Tapas Writers Camp Contest!

[Leon]

Once of the participants is Dave Stankoven, who has a popular webcomic and almost two thousand fans, if I'm not wrong. They said that they ackowledged that issue and will take measures.

Also, the BL tag gives advantage too, since people love those things for some reason.

[silverraven0]

Yeah, BL is popular. Me myself write BL for the contest, but when I see the BL as a 'tag' on a lot of participants cover, it's... something. Those who put the BL in their cover get subscriber real fast it's kinda terrifying.
I don't put the BL 'tag' on my cover because of my own policy (er, what does its called?). If my story doesn't interest them, there's nothing I can do about it. But I do subscribed to a few BL stories (without the BL on the cover like wet sands), and it's a pretty good read. I haven't been able to read all of my subscribed stories in the contest since I'm busy with work (my own story only filled half of the requirement ;v;), but I'll be sure to read them after the contest ended, though.

[ISNEKO]

I probably shouldn't find it amusing that Tapas seems to misstep all the time when they hold an event, like the subs and feature concerns.

I think someone said the first time they held a contest for writers no one won and it just faded into darkness? Think @GoldenPlume said that. I dunno tho. I hate shite memory.

[375]

I laughed at "faded into darkness" XD Like uh thats kind of concerning

[silverraven0]

Yup, goldenplum did said that. I wasn't around when the first ever novel contest is held, so idk. But they do, seriously, do need to take measure of their errors in this first writers camp to create a better second writers camp in the future. Their rules is a bit undercooked for me, and they do need to count the possibility of the writers ability to cheat and made a better rules next time, but since they're pretty new in this field, it will serves them a lessons for the next one.

[gateofselidor]

There’s little point in chasing the ‘most subscribers’ prize, especially if you’re not already on the top row. Popularity contests are never fair. Just do your best, enjoy what you’re writing, and hope you can impress the Tapas staff instead.

[GoldenPlume]

the first time they held a contest for writers no one won

That is correct. To the best of our knowledge no one won. If someone did win then Tapas didn't take any steps to announce it. About two weeks after the contest, those who participated had to put pressure on staff on the forums about when they would get an answer. As far as we know, everyone received a semi form rejection letter in two fonts. Font one was the automatic stuff and font two was the judge's critique. We lost because our story "isn't a good fit for Tapas genre-wise."

In a round about way there was one winner. The Boy Princess began because of the contest and it generated enough subs over the following months that eventually staff promoted it to Premium.

Because of the missteps of that event that is why you now see the prize amount 4x larger and a set date that the winners will be announced, May 1.

Still there is definitely room for improvement.

[Testaccount]

That's how I feel about popularity contests, which is why I don't participate in them. When I used to write on Wattpad, they had writing contests that were based on votes. Needless to say, only the popular writers ever won, but who knows how Tapas will handle their contest. In the end, it's like you said: you just have to write the best story you can.

[GoldenPlume]

you just have to write the best story you can.

And the story that you are most passionate about, even if it does not appeal to the Tapas demographic.

[raekitano]

I love reading every thing you're all saying. I'm the type of person who will think these thing but never mention them for fear of backlash. Thank you.
It is unfortunate its a popularity contest when there so are many great stories.
I consider myself lucky but I still watch those who are already featured artist who have stories in the contest slowly growing in popularity. I wonder do I have a right to complain.

So, can I take the time to share three stories I'm reading and really enjoying in the contest.

The Song Hoarder by Cathsplat.
https://tapas.io/series/The-Song-Hoarder.

Sugar by Alex Wolf
https://tapas.io/series/Sugar-.

and

Learning to Fly by MHComics
https://tapas.io/series/Learning-To-Fly.

[raekitano]

And something else - has anyone else noticed the Writers Camp link on the front page has been removed?

[ISNEKO]

Well, technically it's still there. You gotta hit the arrow to slide thru the banners there tho.

But yeah. Hide the camp. It's not important I guess.

[raekitano]

Thank you, I should have done that but the fact the large banner is not there took me by surprise when I logged on.

[GoldenPlume]

Hide the camp. It's not important I guess.

After 72 hours most things tend to get downgraded and disappear off the homepage. Writers Camp had its time in the spotlight.

From a financial standpoint, none of these novels generate Tapas any revenue so the longer Writers Camp takes up prime digital real estate means less income for the site.

[ISNEKO]

Oh I fully understand the meaning behind it's downgrade, but it's strikes a cord against something the community is taking part in. Especially if it's still running. Having the camp pushed out of the spotlight feels like our importance has been measured.

[silverraven0]

I clicked in the banner and it's simply send me to the announcement, not the submissions or works like when it first appeared. So... where can we view the stories?

@STAFF , I think you need to fix it since no one will be able to find the stories for the contest (except for searching through the tag... which a lot peoples may not even bothered to do) and all of the subscription a stories get will just stagnated for the less popular works with no fan base.

[robinlayneauthor]

Hi, Isneko, can you please clarify what you mean? I don't see any arrow on the main page. The only way I can get to the contest now is through the Novels page.

(This is the pits for someone who started late and had to wait even later for a decent thumbnail.)

[silverraven0]

Did you see that (>)? Click on it. But even if you clicking on the banner, it's only send you to the newsfeed.

[robinlayneauthor]

Wait, now I can't even find the Writers' Camp on the Novels page. What are they DOING? It looks like they have erased all paths to the collection...

[JekkieFan]

I was thinking about dropping out of the contest. Is there a way to do this formally?