We would like to take a moment to share the progress of our Monthly Flash Fiction Contest. Since H.B. Books introduced the flash fiction contest last month (the initial startup), we received a fair number of entries. We were impressed with many of the submissions that were entered and noticed many writers seemed to have difficulty working with the picture given for the writing prompt.
This month, we thought we were introducing an easier picture for writers to craft a flash piece to, but it would seem for one of the following reason, or maybe all of them, the number of quality entries this month was almost nil.
Possible Reason for Lack of Quality Submissions
- 1. Scene Picture
- 2. We didn't promote as much as we should have
- 3. The Hard Boiled Crime Genre is too specialized, thus a smaller audience.
- 4. People are not interested
As to date so far this month, we have only 1 entry which qualified for placement, with nothing else to compete or compare it against for this month. The remaining entries received this month, sorry were not of the caliber we were looking for or did not come close to describing the scene in the picture.
After partner discussions, it was decided this would be the last month a scene picture will be posted to serve as a writing prompt. We believe giving writers this extra freedom, instead of a challenge should aid in their creativity and freedom to write within the basic guidelines.
In addition, we are going to be expanding the Prizes given away in the contest. As we are a growing Indie Press, we do believe in supporting other Indie Authors and Publishers, who may not be related to Hard Boiled Books. We are considering, giving away as additional prizes, books from authors and Indie Publishers, (who may not be related to H.B. Books), but we support their work, as we build our own backlist of Books (which are given as prizes besides money- Currently the Case Files of Harvey Valentine & Gumshoe Mysteries).
Currently, the 1st Place Winner receives a payment of $5.00 via Paypal or Amazon gift card, with their story included in the publication of Gumshoe Mysteries and here on the website. In addition, all winners receive a kindle copy of Gumshoe Mysteries and the Latest Harvey Valentine Novel, kindle version.
2nd & 3rd Place Winners, are mentioned here on the website and their stories published to the site. Besides receiving Kindle Copies of Above Mentioned Books.
We thought it would be a great Idea to offer other Indie Authors & Publishers works as prizes as well. Of course, the works chosen will be either Hard-Boiled, Noir, or Crime/Mystery related. If you are an Indie author with a book you would like to offer as a prize to our contest, please contact hardboiledbooks@gmail.info.
Cash Prizes for 1st Place Winners will be increased to $10.00, 2nd Place Winner will receive $5.00 and third place $1.00 (Hey, it's a buck! You can pretend you just sold a $.99 cent novel on Amazon and made a .33 cent commission or actually sold 3 novels to make that buck!) Cash Prizes will be awarded through Paypal or Amazon Gift card.
