There is only one more week (6 days and 7 hours by my watch!) to submit to our inaugural Flash Fiction contest! So polish up that flash and send it in here.
I’ve noticed that often deadlines are extended for literary contests. It seems like there would be only two reasons for extending a contest deadline (reasons why the original deadline did not do the trick):
- A promising “winner” had not yet been found among any of the entrants thus far
- The magazine had really hoped to raise more money.
Either way, I feel like the deadline-extension ritual sends a confusing message to the writer community, especially those who have already entered the contest and paid a submission fee. And to me it really hits a wrong note when it’s a well-known magazine with a high-profile judge.
Perhaps I’m being unfair. Maybe there are other reasons I can’t think of why a magazine might extend their deadline. Maybe the magazine wishes they had marketed it better. Or maybe they received several emails from people saying they’d love to enter but need a few more days to polish up a story. But many times these deadlines are extended a week or more before the original deadline, which means the magazine is at least good enough at marketing to plan a “deadline extension” email campaign. And, to me, a week also affords friends enough time to polish up a story.
So long story short: we will not be extending our deadline. We feel like our original deadline does the trick just fine. We want to thank everybody who has submitted so far.
And for the rest of you, this is your week’s notice!
Please enter by midnight Eastern time on Sunday, October 22nd.
