Terms & Conditions
(Submission Guidelines below)
Welcome to the Dawnless Night: Forged in Cold Contest!
Forged in Cold is a collection of short stories that will be published in 2024. It will include 6 stories in total (see exceptions below), set in the world of the Dawnless Night Series.
4 stories will be co-written by U. G. Gutman and Tea Danilović.
2 stories will be written by authors partaking in this contest.
The winning authors will be rewarded with a cash prize and their stories published in our collection.
The vision of this contest is to give authors an opportunity to be published. All these terms are meant to assist in fulfilling this vision.
Please read these terms before signing up for the contest.
Once a story is submitted, it’s considered signed up for the contest, and it confirms the author of the story has read the terms and agreed to them.
- The winning story will be added to a short story collection that takes place in the world of the Dawnless Night Series (same world as Winds of Strife).
- You may write in Hebrew or in English.
If the story was written in Hebrew, you may use original words like “Senspirity” in their English form or make up a translation.
If a Hebrew story makes it to the finals, the judging team will translate it into English.
If it wins, it will be published in English. - Each entry should be 2500-8000 words long. You may cross these boundaries slightly, but only with permission, and it might impact your final score if the exception isn’t warranted.
- The story must take place in the world of the Dawnless Night Series or use characters from that world. Essentially, the story must be some form of fanfiction.
- Please avoid writing a story that is too similar to the 4 stories already written for this collection.
These stories are:
A) Diane Prequel: the day she met Nye for the first time and her life before that
B) Cobald and Glitter Prequel: the day they were kicked out of home as teenagers
C) Lucin, Lylin’s sister, starting with the night that Nye kidnapped Lylin: what happened from Lucin’s point of view and what happened to her after. This story extends beyond the timeline of Winds of Strife, showing what happened in the kingdom after the end of the first book
D) Alliddar Prequel: The legendary battle of Scarlet Mountain, the preparations for it, involving Trezoss and Emittar as well - Categories:
A winner will be chosen for each of the following categories:
A) Canon
The term “canon” refers to materials that are confirmed as authentic parts of the official story.
Submit to this category if your story aligns with the lore, world, timeline, and official story of Winds of Strife.
You may check a few ideas in the Prompts page.
If you need help with the details of the world, contact us via email at fanficcontest2023@gmail.com
To maintain anonimity, the questions and their answers will be delivered through a mediator.
B) “What if”
In this category, we call for stories that do not try to align with the official canon. These are stories that stray from the main path by asking “what if” questions. Here are some examples:- What if Glitter and Hainoch broke up?
- What if Diane had protected herself from Nye and killed him?
- What if Nye was a real man on Earth?
- What if Glitter was real and went to search for dates on Tinder?
- What if the Mazriv never hit?
- You may check more ideas in the Prompts page.
- The judging for “Canon” stories and “What if” stories will be separate. The choice of the winner will also be separate. The contest will have two winners, one for “Canon”, and one for “What if”. You may check out the judging criteria here.
- The organizers retain the right to not choose a winner in any of the two categories (or both) if there are no satisfying entries within those categories.
- It is possible the judging team will fail to choose between several stories. In this case, all the stories with the top scores will be announced as winners. Every author of every winning story will receive the full amount of the prize money.
- Copyright
Once you submit the story, you agree to these terms:
– The author U. G. Gutman is allowed to publish this story as a part of his short story collection.
– The author U. G. Gutman is allowed to edit and translate this story before publishing it, through cooperative work with the winning contestant.
– The author of the winning story has the right to receive credit on the cover of the short story collection, as well as inside the book (in the credits page, and in the pages of the short story itself).
– The author of the story has no other rights to the story. Given that this story is based on the works of U. G. Gutman in the world of The Dawnless Night Series, he owns all the rights for any related work, including the entries to this contest.
– It is possible to acquire partial, non-exclusive rights for the story (like publishing it on personal social media or selling it independently). If you’re interested in such rights, please reach out to U. G. Gutman and come to a written agreement before publishing the story anywhere else.
– All royalties for the short story collection belong to U. G. Gutman. The only capital that the author of the winning story is entitled to is the prize money, which will be awarded within 30 days of announcing the winners. - The prize money for a winning story is USD 100 for each category and will be sent via PayPal. Alternatively, the NIS equivalent of USD 100, according to the rates on the date of payment, will be sent via bit. The prize money will be sent within 30 days of announcing the winners. If there are no winners, prize money will not be awarded.
- It is possible to submit more than one story, either in the same category or across different categories. However, every author is eligible for a maximum of one prize.
- There is no obligation to hire a proofreader or beta readers for the short story before submitting it, but it is strongly recommended. The judging team is likely to take into their consideration grammar and technical mistakes.
- The final date of submission is 16/10/2023.
- You may approach us with any questions, technical or canon. For technical questions, please use the Question Form. For canon, lore, and other story related questions, please contact us via this email: fanficcontest2023@gmail.com without including any personal information in the body of the email. The text will be processed by a mediator and sent to U. G. Gutman without any names attached.
- The contest is open to both minors and adults. However, if you are a minor, please have your parents agree to your participation in written form – either printed or email or via the contest’s Submission Form.
- You may not submit a story written by a team of authors.
- You may tackle sensitive topics, such as abuse, discrimination, sex, etc. You are, however, not allowed to endorse or normalize discriminatory behavior or abuse in any way. When submitting your entry, please input all the trigger warnings into the appropriate field.
- Entries do not have to align in style, genre, or tense, with Winds of Strife. You may write in first, second, or third person, and may borrow from and lean heavily on other genres (e.g. horror, comedy, romance, etc.)
- Using any kind of AI/ML software for writing the story is strictly prohibited. Using spell-check software, such as Grammarly or Word/Docs, is allowed.
- Stories that do not win the contest will, regardless, receive feedback from the judges, no more than 90 days after the end of the contest.
- You may send stories that have previously been sent to other contests (provided the organizers do not own the rights). However, given that this story must be a fanfiction of Winds of Strife, it is unlikely that such cases will happen.
- You may not add illustrations to the story, or any other decoration that may affect the judging.
- The decision of the judges is indisputable.
- You may not submit any story that wasn’t written by you. Any case of plagiarism will result in removal from the contest. U. G. Gutman and the judging team will not be liable in the case of a trial.
- You may not submit a story based on real individuals without their approval. If a story like that is submitted, and the individual seeks to sue, the liability is on the author of the short story alone. U. G. Gutman and the judging team are not liable in the case of a trial.
- Anyone may participate in the contest, from any place in the world, with any kind of literary background. The judging team does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, gender, marital status, age, sexual orientation, disability or any other potentially discriminatory factors or circumstances.
Submission guidelines:
Submission is only possible through this form: Submission Form
Anyone who has not submitted through this form will not be signed up to the contest.
You may submit more than one story.
Do not use your real name or any other means of personal identification in the document containing the short story. Follow the instructions for generating an identification code and do not input your name or other personal information outside of the fields specifically meant for that purpose.
Any entry including personal information that can be used to identify the contestant will be removed from the contest.
The stories must be submitted in PDF format only. The length of the entry should be between 2500-8000 words, and the entry should be written in a common font (David for Hebrew, Times New Roman, Arial, or Open Sans for English).
- The final submission date is 16/10/2023. You may submit at any time before this date.
- The winner announcement date depends on the size of the contest and will be announced after the contest is closed for submissions.