The Gather.com short-form writing competition: Entry & submission guidelines

Entries must be:

- 2,000-10,000 words

- In English

- No overly violent or sexually graphic material (no erotica)

- No material that violates copyright laws

- Material contains properly cited material, if need be

- Previously unpublished (except on Gather.com)

- Only one entry permitted per person

Submission Guidelines:

* Email your previously unpublished fiction/nonfiction short (2,000 – 10,000 words) to amazonshorts@gather.com. Articles previously published on Gather are eligible for the contest, but please remove your article from Gather.com prior to submission. In your email, please include your name (first, last), email address, and entry word count.

* You'll receive a confirmation email and link to your entry when it's published by Gather into Gather's Amazon Shorts group (submissions received between June 27 and July 5 will be posted for voting on Gather.com within two business days of July 5). To complete the submission process, click the link in the email to join the contest group on Gather.

* Each contest submission will be "live" on the Gather site within the Amazon Shorts Group for a period of 14 days, regardless of the date it is published. During this two-week period, Gather members will read and rate the story. At the end of this 14-day voting period, each entry will be removed from the site.

* At the end of each month, all entries that were "live" on the site for 14 days will be eligible for the 3 members' choice winners and 1 editors' pick. The winning selections will then be submitted to the Amazon Shorts Team for final approval.

* Entries submitted after the cutoff period for each month will be automatically carried over into the next month's contest. For example, July submissions will be accepted today – July 31, August submissions accepted August 1 – August 31, and September submissions accepted September 1 – September 30.

* Approved winners will be announced on Gather.com and their winning shorts published and sold on Amazon Shorts.

* All Amazon Shorts winners through Gather.com must wait a period of three months (based on entry periods) to submit another entry into the program.

* Writers cannot submit the same entry in multiple contest periods.

* Writers cannot submit entries in two consecutive contest periods. For example, if a writer enters the July competition (entry period today – July 31), and is not selected during the July contest period, he/she cannot re-enter with a new submission until the September contest period begins (on September 1).