Ralan.com needs you!

[Robert_Moriyama]

As some of you already know, Ralan Conley runs an excellent resource for genre writers,

http://www.ralan.com

The FREE site provides contact information and guidelines (or links to same) for dozens if not hundreds of print and web publications, '4theluv' (like Aphelion), Paying (for markets that pay cash, but at less than SFWA rates), and Pro (.05 US$ per word? or has it gone up), as well as anthologies, book publishers, etc. It also contains links to various writers' resources.

To fund this activity, Ralan runs an annual 'Spectravaganza' contest. This year it's a 'Grabber' contest (entrants submit only the first 500 words of a 2000 - 5000 word story), with a $20 entry fee, but prizes of up to $300 - $500 (depending on the number of entries). (I netted $80 ($100 minus the entry fee) for 'Honorable Mention B' (5th place) two years in a row, but am one of the preliminary judges this year, so I'm not allowed to enter :'(). If $20 is too steep, or you have no suitable stories in your attic or your head, you can also make a contribution via PayPal.

As of August 11, Ralan had only received EIGHT entries. $160 ain't gonna pay the bills, folks. If you have ever used ralan.com, or think you might use it in the future, please enter the contest or make a less-than-$20 donation so Ralan knows that his work is appreciated.

Robert M.

[Robert_Moriyama]

As of August 16th, there STILL have only been only 8 entries in the contest. I don't know how many non-entry donations have been made, but more would be better. C'mon -- $20 USD is only about one week's worth of lattes from Starbucks (which is run by Dr. Evil anyway). >:(

Robert M.

[Robert_Moriyama]

Greg

... By all means, check it out and SPREAD THE WORD!

Robert M.

[Megawatts]

I'll check it out!

[Robert_Moriyama]

already sent a couple of shorts to places didn't know about previously. thx again Rob!

Lee

Don't thank me, thank Ralan Conley. (You can't go wrong with 'PayPal' when words are not enough ...)

Robert M.

[Robert_Moriyama]

you have a proofreader? i should be so lucky!


Rob 'em, are you saying contributions are in order?

Lee

"Rob 'em"? Hey, I didn't set the entry fee ... yes, by all means. Not that Ralan minds getting non-entry-fee donations, but the more entries, the more money in the prize pot. You can even submit multiple entries (each with a $20 entry fee). Robert J. Santa won first AND third place a couple of years ago ... Oh, wait. By 'contributions', did you mean 'donations'? Either way. Send money. Send submissions. Send both.

Robert M.

[Robert_Moriyama]

(You can't go wrong with 'PayPal' when words are not enough ...)

Robert M.

Yes you can, in fact. I have to admit, this is second-hand information, as I do not have a PayPal account myself. The thing is, I wanted to order something from a site at which PayPal was the only accepted means of payment. So I figured I'd get myself a PayPal account. Before I did, I went looking on the net for information about PayPal, and what experiences others had had with it. This is what I found: http://www.paypalsucks.com

As I said, it's second-hand information, so I do not know that any of this is true, but it was enough to scare me away from PayPal altogether. I'm not trying to advertise another solution, as I didn't find one. I just did without that particular item.

- Wishbone

If you opt to pay by credit card without registering with PayPal, in this case, PayPal still processes the transaction, but it functions as a 'merchant' (i.e., the charge shows up on your credit card statement as 'PAYPAL * RALAN.COM'). I suspect that most complaints about PayPal are due to either crappy practices by MERCHANTS -- the rest are of the sort that any financial institution attracts (and earns). Please don't hold that against Ralan!

Robert M.

[Robert_Moriyama]

Rob:

yes, was referring to actual money contributions and thinking why would Ralan be interested in those.

Lee

'Coz it presumably costs money to actually keep the domain name(s) registered and the server serving ... to say nothing of the time to read, input, and organize the tips and updates and such. It isn't like the web space that your ISP (or MySpace, or whatever) provides 'for free', with the loooong URLs. Near as I can tell, Ralan does most of this by himself, with technical support from a friend or two. Dunno who pays for registration and server space for Aphelion, but SOMEBODY does. Dan? Rob? How much does it cost (aside from donated time and energy) to keep Aphelion, the lettercol, and the archives up and running?

Robert M.

[Robert_Moriyama]

Hmm ... that certainly explains why Ralan might want to raise money, although he uses a lot less storage space than Aphelion does.

Maybe Aphelion should hold a fundraiser! (We could model it after those wonderful (and damn near continuous) PBS deals -- every 1500 words or so of a story, we'd hit the readers with a pop-up demand for ransom -- er, a donation -- until they paid up ... As the sole source for Nightwatch, Mare Inebrium, and (ahem) Al Majius stories, we're in an excellent position to blackmail -- er, solicit donations. ;)

Robert "Maybe if we threw in some Ginsu knives" M.

[Robert_Moriyama]

Ralan received a total of 87 entries (the highest number ever), plus some non-entry contributions. To any Aphelion readers (or Aphelion LETTERCOL readers, anyway) who entered the contest or sent in a non-entry contribution, muchas gracias.

The five Preliminary judges (including yr esteemed short story editor) have (or are supposed to have) forwarded their 10 favorites to Ralan; Ralan will reconcile the 5 lists somehow and send a list of 10 finalists to the Pro judges, who will pick the top 5.

Top prize for the contest will be $400; 2nd place $300; 3rd place $200; and 4th and 5th places ('Honorable Mentions') $100 each. So the entry fees will actually only net him (87 * (20 - 3)) - 1100 = 1646.04 - 1100 = $546.04. (PayPal fees ate $1.08 per $20 entry fee ...)

Robert M.