Million Writers Award

2012 Million Writers Award Rules

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The purpose of the 2012 storySouth Million Writers Award is to honor and promote the best fiction published in online literary journals and magazines during 2011. 

To make a nomination, go here.

The Reason

The reason for the Million Writers Award is that most of the major literary prizes for short fiction (such as the Best American Short Stories series and the O. Henry Awards) have traditionally ignored web-published fiction. This award aims to show that world-class fiction is being published online and to promote this fiction to the larger reading and literary community.

How It Works

The Million Writers Award takes its name from the idea that we in the online writing community have the power to promote the great stories we are creating. If only a few hundred writers took the time to tell fifteen of their friends about a great online short story--and if these friends then passed the word about this fiction to their friends (and so on and so on)--this one story would soon have a larger readership than all of the works in Best American Short Stories.

To help promote online stories, the Million Writers Award accepts nominations from readers, writers, and editors (and the volunteer preliminary judges who assist with the award). There is no entry fee.

Prizes

Last year there were three cash prizes: $600 for the overall winner, $200 for the runner-up, and $100 for the honorable mention/third place. There was also a $100 gift certificate from  ThinkGeek for the overall winner. All of this prize money was raised through donations from writers, editors and readers.

The 2012 Million Writers Award is starting off with an award base of $300, which has been donated by early donors like Spring Garden Press (storySouth's publisher). To help raise the amount we can give for prize money, we are seeking additional donations. To donate, go here.

Please note that since these donations do not go through Spring Garden Press (storySouth's publisher), donations are not tax deductible. However, the entire donated amount will be used for prize money, minus the small fee PayPal deducts for transmitting the money.

All donors will have the option of having their name and donation listed on the Million Writers Award page. Donors may also remain anonymous.

Please note that the all prizes will be transferred to the winners by PayPal. In order to receive the prize money, winners must have a PayPal account.

 

Best Online Publication Award

In addition to the award for best fiction, the online magazine or journal that ends up with the most stories selected as "Notable Stories of the Year" will be honored as the year's best publication for online fiction.

Why Should I Do This?

The general gripe among writers is that no one pays attention to quality writings, while bad or mediocre writings get lots of attention because they are published in prestigious magazines or written by authors who are good at gaining media attention. This award is about countering this trend by promoting the best online writers and stories.

The Rules

1) Only stories first published in online literary journals, magazines, and e-zines that have an editorial process, during the 2011 calendar year, are eligible for nomination. This means that an editor must have selected the story for publication. Self-published stories are not eligible. Stories reprinted online, but originally published in a print edition, are not eligible.

2) Anyone may nominate ONE story for the award. This means that readers of magazines can nominate one story and that writers can nominate one their own stories, provided the story was published in 2011 in an online magazine. Editors of online magazines and journals can nominate up to THREE of the stories published in their magazine during 2011.

3) To be eligible for nomination, a story must be longer than 1,000 words.

4) In addition to nominations from writers, readers, and editors, the Million Writers Award also uses preliminary judges to nominate stories for the award and to screen nominations from writers, readers, and editors. The names of the preliminary judges will be released after the award has been announced.

5) From all of the nominees, the judges will select the "Notable Stories of the Year." From this list of notable stories, three judges selected by Jason Sanford will chose the top ten stories of the year. The overall winner of the year's award will be selected by a public vote from among the top ten stories of the year. The public vote will use a secure voting system.

6) The online journal or magazine gaining the most "notable story" selections will be named as the Million Writers Award publication of the year. The editors will also select one publication as the Million Writers Award new magazine or journal of the year. Other awards for excellence may also be given out, if the editors feel there is a reason for doing so (such as highlighting a journal or magazine for doing something new or unusual which added to the overall prestige of online publishing).

7) Nominations of stories will begin March 26, 2012 and end April 9, 2012. The list of notable stories of the year will be released around the first of May with the top ten stories released around the end of May. Voting on the overall winner will last for three weeks after the top ten stories are released.

8) Any attempt by writers to distort or manipulate the public vote will result in the disqualification of their respected stories. Writers are allowed to promote their own stories during the vote and to ask others to vote for them. Attempts to repeatedly vote for their own story or to compromise the secure voting system will result in disqualification. The editors of storySouth have final authority to determine if any writer is attempting to distort or manipulate the public vote and the editors' decisions regarding disqualification are final and can not be appealed.

To Nominate a Story

To nominate a story, readers and editors will submit their name, a valid e-mail address, the name of the nominated author, the name of the magazine or journal, and a URL hyperlink to the story. The URL must go directly to the story's page in the online magazine or journal that originally published it. Links to author home pages where the story is posted are not eligible. DO NOT e-mail the entire story to any storySouth editor or to Jason Sanford. Doing so will guarantee that a story is not considered for the award.

How Can I Help?

If you want to help promote this award and online writers in general, please pass the word about this contest or link to this page. Also, please consider supporting the Million Writers Award by making a donation to help increase the award money we give out.

For more information, please e-mail Jason Sanford at lapthai@yahoo.com.

storySouth Million Writers Award launches March 15; donations and judges needed

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Want to know if something truly matters to people? Take it away. If no one notices the absence then the thing must not matter very much. But if people scream bloody murder … well, you can guess the rest.

I mention this because my life has been rather hectic of late and I’m a little tardy in launching this year’s storySouth Million Writers Award. And boy have people let me know. At first the emails were polite. Then they took on a worried tone, asking whether something had happened to me or, more frequently, if I would be continuing the award.

Well, the good news is this year’s award cycle will launch on March 15. The contest is open to any short story of at least 1000 words published in 2011 in an online magazine with an editorial process. Beginning on that date, editors of online magazines will be able to nominate 3 stories from their magazines while writers and readers can each nominate one story.

Donations and Judges Needed

Last year we were able to offer winners $1000 in cash and prizes and we’d like to do this again, so we’re asking for donations. Complete details on donating are here. And the great news is that ThinkGeek has already stepped up with another $100 gift certificate for this year’s overall winner. Many thanks!

And if you’d like to be a judge for this year’s award, please contact me. Simple give a little background on yourself and tell me why you’d be a great judge.

Finally, the final big news for this year’s award is that Spotlight Publishing will release two Million Writers Award anthologies next month. I’ll post about these two anthologies in the coming days.

Thanks go out to everyone who has supported the Million Writers Award in the past. And thanks in advance to all the judges, editors, writers and readers who will take part in this year’s award.

A reminder, some praise, and a great SF essay

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A few items of note:

1) I'm attending Epic ConFusion this weekend in Detroit. I'm taking part in a number of panels, will be autographing Never Never Stories at the main autograph session at 5 pm on Saturday, and plan to have a ton of fun. My complete schedule is here.

2) Over at the SF Site, D. Douglas Fratz has some amazing words for my fiction. To quote:

Over the decades that I have been reading science fiction, there have been occasions when a new writer with a singular new style and vision appears whose fiction seems destined to have lasting impact on the field. Jason Sanford is one such a new writer. He writes with a confidence and skill that makes it difficult to believe that he burst onto the scene only in the past few years.

Wow! Many thanks to Fratz for the kind words and support.

3) Cory Doctorow's essay "A Vocabulary for Speaking about the Future" in the Jan. 2012 Locus is flat-out one of the best SF essays I've ever read. I plan to write more on the essay in the near future, but until then go and read it!

4) And no, I haven't forgotten about this year's Million Writers Award. Look for the initial announcement about the award next week.

Suggest Stories for the Million Writers Award anthologies

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Early next year Spotlight Publishing, which recently published my short story collection Never Never Stories, will release two anthologies of Million Writers Awards stories. I will edit both anthologies, which are titled:

  • Million Writers Award: The Best Online Science Fiction and Fantasy
  • Million Writers Award: The Best New Online Voices

These anthologies will feature stories from the last eight years of the storySouth Million Writers Award. I'm currently pulling together table of contents for both books, but I wanted to also offer readers and writers the opportunity to suggest stories for inclusion. After all, a key aspect of the Million Writers Award is that the public has a voice in the award process. I'd like it to be the same with these anthologies.

Here's the deal: only stories which made the award's notable story list, top ten list, or won the award are eligible for consideration. The Million Writers Award: The Best Online Science Fiction and Fantasy is, obviously, focused on those respected genres. Million Writers Award: The Best New Online Voices focuses on the most exciting new and upcoming authors who have had stories in the award over the last eight years. If you'd like to suggest stories, either use the comment box below or email your picks to me. Be sure to mention which anthology your suggestions are for.

Pasted below are links to the last eight years of Million Writers Award stories. If you have some suggestions, please send them to me by September 20th.

Last 8 Years of the Million Writers Award

Winners of the 2011 storySouth Million Writers Award

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The public vote for the 2011 storySouth Million Writers Award is now complete. We had nearly 1150 votes. Here are the winning stories, along with their percentage of the vote:

  1. "Arvies" by Adam-Troy Castro (Lightspeed Magazine) – 18%
  2. "The Incorrupt Body of Carlo Busso" by Eric Maroney (Eclectica) – 16%
  3. "The Green Book" by Amal El-Mohtar (Apex Magazine) – 15%

The prizes for this year's award are:

  • First place: $600 plus the $100 gift certificate from ThinkGeek
  • Runner-up: $200
  • Honorable mention/third place: $100

Thank you to everyone who votes and nominated stories. Next year's award will kick off in early 2012.

Spotlight Publishing to Release Million Writers Award Anthologies

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As I mentioned yesterday, Spotlight Publishing is a small press which recently relaunched with a new focus on science fiction and fantasy books. Among their first new titles are my own Never Never Stories, Edmund R. Schubert's The Trouble With Eating Clouds, and James Maxey's There Is No Wheel. Following these inital books will be the anthology InterGalactic Awards Anthology Vol. I, edited by Orson Scott Card and Edmund R. Schubert. 

Now obviously having my short story collection come out is extremely exciting. But equally as exciting is that Spotlight has agreed to publish two anthologies of stories from the last eight years of the Million Writers Award. These anthologies will be titled Million Writers Award: The Best New Online Voices and Million Writers Award: The Best Online Science Fiction and Fantasy.

The first anthology will focus on the exciting new authors and voices to emerge through the Million Writers Award, while the second anthology will focus on the many SF/F stories our judges and readers have loved. I will edit both anthologies, which will feature stories from all levels of the award process (i.e., winners, finalists, and notable stories).

In the coming months I'll be contacting authors to arrange reprint rights for their stories. The publication date for the two Million Writers Award anthologies is early 2012.

Last Day to Vote for the Million Writers Award

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We now have just over one day left in the public vote for the 2011 storySouth Million Writers Award. The public vote will be open through 11:59 p.m. Eastern time on July 6, 2011. Readers and writers may vote one time for their favorite story by clicking here.

The latest vote tally is available here.

The prizes for this year's award are:

  • First place: $600 plus the $100 gift certificate from ThinkGeek
  • Runner-up: $200
  • Honorable mention/third place: $100

Update on July 6: Voting ends tonight a minute before midnight. Since there has been a rush of last-minute voting, it will take me a day or so to verify that all the votes are valid and release the results. Look for the official word on the winners on Friday.

Final Week of Voting for the Million Writers Award

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We now have one week left in the public vote for the 2011 storySouth Million Writers Award. With just over 800 votes tallied, the leading stories have continued to change positions. "The Green Book" is once again number one while "Arvies," "The Incorrupt Body of Carlo Busso," and "Most of Them Would Follow Wandering Fires" are close behind.

Before I go into this week's voting details, I should note I've seen a large number of attempts to vote using fake names and email addresses. These attempts were all deleted. The supporters of one author in particular seems to be waging a campaign to stuff the ballot on this author's behalf. If this continues I will name the author and list all the IP addresses and fake names and email accounts used on this author's behalf. Doing this would likely enable some cybersleuth to easily figure out who is doing this. All I can say is you've been warned.

Anyway, here are the current vote percentages, ranked from highest to lowest.

  1. "The Green Book" by Amal El-Mohtar (Apex Magazine) – 16%
  2. "Arvies" by Adam-Troy Castro (Lightspeed Magazine) – 15%
  3. "The Incorrupt Body of Carlo Busso" by Eric Maroney (Eclectica) – 14%
  4. "Most of Them Would Follow Wandering Fires" by Amber Sparks (Barrelhouse) – 13%
  5. "Do You Have a Place for Me" by Roxane Gay (Spork Press) – 12%
  6. "Cancer Party" by Nicola Mason (Blackbird) – 9%
  7. "Hell Dogs" by Daphne Buter (FRiGG: A Magazine of Fiction and Poetry)  – 8%
  8. "Arthur Arellano" by Viet Thanh Nguyen (Narrative Magazine) – 7%
  9. "Here is David, the Greatest of Descendants" by Spencer Kealamakia (Anderbo) – 4%
  10. "Elegy for a Young Elk" by Hannu Rajaniemi (Subterranean Magazine) – 2%

Remember, the public vote is open through July 6, 2011. Readers and writers may vote one time for their favorite by clicking here.

The prizes for this year's award are:

  • First place: $600 plus the $100 gift certificate from ThinkGeek
  • Runner-up: $200
  • Honorable mention/third place: $100

Second Week Vote Tally for Million Writers Award

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So far I've received nearly 600 votes in the 2011 storySouth Million Writers Award. There is a small shakeup from last week's numbers, with the former number one story "The Green Book" dropping to number three while "The Incorrupt Body of Carlo Busso" and "Arvies" surged to numbers one and two. However, I should point out that it doesn't take many votes to do this and that all of the top five stories are very much in contention for the top prize.

Anyway, here are the current vote percentages, ranked from highest to lowest.

  1. "The Incorrupt Body of Carlo Busso" by Eric Maroney (Eclectica) – 17%
  2. "Arvies" by Adam-Troy Castro (Lightspeed Magazine) – 15%
  3. "The Green Book" by Amal El-Mohtar (Apex Magazine) – 13%
  4. "Most of Them Would Follow Wandering Fires" by Amber Sparks (Barrelhouse) – 13%
  5. "Do You Have a Place for Me" by Roxane Gay (Spork Press) – 12%
  6. "Cancer Party" by Nicola Mason (Blackbird) – 8%
  7. "Hell Dogs" by Daphne Buter (FRiGG: A Magazine of Fiction and Poetry)  – 8%
  8. "Arthur Arellano" by Viet Thanh Nguyen (Narrative Magazine) – 7%
  9. "Here is David, the Greatest of Descendants" by Spencer Kealamakia (Anderbo) – 4%
  10. "Elegy for a Young Elk" by Hannu Rajaniemi (Subterranean Magazine) – 3%

Remember, the public vote is open through July 6, 2011. Readers and writers may vote one time for their favorite by clicking here. And please note that I had to delete a number of duplicate votes this time. If you don't provide a valid name and email address your vote won't be counted.

The prizes for this year's award are:

  • First place: $600 plus the $100 gift certificate from ThinkGeek
  • Runner-up: $200
  • Honorable mention/third place: $100

First Week Vote Tally for the Million Writers Award

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So far I've received over 350 votes in the 2011 storySouth Million Writers Award. As people may have noticed, this year I'm not releasing a continually updated vote tally. The problem with doing these continuous tallies is they automatically include anyone who manipulates the system, such as by voting multiple times. This can give a misleading idea of who is actually ahead in the voting.

This year the vote tallies will be released weekly, which enables me to easily screen and remove duplicate or manipulative votes. Not surprisingly, quite a few people tried do this. And equally as unsurprising, I caught them in the act and deleted those votes. I mean, if you enter a fake email address then hey, no vote for you!

Anyway, here are the current vote percentages, ranked from highest to lowest.

  1. "The Green Book" by Amal El-Mohtar (Apex Magazine) – 17%
  2. "Most of Them Would Follow Wandering Fires" by Amber Sparks (Barrelhouse) – 17%
  3. "Do You Have a Place for Me" by Roxane Gay (Spork Press) – 14%
  4. "Arvies" by Adam-Troy Castro (Lightspeed Magazine) – 12%
  5. "The Incorrupt Body of Carlo Busso" by Eric Maroney (Eclectica) – 11%
  6. "Cancer Party" by Nicola Mason (Blackbird) – 10%
  7. "Hell Dogs" by Daphne Buter (FRiGG: A Magazine of Fiction and Poetry)  – 7%
  8. "Arthur Arellano" by Viet Thanh Nguyen (Narrative Magazine) – 6%
  9. "Here is David, the Greatest of Descendants" by Spencer Kealamakia (Anderbo) – 5%
  10. "Elegy for a Young Elk" by Hannu Rajaniemi (Subterranean Magazine) – 1%

As everyone can see, two stories are essentially tied for first place while the other stories are not far behind.

Remember, the public vote is open through July 6, 2011. Readers and writers may vote one time for their favorite by clicking here.

The prizes for this year's award are:

  • First place: $600 plus the $100 gift certificate from ThinkGeek
  • Runner-up: $200
  • Honorable mention/third place: $100

CAPTCHA Fail

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People can stop harrassing me about the CAPTCHA feature on the Million Writers Award voting page. While most people were able to vote for their favorite stories – we've already received several hundred votes – a sizable minority was unable to successfully complete the CAPTCHA challenge. As a result I've now removed the CAPTCHA altogether.

The voting system will still require people to submit their name and email address, and if an invalid email address is provided those votes will be discarded. I'll be releasing the first week vote totals tomorrow, so check back then for more information on how your favorite stories are doing.

On a related point, this isn't the first time that I've noticed the CAPTCHA systems online becoming so difficult to pass that they are ensnaring a lot of legitimate users (while spammers can now easily overcome this defensive technique). It's obvious the days of using CAPTCHA to battle spam are numbered.

Million Writers Award Top Ten Stories

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Here they are: The 2011 storySouth Million Writers Award top ten online stories!

The public vote for last year's best online story is now open through July 6, 2011. Readers and writers may vote one time for their favorite by clicking here.

As a reminder, the prizes for this year's award are:

  • First place: $600 plus the $100 gift certificate from ThinkGeek
  • Runner-up: $200
  • Honorable mention/third place: $100

I also apologize for the delays in releasing these stories and starting the public vote. I swear that one issue after another has popped up with this year's award, starting with my eye problems and continuing onward from there.

The most recent problem involved one of our judges. In years past I've been the sole judge, reading all the notable stories and picking my ten favorites. This year, though, I invited two others to join me in this duty. Everything was looking good until one of these judges decided she no longer wanted to be a judge.

You see, she was worried what a writing friend would say because she hadn't picked this friend's story from the notable list. Even though this judge had already turned in her picks, and even though I promised her anonymity, at the last minute she demanded I remove her and not use her selections. Naturally this lead to irritated words flying back and forth, along with a promise by me to one day write a scathing essay about how flakey some writers can be.

The outcome of all this was a scamble to fill the selection void left by this person "unjudging" herself.

Anyway, please let me publicly thank my fellow judge, a non-trifling, extremely reliable, hell of a guy named D. Antwan Stewart. In addition to serving as a preliminary judge for a number of years with the Million Writers Award, Steward is the author of The Terribly Beautiful (2006) and Sotto Voce (2008), both Editor's Choice Selections in the Main Street Rag Poetry Chapbook Series. His recent poems appear in The Best Gay Poetry 2008, Callaloo, Meridian, Many Mountains Moving, Verse Daily and others. He is an assistant editor for the online poetry journal Anti- and lives in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he waits tables while working on his first full-length poetry manuscript.

Anyway, I hope everyone enjoys reading the top ten stories and votes for their favorite.

<ul>
    <li>"<a href="http://www.friggmagazine.com/issuetwentynine/fiction/buter/hell.htm">Hell Dogs</a>" by Daphne Buter (FRiGG: A Magazine of Fiction and  Poetry) </li>
    <li>"<a href="http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/arvies/">Arvies</a>" by Adam-Troy Castro (Lightspeed Magazine) </li>
    <li>"<a href="http://apexbookcompany.com/apex-online/2010/11/short-fiction-the-green-book-by-amal-el-mohtar/">The Green Book</a>" by Amal El-Mohtar (Apex Magazine) </li>
    <li>"<a href="http://sporkpress.com/weeklies/prose/archives/00000083.html">Do You Have a Place for Me</a>" by Roxane Gay (Spork Press) </a> </li>
    <li>"<a href="http://www.anderbo.com/anderbo1/afiction-046.html">Here is David, the Greatest of Descendants</a>" by Spencer  Kealamakia (Anderbo) </li>
    <li>"<a href="http://www.eclectica.org/v14n3/maroney.html">The Incorrupt Body of Carlo Busso</a>" by Eric Maroney  (Eclectica) </li>
    <li>"<a href="http://www.blackbird.vcu.edu/v9n2/fiction/mason_n/cancer_page.shtml">Cancer Party</a>" by Nicola Mason (Blackbird) </li>
    <li>"<a href="http://www.narrativemagazine.com/issues/spring-2010/arthur-arellano">Arthur Arellano</a>" by Viet Thanh Nguyen (Narrative Magazine) </li>
    <li>"<a href="http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/spring-2010/fiction-elegy-for-a-young-elk-by-hannu-rajaniemi/">Elegy for a Young Elk</a>" by Hannu Rajaniemi (Subterranean  Magazine) </li>
    <li>"<a href="http://www.barrelhousemag.com/?p=44">Most  of Them Would Follow Wandering Fires</a>" by Amber Sparks (Barrelhouse) </li>
  </ul>

Vote in the 2011 storySouth Million Writers Award

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To vote for your favorite story in the 2011 storysouth Million Writers Award, please use the form below. To help prevent duplicate votes, a name and email address are required. However, this information will not be used except to verify votes and will not be made public.

VOTING IS NOW CLOSED. RESULTS WILL BE RELEASED SHORTLY.

As a reminder, the prizes for this year's award are:

  • First place: $600 plus the $100 gift certificate from ThinkGeek
  • Runner-up: $200
  • Honorable mention/third place: $100

Million Writers Award Vote Almost There

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The top ten stories for the 2011 storysouth Million Writers Award have now been selected from the 158 notable stories. I'm currently testing the public vote system and hope to launch it either later today or in the morning (see update below). The top ten stories will be announced at that time.

As a reminder, the prizes for this year's award are:

  • First place: $600 plus the $100 gift certificate from ThinkGeek
  • Runner-up: $200
  • Honorable mention/third place: $100

Update: I've encountered an issue with the voting system. I can fix the problem but it will make me miss today's launch. The top ten stories and the public vote will now be launched on Sunday, June 5.

Million Writers Award Update

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Things are still chugging along for the release of the top ten stories for the 2011 storysouth Million Writers Award. Two of the final judges has already turned in their selections while the other judge – who is the one holding up the whole effin process – is almost done.

Unfortunately, I'm the judge holding everything up. All I can say is that I'm trying my best to finish reading all 158 notable stories and I should be done by the end of this month, at which time the finalists will be posted.

As a reminder, the prizes for this year's award are:

  • First place: $600 plus the $100 gift certificate from ThinkGeek
  • Runner-up: $200
  • Honorable mention/third place: $100

Why Do Genre Magazines Dominate the Million Writers Award?

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Each year Tom Dooley, the editor of Eclectica Magazine, analyzes trends in the list of Million Writers Award notable stories. According to his analysis, there are 158 stories on the 2011 notable list, a drop from last year's 191. In addition, exactly 100 different online publications landed stories on the list.

Last year Tom pointed out that it appeared genre magazines – meaning everything from science fiction to fantasy, horror, crime, and romance – were dominating the Million Writers Award. This year this genre "dominance" continues. While self-identifying genre magazines now make up only 21% of the magazines on the NWA notable list, down from 25% in 2010, among the magazines with the most stories on the list the percent of genre stories increased to 51%.

This doesn't mean genre stories make up half the stories on the notable list – I think the number is closer to a third. But among the elite online publications with the most stories on the list, genre magazines appear to be the 800 pound gorillas in the virtual room.

Why are there so many genre magazines and stories on the Million Writers notable list? As I mentioned last year, I believe this results from genre writers and readers accepting online magazines as a legitimate place for both publishing and reading short fiction, which results in a large number of professional online genre magazines. But I'd love to hear what other people think about this.

Pasted below is Tom's analysis. And as always, a big thanks to Tom for crunching these numbers.

2010 Notable Stories Analysis    
This year Last Year
Total number of Notable Stories 158 191
Number of different publications w/ Notable Stories 100 108
Percent of publications self-identifying as "Genre" 21% 25%
Percent of stories from the top 10 publications belonging to self-identified "Genre" sites * 51% 48%
* Percent increases to 65% this year if two puplications tied for first, Blackbird and Words without Borders, are removed    
     
Authors this year with more than one notable story    
Name This year Last Year
Desmond Warzel 2 1
Matthew Dexter 2 1
Michael Loughrey 2 1
Rachel Ephraim 2 0
Rachel Swirsky 2 1
Roxane Gay 2 6
Sandra McDonald 2 0
Yoon Ha Lee 2 1
     
This year's top Notable Stories publications    
Publication Place Number
Blackbird 1st (tied) 6
Words without Borders   6
Clarkesworld Magazine 3rd (tied) 4
Daily Science Fiction   4
Lightspeed Magazine   4
Strange Horizons   4
Chiaroscuro (ChiZine) 7th (tied) 3
Eclectica Magazine   3
Fantasy Magazine   3
Jersey Devil Press   3
storySouth   3
The Barcelona Review   3
The Collagist   3
Thuglit   3
Tor.com   3
     
Top Notable Stories publications, last two years    
Publication Place Number
Blackbird 1st (tied) 10
Fantasy Magazine   10
Clarkesword Magazine 3rd (tied) 9
Strange Horizons   9
Thuglit 5th (tied) 7
Subterranean   7
Words Without Borders 7th (tied) 6
Eclectica Magazine   6
Beneath Ceaseless Skies   6
Kill Author   6
Collagist 11th (tied) 5
Tor.com   5
Apex Magazine   5
Storyglossia   5
Daily Science Fiction   4
Lightspeed Magazine   4
Barcelona Review   4
storySouth   4
Cerise Press   4
Cha: An Asian Literary Journal   4
Flurb   4
Identity Theory   4
PANK   4
Summerset Review   4
Knee-Jerk Magazine   4
Prick of the Spindle   4
Toasted Cheese   4
Word Riot   4
     
Top Notable Stories publications, all time (last eight years)    
Publication Place Number
Eclectica Magazine 1st 41
Strange Horizons 2nd (tied) 31
Pindeldyboz   31
Narrative Magazine 4th 26
Blackbird 5th 25
Word Riot 6th 23
Agni 7th 22
Clarkesword Magazine 8th (tied) 21
Storyglossia   21
Fantasy Magazine 10th (tied) 18
failbetter   18
Identity Theory 12th (tied) 15
King's English   15
Mississippi Review (New)   15
Thuglit 15th (tied) 14
Subterranean   14
Barcelona Review 17th (tied) 13
Summerset Review   13
ChiZine   13
Orson Scott Card's IMS   13
Fiction Warehouse   13
Percent of stories from the top 10 publications belonging to self-identified "Genre" sites *

Other Stories Worth Noting

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Every year the judges for the storySouth Million Writers Award pull together their list of notable online stories.  And unfortunately, ever year there are a few stories the judges pick which must be bounced from that list. These are stories the judges liked but which, due to not meeting the award's eligibility requirements, couldn't be considered.

This year our judges picked three stories which were not eligible for the award – two of them were originally published in print magazines or their associated websites, while the remain story was published this year. Since the judges liked the stories enough to pick them, I wanted to bring them to everyone's attention. They are:

The Million Writers Award Notable Stories of 2010

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Here's the list of notable stories for the 2011 storysouth Million Writers Award. Thanks to the preliminary judges who picked the stories and to the editors and readers who brought their own favorite stories to the judges' attention.

The top ten stories, which will be selected from this list by me and two other judges, are scheduled for release on May 20th. And if anyone notices any mistakes in the notable story list, please let me know.

As a reminder, the prizes for this year's award are:

  • First place: $600 plus the $100 gift certificate from ThinkGeek
  • Runner-up: $200
  • Honorable mention/third place: $100

Million Writers Award Notable Stories to Be Released April 17

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I apologize for the delay in releasing the notable stories for the 2011 storysouth Million Writers Award. While my eye has healed nicely since my surgery for the detached retina, I'm still digging my way out of a work and deadline backlog.

The good news is that the notable stories will be released on Sunday, April 17 and that date is firm. So look for the stories then. The top ten stories will then be released in the middle of May.

As a reminder, the prizes for this year's award are:

  • First place: $600 plus the $100 gift certificate from ThinkGeek
  • Runner-up: $200
  • Honorable mention/third place: $100

Two Quick Updates

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I was the guest of SFF Writer Chat last night. Hosted by Bryan Thomas Schmidt, this is one of the most interactive science fiction and fantasy interviews around and takes place on Twitter every Wednesday at 9 pm Eastern. All you have to do is follow the hashtag #sffwrtcht. If anyone missed the chat, here's the transcript.  Next week's guest will be editor John Klima from the Hugo Award winning Electric Velocidpede.

And in Million Writers Award news, because of my recent eye problems I've decided to bump back the release of the Notable Stories by one week. I apologize for this delay, but I'm still getting back up to speed and I don't want to rush the award process.