Writers Camp 3rd Edition - Winners Announcement!

[ratscout]

Thank you so much for the response and being so caring toward the creators.I'm very happy you'll be doing genre contests in the future and I think that will correct a lot of the disadvantages some creators are at by choosing not to do BL. Thank you again for your time and response.

[AllynCrowe]

I vote for a scifi contest raises hand

[violin]

Congratulations to the winners!! I am sorry to see that there was so much controversy at the end of this camp.

@STAFF I do think genre contests as suggested by @ratscout are a great idea. Webtoons does this for their contests and it encourages a wide breadth of series in their premium weekly section, rather than being disproportionately skewed towards many of the same types of series.

As for @drac, all I have to say is that this is a contest. I've submitted to a fair number of writing/poetry contests when I was younger, the old-fashioned type where you have to mail in your submission (usually along with a check), and the rules are extremely strict. If you format your submission wrong in any way (e.g. wrong font, wrong spacing, wrong margins, name/address in the wrong place), you are automatically disqualified. That's how contests are.

On the flip side, this means that if you read contest rules very carefully and adhere to them well, you are already ahead of the competition!!

(Chaparral poetry contest rules, for reference: https://redrockwriters.org/adult_chaparral_poetry_contest_rules)

Tapas could probably be more explicit about what content they consider NSFW or not appropriate for the contest, if they are indeed disqualifying people for this reason. Reader's Digest has a good example of this (https://www.rd.com/magazine/poetry-contest-rules/ - see instruction #3)

Lastly, for the question about the prize money, please refer to the rules:

[The finalists] will win these prize slots and each receive $500 plus a Tapas Premium publishing deal

I am an editorial pick finalist from Writer's Camp #2. Please note that the wording says you will receive prize money PLUS be offered a publishing deal. These two things are separate from each other. You will receive the prize money regardless of whether you accept the publishing deal or not, and I can confirm that this is what happened. The prize money is not contingent upon the publishing deal. You are also free to decline the publishing deal and just take the prize money if you like.

Obviously, if you do sign a publishing deal, you are expected to finish the story at some point. That's kind of the whole point!

[brooke]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for being patient with us.

Unfortunately, after considerable deliberation, we’ve decided to disqualify Growing Pangs by LilyAnna for violating our contest guidelines.

We’ll be awarding the second Community’s Pick prize to Nobody Loves the Bassist by NovelistOrange. Please join us in congratulating them, and check out their story!

Thank you all for your patience and understanding during this time. We appreciate the feedback and will carefully consider all of your suggestions going forward. We hope that despite these issues, Writers Camp has been as rewarding for you as it has been for us. We’re always blown away by how hardworking and talented our community is, and we hope to continue celebrating that in many more Writers Camps to come!

[faeriesandents]

Congratz @OrangeHanada!!!
It's a little sad that all this drama happened, but hey, you won! (and I love the title of your novel )

[Timirella]

I am glad I contested. Even though I have never written anything in my life. It was a good boost.
At least, now I know if I keep writing I will get better.
My novel for the contest is 'the king's Choices'
I even started a new one today ' married by Accident'

[Timirella]

And congrats to the winners

[AllynCrowe]

@brooke @STAFF

According to one author I spoke to NovelistOrange has been manipulating subs for the writer's camp (new subs, created on the same day, only subscribed to that one story), and said author has addressed previously to Tapas Staff that this happened.

If this is true, then I sincerely think it is a blemish on Tapas's track record that it allowed two cheaters to win community pick, and I feel it would be a deep disgrace that Tapas preferred cheating over something as innocent and natural as sex.

I hope it is not true, but please look into these allegations before selecting winners.

[LortiaMJB]

Is this the point where we throw the win to @AllynCrowe and just give him editorial support to make it to Tapas/Apple standards?

[AllynCrowe]

Look

At all

These

One story

Subscribers!

---

My own subscriber list for fair comparison:

[Chroma]

If this is true, then I sincerely think it is a blemish on Tapas's track record that it allowed two cheaters to win community pick, and I feel it would be a deep disgrace that Tapas preferred cheating over something as innocent and natural as sex.

While I think it's a bit of a stretch to say they "preferred" cheating, as they likely were unaware of the tactics used, I agree that it does say something about how much these stories are examined before being chosen as the winner. The fact that stories violating the rules have now won not once, but twice in the same competition is a bit of a bad look.

All the same, I don't think it's intentional as much as an oversight that needs to be corrected. And hopefully in the future, these kinds of shady tactics will be caught before winners are announced.

I don't want to overstep my bounds and presume that I know how to run a contest of this scale -- frankly, I don't. But if I were to make a suggestion for the future, it would be beneficial if a team at Tapas could read over entries during the writing process and inform creators if they are violating the content rules before the ending date of the contest, so that they have the opportunity to go back and revise their content to keep within Tapas's guidelines. I think that would save a lot of time and frustration (especially since I assume Tapas is already reading all the entries to begin with, due to an "Editor's Choice" existing).

[ISNEKO]

I keep trying to reply but it keeps coming out as too cynical and harsh.

So, I guess I'll just say that as someone who took the contest seriously and played by the rules, this is hilariously sad, if true.

[AllynCrowe]

You're not the only one buddy

[AllynCrowe]

I forgot to mention @michaelson

[brooke]

Hi everyone, we appreciate you voicing your concerns and would like to address the issue regarding the subscriber list of Nobody Loves the Bassist.

We did previously receive a message from another author (possibly the same one you spoke to, @AllynCrowe) expressing concern about the subscribers for Nobody Loves the Bassist. However, we investigated the matter promptly and found that the explanation for these subscribers is that NovelistOrange had shared his work externally and asked friends, family, and fans to create accounts on Tapas and subscribe to his series if they enjoyed it and wanted to support him in Writers Camp. Because the rules do not preclude external marketing, we made the decision that NovelistOrange would not be disqualified and allowed the series to remain in the competition.

In light of these recent concerns, we've thoroughly vetted the subscriber list again by looking into the account information for each subscriber, cross referencing their domain names (usually, bot accounts are created using easy to generate domain names) as well as the time and location of each accounts' creation. We have found no evidence of manipulating subscribers through creating fake accounts or using bots to boost the subscriber count.

Your concern is understandable, and we appreciate you bringing this to our attention. While it's true the average reader is typically subscribed to more than one series, we have seen that creators who market their work to readers outside of Tapas may have subscriber lists comprised of users who are only subscribed to their series.

[AllynCrowe]

I mean, if that's how you guys like to sweet talk it over, sure. I've genuinely expended too much energy on this camp to still be bothered with your rather arbitrary and ever-changing guidelines.
Just know that I am not the only one severely disappointed in Tapas.

[jaberona]

Doesn't it turn it into a "let's see which author has more FB friends and family members" competition?

[kyurenai]

Congratulations to the winners!

As for my suggestion, wouldn't it be nice to maybe invite a writer or two to help out with the contest next time? It can be a premium writer or outside Tapas.

[beta1042]

Really that's your answer to a person who's subscriber list is majority 1sub subscribers? it's called "Commuity pick" is it not? How is bringing in your friends from facebook and social media to sub to your novel and your novel ALONE the community picking a winner?

[kaiwang868]

I think for future Writer's Camp it is better to implement a rule that makes external marketing difficult and/or illegal. Otherwise it would turn into a contest of who has the most Facebook friends, Twitter and Instagram followers. Also authors with huge fanbases from outside Tapas would have a higher chance of winning.

Now you could argue that authors with fan bases outside Tapas would be beneficial to Tapas's business, and I totally get that. Tapas needs to grow its audience to survive in the onslaught of Webnovel, Qidian, Webtoons etc. But it does leave a sore aftertaste for those who thought it was going to be a fair fight based entirely on the quality of the story.