This just dropped into my inbox, and though no doubt it did into many other WWers as well, I thought I'd copy it here, in case there's anyone who keeps meaning to send something in.

I had it from the horse's mouth that, try as they will, they find it hard to do justice to the ton of entries that arrive at the last minute, so if you've got something ready, then it might be wise to send it now. But I'm sure that shouldn't outweigh the greater important of getting it absolutely finished and right.

And don't be daunted. The prize lists are full of people who had no idea they might win, and now they publish the longlist even more people get a Wow! moment.

Emma

THE BRIDPORT PRIZE 2007 If you haven't entered already the closing date is fast approaching! 30th June 2007 Open to anyone. Poems up to 42 lines £5000 1st prize Short stories up to 5000 words £5000 1st prize The judges this year are: Tracy Chevalier and Don Paterson The richest OPEN creative writing competition in the English language. Writers’ agents take a keen interest in competitors who reach our long list as well as the winners. In addition: Our top 13 stories are also submitted to the National Short Story Prize if eligible, (£15,000 1st prize). Our top 4 poems are submitted to the Forward Prize, (£1000 1st prize). Neither of the above are open to public entries. Also, the top 26 entries are published in our annual anthology. ENTER ONLINE at www.bridportprize.org.uk Where you can also buy last year’s anthology or download an entry form to enter by post. GOOD LUCK! Jane Gardam the short story judge for 2006 said "Bridport is the HOME of the short story. There is nothing else like the Bridport Prize - what is lovely about the Bridport is that they really do take short stories seriously". Lavinia Greenlaw the poetry judge for 2006 said "I cannot over-state the eminence of this prize".

Thank you for the reminder, Emma. And also for the insight into their response to a flood of last minute entries that's hard to cope with.

It's always been suspected that this is the case, and to have it made concrete is good stuff.

Vanessa

Emma,

I had it from the horse's mouth that, try as they will, they find it hard to do justice to the ton of entries that arrive at the last minute...

Forgive me if I'm wrong, and I haven't time to search the site for your original quote, but I seem to remember you saying in a post that you'd learned that it was sensible to submit early on. If that's the case it's already too late. You'd think, in the interests of fairness, that nothing would be read until after the closing date, otherwise what's the point?

Nell.

Nell, it was the last couple of weeks that the bloke was talking about - of the 4,000 they got in the year I know about, 1,500 came in in the last week. So if you've got something ready now - 7 weeks ahead of the date - and you don't mind tying it up for a little bit longer, it's maybe a bit of an advantage.

The thing is that they have to shake out however many the judge has asked to read - which I guess equates to the longlist - from those thousands of entries by, say 1st August, to give him/her time to read them, and come up with a shortlist by mid-Sept so give the winners time to make sure they can all come to the prize ceremony in November. Given that everything that makes it or nearly makes it onto the longlist is read at least twice, I suspect it would be impossible for the volunteer sifters to read and re-read 20+ million words in two months. And that's before you calculate for the poetry, which I don't know anything about.

Emma

Emma, thanks for clearing that up. It doesn't sound so unreasonable when you explain the process, although I do feel sorry for writers who might come across this info later, having just uploaded their entry at the last minute...

Nell.

<Added>

entries...

I do feel sorry for writers who might come across this info later, having just uploaded their entry at the last minute...

Me too. To be fair, Bridport do recognise the problem, but it's the nature of the beast, I guess: when you enter a competition there are lots of variables you can't control, and that's just one of them.

I once had two stories workshopped and one tutor loved one but just hated the other, though everyone else liked it, and it's since been placed in one or two competitions. She tore it to shreds, though she usually liked my work. In the end she admitted that she had a prejudice against medieval settings. If she'd been a competition judge that story wouldn't have stood a chance, and I couldn't possibly have known that. So while I do understand the impulse to do what one can in the way of timing one's entry and second-guessing the judges' tastes and so on, in the end, it's out of our hands, isn't it.

Emma

Fair enough!

Emma

I'm afraid you've lost me, Emma...

Nell

My last comment is to something which has been removed.

Emma

Now I'm curious rather than bemused - ah well. Thanks for clearing that up though.

Nell

I know I'm coming to this thread rather late, but I don't usually browse this forum.

I feel disappointed reading the comments about late entries, since I sent mine very late. I had assumed they allowed enough time between closing date and publication of results to deal with the entries they receive.

This could surely be solved easily by them formally moving the closing date earlier, rather than it meaning (as this discussion implies) that those who send in early have a greater chance than those who send in late.

I'm not criticising the organisers - just making an observation and suggestion.

Deb

The problem is that since your story is tied up with them - i.e. in theory you shouldn't send it elsewhere - while it's entered, the longer the time between the closing date and the winner being announced, the longer one's stories are tied up. Tell people they have to get their stories in by March, the winner to be announced in August, and they won't do it. I'm sure I'm not the only one who's sent stories to more than one comp, but it's lead to some nervous moments, even with the timings they give at the moment.

If the lead judge is to have long enough to read the longlist, and do it justice, and then they have time to tell all the prizewinners, and the winner turns out to live in NZ and needs time to arrange things to get there... Try as they will, I don't see how they can have more than a month to get the longlist out, and if 1,500 stories arrive in the last week before that month starts counting down, as apparently they do, I can't see that it's altogether their fault.

Emma

Thanks for your explanation, Emma, which raises points I hadn't thought of.

However, if you're more likely to do well if you submit earlier voluntarily, because they struggle to do justice to the final surge of entries, but they can't make an earlier date mandatory else people won't do it, isn't that a bit of a contradiction? If people are willing to do so voluntarily then wouldn't they be willing to do so because the closing date is earlier?

Personally I would far rather the story was 'tied up' for longer than for there to be unfairness, however unintentional. Surely it's far more acceptable for a short story to be tied up for a few months than a novel to be tied up somewhere? It would be to me, anyway.

I do stress that I am not criticising the people who organise the competition in any way - just mulling how this problem could be removed, if indeed it is a problem.

Deb

Well I had real problems with entry dates, not having dozens of competition-grade stories, and I know from writing friends that I'm not alone. By the time you're also trying to take into account the style of the comp, and of the named judge, and the word limit, and so on, you really don't have much choice as to what you could send, and then you can't send it anywhere else. They're often extremely vague about when you'll know the result, too, so you don't even know when it'll be free again, except that it will be after the prize-giving, which might be six or eight months after you submitted the piece.

Putting one of my best two or three stories into Fish (and Fish is fiercely competitive, so there's absolutely no point in putting in lest than your best) meant in theory it was unenterable anywhere else for something like four or five months. Even if you do leave it to the last minute (which may or may not put you at the the aforementioned disadvantage), it's still a real problem. Many magazines, like Cadenza and QWF as I remember, also demand that it's not submitted elsewhere. I do understand that it causes them problems if they commit to something and then discover it's unavailable after all, but it's like submitting novels to publishers: saving them these problems makes the whole system effectively unworkable for the very writers they all say they want to support.

I actually think that Bridport is run about as fairly as is possible. They do their damnedest to be fair: every story that might possibly make it onto the longlist is read at least twice, by two different people. After all, if you're reading a batch, you probably read the tenth slightly differently from the first - maybe less kindly because you're bored, maybe more kindly because you've got your eye in and the hammering next door has stopped. But I don't think there's a system in the world that can altogether counteract that, either.

Emma

<Added>

I do realise you're not criticising the comps. I think the only way to get round it would be for all the comps to drop the demand that you submit exclusively. It would drive them nuts (and make the postbag even bigger) but I suppose you could argue it would be fairer. And if you keep the prohibition most of them have that stories shouldn't have been published or won prizes, which seems eminently fair in comps dedicated to encouraging writers, you'd get some very messy situations with a lot of stories withdrawn later.

Thanks for that, Emma. Yes, I do see what you mean.

Deb