Read the current TSM Writing Contest submissions HERE.
Who is ready for the next Traveling Stories Magazine writing contest?
Our last contest was a serious success with over 50 original stories being submitted. These are stories that would otherwise remain untold, but with a little motivating cold hard cash (always a soft spot for travelers) and a supportive community providing feedback, many are finally finding it within them to tell their cherished tales.
Photo: Flickr/Charlie2.0
This winter’s contest is going to have a $150 prize which will be determined by what I believe to be an interesting voting system. The contest will run from January 8th through February 28th with a winner being announced on March 14th. The top 3 reader voted stories will then be sent to a committee composed of 3 Online traveling magazines as well as the 2 previous contest winners.
Designing a voting system is always challenging. This contest’s votes will be centered around the social bookmarking site Digg.com. When a link is submitted to Digg.com, hundreds and sometimes thousands of readers come to the site to read the story. If they like the story they will vote (by clicking the digg button) which will encourage even more Digg.com users to read the story.
The beauty of this system (hopefully) is three fold:
1. Dilutes the impact of any single person trying to impact the votes as thousands of people will be participating
2. It exposes the travel writing of TSM participants (which a major goal of the writers), and
3. It spreads the word of the writing contest which will encourage more submissions. I love win-win models and hopefully this will prove to be one of them.
The submission deadline for this writing contest is February 15, 2008, and the winner will be announced on February 28th, 2008.
What is the purpose of this contest? To motivate travelers who are full of enlightening stories to actually put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and tell their tales to the world. Share your adventures, impart your wisdom, and encourage others to follow in your footsteps. After all, you would never go on a journey and return without telling anybody about it, would you?
What does it take to enter? Simply put, it takes a great, well-written story or article. Be interesting. Be informative. Be entertaining.
What does it take to win? Votes by readers. Each reader may vote for your story or article by clicking the Digg.com button. Feel free start the ball rolling yourself. Link your story from your own website. Submit the link to social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, Digg, StumbledUpon, etc. Create a buzz about your submission!
What is expected of submissions? Your submission can take the form of either a traveling story or a traveling article. You could provide travel advice, or address philosophical questions pertaining to the traveling community. Please consider replacing profane expressions with milder ones to appeal to a wider readership. A translation of foreign language expressions is appreciated (in brackets).
Upon submission, your story will be reviewed for quality and originality, after which you will be contacted (within 3 days) to be notified of your publishing date. Minor editing may occur to match our format.
Specifications for submissions are as follows:
Photo:Flickr/Sagar Shresta
1. Submissions must be flawlessly written, be of high quality, and be between 300-1000 words.
2.Submissons should be concise and creative without being destination based.
3. Submissions must include a brief bio (you may include a website if you have one) which will be added to the end of your travel story or article.
4. Submissions can include a photograph. The photograph does not necessarily have to be your own, but proper credit must be given to the photographer for the submission to be accepted. An excellent resource to find related photographs is flickr.com.
What will you gain by submitting to the TSM Writing Contest, besides a chance at the $150?
1. Instant exposure for your travel writing, including traffic for your website or blog from TSM Online.
2. Constructive feedback from the Traveling Stories Magazine community.
3. And the supreme motivation of the chance at winning $150 USD!
