This fun little short story has been entered into a contest on WattPad. The synopsis is as follows:
Miram's Uncle is in the service of the Union of States, most of his job is secret. Miram longs to follow her uncle on one of his adventures. See what happens when they go in search of a Mummy! (Each chapter will be a new adventure!)
It's only 5 pages at this point, but the story is complete. Too short to sell at this point, I entered it in the contest to see how the idea would be accepted. I have done it in the Steam Punk Genre. Ultimately, I intend to flesh it out and make every new chapter a complete and new adventure.
It has well over 500 reads and a few very encouraging comments, but only 28 votes. I think it's fairly well written. I don't believe that because it's only 5 pages it's not being voted on, others in the contest are only one page. I think the content is interesting...so I tried to figure out what is holding it back.
I think in all honesty the truest answer would be apathy. We are all afflicted. I try to support my fellow authors as much as I can and I believe those are the ones that came through for me and voted. Granted I am not huge presence on WattPad. That may be the problem, I don't have the networking going for me there. The fact remains, I Tweeted the heck out of it and got over 500 reads, and of those readers only 28 finished the job and voted. It's a bit discouraging, but I believe in the story and my writing ability.
I entered another contest recently on a blog, just for fun, and it was going well until I found out you could take away votes as well as give them. I had encouraged others to join in and the same thing happened to them. Pretty silly...
So I come back to my original question, To Contest, or Not to Contest ? Does everything boil down to a popularity contest? Is it worth the trouble to enter? If the judging entity is likely to be impartial, and not associated with votes from a social site I might try again. If any one else has had this experience, I would say to them, believe in yourself and your story. I will go on to finish this story and publish it. Whether it sells or not, is another story...but I will have satisfied what I set out to do.
In the mean time, this is the link, and if you'd like to vote I would greatly appreciate it.
(http://www.wattpad.com/5547423-the-air-ship-the-time-jump-and-the-mummy )
Miram's Uncle is in the service of the Union of States, most of his job is secret. Miram longs to follow her uncle on one of his adventures. See what happens when they go in search of a Mummy! (Each chapter will be a new adventure!)
It's only 5 pages at this point, but the story is complete. Too short to sell at this point, I entered it in the contest to see how the idea would be accepted. I have done it in the Steam Punk Genre. Ultimately, I intend to flesh it out and make every new chapter a complete and new adventure.
It has well over 500 reads and a few very encouraging comments, but only 28 votes. I think it's fairly well written. I don't believe that because it's only 5 pages it's not being voted on, others in the contest are only one page. I think the content is interesting...so I tried to figure out what is holding it back.
I think in all honesty the truest answer would be apathy. We are all afflicted. I try to support my fellow authors as much as I can and I believe those are the ones that came through for me and voted. Granted I am not huge presence on WattPad. That may be the problem, I don't have the networking going for me there. The fact remains, I Tweeted the heck out of it and got over 500 reads, and of those readers only 28 finished the job and voted. It's a bit discouraging, but I believe in the story and my writing ability.
I entered another contest recently on a blog, just for fun, and it was going well until I found out you could take away votes as well as give them. I had encouraged others to join in and the same thing happened to them. Pretty silly...
So I come back to my original question, To Contest, or Not to Contest ? Does everything boil down to a popularity contest? Is it worth the trouble to enter? If the judging entity is likely to be impartial, and not associated with votes from a social site I might try again. If any one else has had this experience, I would say to them, believe in yourself and your story. I will go on to finish this story and publish it. Whether it sells or not, is another story...but I will have satisfied what I set out to do.
In the mean time, this is the link, and if you'd like to vote I would greatly appreciate it.
(http://www.wattpad.com/5547423-the-air-ship-the-time-jump-and-the-mummy )