.

What courage and artistic integrity. Voltaire would be proud.

Even more reason not to. I'd just fuck it up.

Well, that is a better reason.

What if you meet your dream date tonight and they want to watch it with you?

Thanks for relieving some worry about a total flop of a contest.

My real question here is how many General submissions have there been? =) I submitted one and was curious if there was some sort of cut-off for submissions. The post mentioned that once 10 were received they would be posted, so I'm curious how many have been submitted.

Inquiring minds want to know. =)