Deadline: October 31st 2013
Prizes: $25-$100 usd

The Story Quest Short Story Contest at a glimpse

• One contest a year – Open for Submissions 1 August, closes 31 October.
• Winners and finalists announced mid November.
  
• The contest is restricted to Speculative Fiction, for general adult readership.  Note contest rules regarding content. Not for children.
• Periodically contests will have a broad theme – in these cases stories must adhere accordingly.
• Submissions must be strictly between 1000 to 3000 words – automatic rejection applies otherwise. This is the count of the body of the fiction, not the title, credits or other material included in the submission document.
• The Winner receives $100US cash prize and WILL be published in SQ Mag ezine.
• Second place receives $50US cash prize and WILL be published in SQ Mag ezine.
• Third place receives $25US cash prize and WILL be published in SQ Mag ezine.
• Judges will also identify a short list of non-winning finalists who WILL ALSO be published in SQ Mag ezine.
• Winners and finalists MAY ALSO be published in SQ Mag ezine’s yearly ‘best of’ anthology.
  
• All material published in SQ Mag ezine and potentially its anthology, will be paid a token amount (other than the prize money stated above). All profits reaped by SQ Mag ezine is regenerated into running costs for the site.
  

 
Terms and Conditions

• Stories must be 1000 – 3000 words in length, no exception. Any English idiom is accepted.
  
• Stories must be written with an emphasis on the speculative fiction genres (horror, science fiction and fantasy). Note that the judges will be looking for fresh, character-centric stories with depth of skill in theme and plot construction. Zombies, vampires, elves, hobbits, orcs, are unlikely to get past round one.
  
• Fan fiction, or the like, will be automatically rejected.
  
• Stories must be oriented toward a general adult market – children’s stories will not be accepted, and Young Adult fiction are likely to be rejected.
  
• Up to three entries per author are permitted, but only one work will be considered for the finalist list per author.
• Stories that have been print published in any way, or electronically published with potential wide circulation, are ineligible for entry in this contest. Please disclose if you are unsure – non-disclosure is automatic disqualified.
• Stories may NOT be submitted if they are submitted to other publishers for publication or contests (simultaneously). If at any stage this is proven to be the case, the stories will be immediately disqualified.
  
• The following is automatically rejected: explicit sexual content, overuse of explicit or vulgar language, extreme violence and gore, short stories of a proselytizing/ religious commentary nature . This is not to say that sex, language and religion cannot be used in your submission, but there is a line we have drawn and we have the right to reject without explanation.
• This is a short story contest – we automatically reject poetry, essays, articles, etc.
• The winners and finalists of the contest will be announced within three weeks of closure of the submission window.
• Judges of the contest will consist of two or more staff members or owners of IFWG Publishing, as well as a guest judge from outside of the company. This person will be announced soon after the submission window is opened.
• The judging process consists of 3 rounds. Round 1 is where a ‘first pass’ is expedited, reducing the field (from past experience, it reduces the field by half to quarter of the original number of submissions). Some stories may be declined early if they do not comply with contest rules. Round 2 determines the short list of stories (usually 6 to 8 stories). Round 3 determines the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners.
  
• IFWG Publishing is, by the act of submission by authors, given the right to publish the winning stories and finalists in SQ Mag ezine, which in turn, may mean that any of the stories in this category may be selected for SQ Mag ezine’s annual anthology. There is a token payment for being published in SQ Mag. All rights remain with the authors. Note that first publishing rights are consumed in this process.
• The owners, staff and contracted authors of IFWG Publishing are ineligible for entry into the contest. 
• The winner of the Contest will receive $100US cash prize. Second place will get $50US and third place $25US. There may be other finalists but they will not receive a cash prize.
• All cash winners will need to have a Pay Pal account in order to be paid their awards.
• Submissions are made through the Submittablesystem, and IT WILL state that entering the contest is equivalent to signing a contract for First World Serial Rights and First World Electronic Rights (for publishing in SQ Mag, if applicable), and First World Anthology rights (for publishing in an anthology for SQ Mag, if applicable). Reference is made to a sample contract from SQ Mag that provides full legals of the agreement made to submit. Please read it. It is also advisable to view the plain-English terms at SQ Mag.
• This contest is Void where prohibited by law. 

Via: IFWG Publishing.