We're Sponsoring (Some) Contests Now

Since day one, contests have been coming to us asking for sponsorship, advertising, or promotion. Every single time, we've said no. We've never been interested in a paid advertising revenue model. Our focus has always been on making a quality experience for our users in exchange for money. Weird business model, we know.

The main reason we've steered clear of contest sponsorships is simple. Unfortunately, so many contests are weird, obscure money grabs (or very prestigious, popular, well-respected money-grabs). They charge high fees, offer tiny prizes, and provide zero transparency about their judging process. Writers end up throwing money at contests that might not even be legitimate, with no way to tell the good from the bad.

But we want this industry to survive. And for many magazines (who aren't deeply connected), contests are their only means of fundraising.

So instead of taking money to sponsor contests, we're doing something different. We're offering sponsorship completely free to qualifying annual contests through our contest transparency partnership. Here's the deal:

• Anyone who submits gets 1 month free of Chill Subs Best ($20 value)
• All finalists receive 1 year of free access ($200 value)
• The winner gets 5 years of free access to our platform ($1000 value)

All you need to do is score above 7 on our contest transparency calculator and verify it with our team.

Our calculator is designed to reward consistency, transparency, and fair play. It is not designed to punish organizations that use contests as a means of fundraising. We want to highlight and partner with contests that treat writers with respect and operate with integrity. It is not a perfect tool, but we’re confident that to get above a 7 in its current form, a contest needs to go above and beyond in one area or another.

The scoring breaks down as follows: Prize pool: 15%, Entry fee: 15%, Transparency: 25%, Organizer credibility: 15%, Contest history: 10%, Prize structure: 10%, Bonus points: 10%. You can read all about each of these in our calculator breakdown here (click the “?”). We also apply red flag penalties for dick moves (no contact info, fee with no prize, etc.). You can explore our calculator and test your own contest score here.

For now, this is only for annual contests focusing on short creative works. We will work on book contests later.

Let's be clear: this isn't pure altruism. The more money you save by avoiding trash contests, the more you'll have to spend on tools and services that actually help your writing career (like the ones Chill Subs makes. Random example, no relation).

We believe that by highlighting legitimate, transparent contests and warning writers away from questionable ones, we're creating a healthier ecosystem for everyone. Writers save money and time. Good contests get more quality submissions. And predatory contests can go ride a bike! (I’ve been given an f-word quota, so.)

If you run a contest that meets our guidelines for sponsorship, please fill out this application.

We will be doing periodic round up announcements for contests that meet these standards in our newsletters, and this will be the only way we promote any contests. Period. So there's no need to pay us for an ad. Take that money you would have spent on advertising, stack it on top of your prize pool, make a few adjustments to get over 7 on our calculator, and we'll be happy to help.