Advanced Announcement: Entering during the Super Early Bird or Early Bird periods means you receive the news of whether your work is being considered for the final prize or not before the next submission deadline. This means you have a chance to revise and resubmit if you wish, submit something else, or just save yourself an extra few months of waiting for the final announcement.
Discounted Entry Price: Super Early Bird entrants receive a 20% concession (£16.00 vs. £20.00) while Early Bird entrants receive a 10% concession (£18.00).
How does the Feedback system work?
Entrants are given the choice of entering with or without feedback. You can check the box during submission, which will charge an extra £8.00 on top of the listed entry fee. Here's what you get:
Performance Report
Our performance reports are generated using the scores given by the judge reading your work. We use five metrics to create a 'total overall score' value out of twenty-five. Pieces scoring above twenty (above average on all metrics) automatically move forward to the next stage of judging. Those which score close to this margin are reviewed again before the results are released to check we're not missing anything great! Those entrants whose overall score falls below a lower threshold are then informed that their work is not moving on to the longlist re-reading phase. We feel that giving entrants the chance to know how their work stacked up in the field is imperative for them to make an informed decision about where to go next, and how to handle their edits and revisions moving forward.
But it's not only scores you get. Each score comes with a piece of feedback that describes the way that the judge felt when reading your work. Each individual value across each metric has a description which validates it in respect of your work. These descriptions also provide some generalised guidance for how you might look to further develop your piece.
Personalised Feedback
At the bottom of the Performance Report, you'll find your personalised feedback. This has been written by your judge, and should provide a more detailed overview of what they thought of the work, how it faired, what held it back, and crucially, what could be improved.
Grindstone is dedicated to providing the best competition experience and the best opportunities to writers possible. It's why we work with the best agents, offer support, and put your work front and centre.
We can't wait to ready your entries! Check out the information below and head to our site for the full details on how to enter.
