Dear Spine Crackers,
As we creep up on our 100th digital issue, I’d like to take a moment and thank each and every reader and contributor who makes Crack the Spine such a joyous endeavor. The opportunity to present quality poetry and prose is not only a passion, it’s a privilege and an honor.
I’ve had several emails of late from incredibly kind contributors and friends that mention something along the lines of “I don’t know how you do it!” or “When do you sleep?” Truth be told, while the time involved in producing the digital and print versions of Crack the Spine is fairly mind-boggling, I rarely surrender to fatigue. It’s easy to do something that you love. Right, writers?
As we look to the future, we are considering new ways to take Crack the Spine to the next level. Our goals include expanding our footprint in the independent literary community, which will expose the work of our contributors to a larger audience. One proposed idea was to establish an annual “Crack the Spine Prize.” Now, we’re aware that literary contests are a mixed bag these days, so we’re directly reaching out to you, our contributors and readers, to see what you think.
Contests involve cash prizes, which in turn, involve entry fees. Crack the Spine has never and will never charge basic reading fees for submissions to our weekly digital issues! But for the purpose of creating a separate prize-based opportunity, entry fees would be a must. So, here’s the hypothetical: would you be interested in a contest which would include the following…
First Prize Winners (one in each category: poetry and prose) would receive a $250 cash prize, 3 contributor copies of a once-a-year Crack the Spine Prize Anthology, and a digital “award winner” crest for display on their website or blog.
Second Prize Winners (one in each category: poetry and prose) would receive a $100 cash prize, 3 contributor copies of a once-a-year Crack the Spine Prize Anthology, and a digital “award winner” crest for display on their website or blog.
Honorable Mentions (up to 40 recipients) would receive a contributor copy of a once-a-year Crack the Spine Prize Anthology and a digital “honorable mention” crest for display on their website or blog.
We want to hear from you! Do you love contests? Hate them? How much of an entry fee would you be willing to pony up to be a Crack the Spine 2014 Prize Winner?
Please note that establishing such a contest would in no way change our current practice of creating weekly digital issues and quarterly print issues with no reading fees involved. The prize contest would be a completely separate, optional entry procedure.
We sincerely hope to hear from you! We want to be ever-mindful of the desires and opinions of our readers and contributors as we move forward and look for new ways to expand Crack the Spine!
Sincerely,
Kerri Farrell Foley
Managing Editor, Crack the Spine
editor@crackthespine.com
editor@crackthespine.com
The contest is a great idea. I don’t know if I’d submit, but that would depend on lots of things having to do with my own agenda/schedule, etc., not with Crack the Spine. I think you should charge the going $15 entry fee (you could go with $10 for the first time, but everyone charges at least $15, so why shouldn’t you?), and as always, Crack the Spine is ahead of the curve with innovative ways to stand apart, such as the digital crest, which is so cute and cool that this alone might make me want to give the concert a shot! My only concern would be…when will you sleep?!:-)
I say go for it. I think $10 – $15 is reasonable. I’d probably err on the lower side to get more responses just in case you get fewer dollars than promised for prize money.
As far as contests go in general, I’m lukewarm on them.
Good luck!
Whoops. Contest. Not concert. No way to edit. Dribble drool gasp cringe… P.S. I’m of mixed mind about contests (prefer concerts;-). The last one I submitted to, shelling out my fifteen bucks, never posted results and never responded to emails. Most are reputable, but the ones that aren’t sully the rest. It’s worth a try, though, which would be the best way to see if it was worthwhile for Crack the Spine.