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Authors Helping Authors Project/Contest

Tales2Inspire: Authors Helping Authors Project/Contest – article – Douglas R. Cobb

Posted on March 8, 2013 By douglascobb7 Books

“Aspire to Inspire”

Are YOU an Indie author trying to get your name and your writing out there, known to the general public?  Do you have the kernel of an idea that is dying to get expressed? If either or both of these descriptions apply to you, then you might be interested in learning more about Tales2Inspire and their “Authors Helping Authors” project and contest that came to my attention not long ago.

Two of of the main people behind the “Authors Helping Authors” project are Lois Stern and Linda Maria Frank.  Lois has a blog where she posts the tales, or at least a portion of the tales enough to grab a reader’s attention), authors submit.  The project is ”by and for authors,” in Lois’s words, and is an opportunity for authors, or anyone who wishes to  test the waters at being an author, to have a story published in an anthology of inspirational short stories.  Each author  who submits a tale must then also  critique three other submissions.  The short stories or portions of them at Lois’s blog marked with an * in front of their titles are the ones she considers publishing in an on-going series of  Tales2Inspire™ anthologies.

What happens if you get selected to be one of the authors who appear in the anthologies?  The authors sign a release form granting Lois first rights to publish their stories. Also, Linda Maria Frank, host of the Writers Dream cable network, and Lois are teaming up to give these authors more platform building opportunities.  Linda interviewed Lois Sternon her show.  If you’d like to check it out, click here.

What sort of recompense can the authors who are included in the anthologies expect?  Though authors don’t receive any financial reimbursement for their contributions, by having thier stories appear in one of the anthologies, they have the opportunity to share an inspiring and uplifitng story they’ve written with the rest of the world, and to see their work published in print.

Also, the authors selected receive for their tales what amounts to free editorial services, free critiques of their work from three or more authors, potential for publication of their work (with their name, photo and mini-bio included with their story), and strong platform building opportunities.

Stage One is the “Submissions” stage. Writers submit their stories via e-mail. There is no entrance fee imposed as is common in many writing contests. They follow step-by-step directions posted here.  Authors know upfront about their rights as they sign and submit a release form with their story. To view an example of the release form, click on Release Form.

Then, Stage Two is called “Screening.”  During this stage, Lois screens the short stories.  She personally reads through each submission and gives the author preliminary feedback. In some cases, she might reject a submission outright simply because it isn’t a good fit as an “inspiring, uplifting” tale. In such cases, she will inform the writer and remove him/her from the competition. In other cases, the story may be appropriately themed, but the organization, style, or grammatical structures, etc., may need improvement.  Lois gives them that feedback as well, with the opportunity to better their piece and resubmit it prior to the deadline date.

“Evaluations” is Stage Three.  If your short story makes it to this stage, Lois then assigns each ‘tale’ to three of the other authors for judging – a random selection. The cover letter each author receives explains a) why none of these authors is in direct competition with another and b) specific guidelines for scoring.  To view screen shots of the jotform Lois created for scoring purposes and an attachment of the instruction letter click  here.

During Stage Four, or ”Putting it Together,” Lois records all judging assignments and scoring data on an Excel chart, and compiles the three critiques written for each ‘tale’. At this point she review the scores. In the majority of cases there is amazing consistency, with those tales receiving an average score of 9 – 10 becoming the winners, 8 – 8.5 finalists, etc.  But in cases where there is wide score discrepancy, she has her critique group further assess those tales for additional feedback and scores. Lois then sends a compilation of all critiques for a given tale to that author.

Stage Five is called ”Reassessment.”  At times Lois receives a potentially powerful tale that simply needs more work. In such cases she gives that author studied feedback with the opportunity to work with her to refine their story. Although no longer in the competition, these authors still have the opportunity to be published.

Stage Six is the “Author Recognition” stage.  All tales that remain in the competition are posted on Lois’s blog and she gives further recognition to them by highlighting each on her Facebook Author page.  “Tales” that she plans to include in one of her anthologies are introduced but not posted in full there to avoid publication conflicts.

Winners get further internet exposure through Linda Maria Frank, host of the Writer’s Dream Show, and the benefits she offers the authors include: exposure on local access TV, L.I. Cablevision; presence on Youtube  and on Facebook.  Also, the authors will be mentioned in PRWeb releases  and here,  the blog on her website, and they will be mentioned in up-dates on Constant Contact newsletters.

The duo are also in the process of working on a long distance video presence for authors living too far from the LTV studio to make on-site interviews feasible.

To watch Lois’s second Writers Dream Interview, where she introduces Tales2Inspire,™ click on the folowing link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqKwY-Nj7qo

I have never submitted a short story to this project, as I only have learned of it recently.  I have no stake in it, other than to let Indie authors and anyone who is interested and who enjoys writing to know of venues where their stories might possibly appear one day.  It sounds like a worthwhile idea, and I hope that the “Authors Helping Authors” project and contest might aid authors in seeing their work get a wider audience.