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THE TRIAL

One prompt a month. Everybody writes to it. One entry gets carried into a real book with the writer’s name on it.

The First Trial · The Chronicles

The Unfinished Entry

Write a herald's entry in the keeper's book. It breaks off mid-sentence, because they died in the writing of it. Do not explain what happened, and do not finish the sentence.

1,200 words at the most. shorter is usually better.

Write it at the desk

Your entry

enter it from the desk when you are happy with it

Opening your book...

How it works

  1. 1One entry per member. You can replace your entry any time before the window closes.
  2. 2Write it at the Writing Desk. The authorship record travels with the entry, so the judges can see it was written and not pasted.
  3. 3Twelve hundred words at the most. Shorter is welcome and often better.
  4. 4Entries are read without names attached.
  5. 5You keep the copyright in your own words. Always.

If you win

  • ✦If your entry wins, you are offered a place as a credited co-author on a Cloud Forest Publishing book that grows out of your idea.
  • ✦The credit is real and permanent. Your name goes on the book.
  • ✦The prize is the credit and the copy of the book. It does not include royalties or a share of sales.
  • ✦You would be asked to sign a separate agreement before any of that happens. You are free to read it, take advice on it, and say no.
  • ✦Saying no costs you nothing. Your entry stays yours and stays on your page.

Not open yet, and here is why

The wording above is a plain-language draft. A contest that awards a prize and asks for any rights in your work has to be set up properly, and the rules differ from state to state. Nothing here is binding, no entries are being judged, and the Trial will not open until a solicitor has approved the final terms. You will always keep the copyright in your own words.