The Rules for the Bear With Me Books Short Story Competition 2019

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Please read these rules carefully before entering our competition:

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1. The closing date for entries is April 5th, 2019 at midnight GMT.

2. The maximum length of submissions is 3,000 words, there is no minimum story length. 

3. Stories must have an ecological/environmental theme, and can be in any genre.

4. Online entries should be submitted via the Bear With Me Books short story competition submission page as a PDF or DOCX.

5. The Bear With Me Books Short Story Competition is open to all published and unpublished writers. This competition is open to writers from any geographical location, but all entries must be in English.

6. Entrants will be asked to pay the £5 submission fee for each story they enter for the Bear With Me Books Short Story Competition. There are no limits to the number of submissions writers can make. Payment for entries must be made through the Bear With Me Books Website. After submitting your story you will be directed to the PayPal website where you will be asked to pay the £5 submission fee. Failure to make this payment will result in the submitted story being withdrawn.

7. Bear With Me Books cannot accept any corrections or alterations to any story after it has been submitted.

8. Entries must never have been previously published, in print or online, and must not have won a prize in another writing competition. If a submitted story is found to be plagiarised, it will be withdrawn. If your story is going to be published, in print or online, before winners are announced, let us know and we will withdraw it from the Bear With Me Books Short Story Competition – also, congratulations on getting published!

9. We want your stories to be anonymous when judging, so please do not include your name, address or contact details in document containing your story. The name, contact details and story details of entrants should only appear together on the entry form when submitting a story.

10. Online entries will be acknowledged by email. If any entrant does not receive an email acknowledgement within one week of submitting their story, they may contact: mike@bearwithmebooks.com

11. Judging will be done by Bear With Me Books personnel and Andrew Barlow, writer of Warblegrub & the Forbidden Planet, and Bear With Me Books’ first published writer. We will be unable to provide individual feedback for all stories submitted.

12. Winners will be announced on April 22nd. Winning stories will be published on the Bear With Me Books Website for Earth Day, April 22nd, 2019. Bear With Me Books Short Story Competition winners will also be promoted through the Writers for a Sustainable Futures group as part of their Eco-fiction writing challenge.

13. All entrants must agree to have their work published on the Bear With Me Books website. Authors will retain worldwide copyright on their work, but Bear With Me Books has first publication rights to publish the winning stories online.

14. Prizes for this competition are: 1st prize-£50, 2nd prize -£25, 3rd prize -£15. All prizes payments will be made within one month of winners being announced.

15. Bear With Me Books will not be able to refund any withdrawn stories after the closing date of the Bear With Me Books Short Story Competition – April 5th.

16. Entrants will be asked to read these rules before submitting their story, if there is any element of the rules that needs clarification, please inform mike@bearwithmebooks.com, failure to tick the appropriate box on the submission form to state that you have understood and accept these rules will result in your story being withdrawn from the Bear With Me Books Short Story Competition.