As much as we hate to burst the bubble of creativity, here is a heartfelt plea to all competition writers everywhere. Please, please, please do read the rules. We see some wonderful submissions but of late, many do not adhere to the rules. We try to keep the rules as basic as possible but they are there for a reason. They provide a level playing field for all writers irrespective of publishing experience – so that everyone has the same chance.
This is just a reminder that the full rules are published on each competition page, please do check that you have read them before even starting your entry. We often provide you with photos for inspiration or, have a tricky little word count to adhere to, but whatever the rules, they are there to be followed and we hate having to exclude well-written submissions.
We advertise our competitions across the Internet including on social media sites such as Twitter, so if you have stumbled across one of those adverts, you may find that only partial rules are added. This is dependent on the information requested from the website and so, we are unable to always provide every bit of information. On Twitter for example, it’s impossible to say much, but we always, provide a link directly to the relevant page, so don’t miss out on a prize simply through not checking.
We know that time can be limited and you might have to rush to meet a deadline, but please do give your submission a fighting chance and not let it fall at the first hurdle.
