~WINNERS~

WHAT IT IS: The Silver Quill Award is a writing award offered monthly by The Courtyard. I am also the Aquisitions Editor for Roberts Publishing, and LOVE seeing some of the new work that crosses my desk! This contest will give you, the writers, an opportunity to compete, and be recognized for your work, as well as published should you win. It is also be a way for you to all connect with your fellow writers each month as you read through their works, and submit your own. This is a fun competition for any writer, new or professional, who wishes to enter. We accept only short stories up to 3,000 words, and poetry rhyming and non-rhyming up to 25 lines. Each month I will make suggestions to writers for possible topics of their stories, like romance stories, period pieces, mysteries, etc...These specific categories are only meant as a suggestion, and you are welcome to submit work that does not fall into those specific suggestions. The deadline for each month is the 25th. This means your work must be RECEIVED by the 25th of that month. Any number of winners will be chosen and notified as soon as possible. With the increasing number of entries pouring in each month, I have discontinued a notification date. Winners will now be notified as soon as all entries are read. We reserve the right not choose a winner, if we feel that the quality of the works submitted were not up to our standards. Keep in mind, this is a monthly contest, and those who do not win one month are more than welcome to submit again in a new category the very next month. WHAT YOU'LL WIN: Each winner will also receive the following: ~ One month online publication of the winning work on the website of The Courtyard ~ A certificate marking your accomplishment as a Silver Quill winner. ~ A permanant listing on the Silver Quill Winners Circle at The Courtyard which can be used as a writing reference. ~Any number of winners will be published in an electronic anthology compiled by Roberts Publishing. (* All winning entries will receive a one year contract for electronic rights only (which also inlcudes cd rights for text anthologies on cd) for work to be included in an anthology. All editorial, marketing, book cover design, and editorial content is at the sole discretion of Roberts Publishing. By entering this competition, you are agreeing to these terms, should your work be chosen as a winner.) Entries that are not submitted properly, do not include an entry fee or otherwise do not follow submission guidelines will be automatically disqualified. FEES? Due to the extreme popularity of the Competitions page since it's debut on the site, I can only assume you writers out there are anxious to submit your work, and I was excited to be able to offer you a way to do this, by creating The Silver Quill Award. For my part, I will need to charge a $3 submission fee for each work you submit (OR, $.700 for three submissions if you would like to submit three entries at once). This is very nominal, and can be paid either by check or money order. To pay by check or money order, you need to send your entry to me in regular mail or send me an email entry and let me know that you have sent the fee in regular mail. Fees must be received BY the 25th of the month. Please make the check payable to Erica Davis. HOW TO ENTER: The work should be no longer than 3,000 words for short stories or 26 lines for poetry. Please include a word count when you send in your entry. Max. 10 entries per person, and you must include $3.00 for each entry or $7.00 for three entries submitted in one month. EMAIL ENTRIES: I would like to add that we REALLY prefer email entries if at all posssible. Also, we no longer accept file attachments. You may only paste your story into a body of an email. If the story is too long, you may send it in two emails, please just state that that is what you are doing so we do not lose half of it! You may include your entry in the body of your email. In your email please include your name, mailing address, email address, and word count of the entry. If you are submitting more than one entry, please send them in separate emails, with the word count for each one listed in the email with the title. Include a title and word count for every entry as well as the category each entry is being submitted to. See sample entry below. EMAIL ENTRIES TO: LdyHomewrd@aol.com SNAIL MAIL ENTRIES Snail mail entries must be typed. Double or single spaced. If more than one page, please staple them together. Now, you must also send your work on disk, in any of these formats (Word Perfect, Word, ASCII text, or Rich Text Format). Include your name, address, email address, title of work(s) and word counts, along with check or money order payable to Erica Davis. Please put your name and the title of your work on every page you submit, this is in case they should get mixed up, we want to make sure the right pages are put back together! If you would like your entry returned, please include a self addressed stamped envelope with an adequate amount of postage, otherwise it will not be sent back to you after the contest is over. SEND ENTRIES TO: The Silver Quill Award Erica Davis PMB 529 197 Woodland Pkwy. Ste.104 San Marcos, CA 92069 SAMPLE EMAIL ENTRY Name: Jane Doe Address: 555 Big Old Street, Plainville, CA 55555 Email: Janedoe@somesite.com Title of entry: Watching Mr. Peabody Wordcount: 2300 wds. Payment method: Example "I sent you a check today." drop a line or two. begin story. NOTIFICATION: The winners will be notified via email. The winners will also receive their winner's certificates within a few weeks of winning. (**"The Silver Quill Award," reserves the right not to choose a winner should the works submitted in a given month not meet our standards. The "Silver Quill" also reserves the right to cancel the competition for a given month, and if this should occur all entry fees will be returned to you.) I'm thinking about going to... The Silver Quill Anthology released its SECOND EDITION!!! To buy, "DAWN," go to www.robertspublishing.com right now!