The Stephen King – The Bazaar of Bad Dreams writing competition. #SeanO'Carolan.com #writing #contest

Entering the Competition

1. The Stephen King – The Bazaar of Bad Dreams writing competition (the “Competition”) is open to UK residents aged 18 and over.
2. The Competition is not open to employees or agencies of Guardian News & Media Limited (“GNM”) or Hodder & Stoughton Limited (“Hodder” and, together with GNM, the “Promoters”), their respective group companies or family members, freelance contributors, or anyone else connected to the Competition.
3. By entering this Competition you shall be deemed to have accepted these Terms and Conditions.
4. To enter the Competition you must write a fiction story of maximum 4,000 words, in English (translations are not eligible), on a subject inspired by this line from Stephen King: “There’s something to be said for a shorter, more intense experience. It can be invigorating, sometimes even shocking, like a waltz with a stranger you will never see again, or a kiss in the dark, or a beautiful curio for sale at a street bazaar.”
5. The story must be an original work of fiction and entirely your own work. Your entry must not be copied, must not contain any third-party materials and/or content that you do not have permission to use, must not promote any goods or services or include any trade marks, and must not show inappropriate or dangerous behaviour, or otherwise be obscene, defamatory, distasteful, offensive or in breach of any applicable law or regulation, or in breach of any confidentiality obligations owed by you to third parties. If we have reason to believe your entry is in breach of this paragraph 10 then we may not consider it and may disqualify it.
6. You must send your story by email to bazaar@hodder.co.uk. Submissions should be sent as a simple word document attachment to the email. The word document should include a cover sheet including your copyright eg STORYTITLE copyright © NAMEOFENTRANT, 2015, postal address, email address, telephone number and a word count. The story should be 12 point type, one and a half line spacing, regular margins, running heads with the story title and your copyright, footers with page numbers, THE END (written at the end). If you have any questions about how to enter or otherwise in connection with the Competition, please email us at userhelp@theguardian.com with “Stephen King – The Bazaar of Bad Dreams writing competition” in the subject line.
7. No purchase is necessary to enter the Competition.
8. Only one entry per person. Entries on behalf of another person will not be accepted and joint submissions are not allowed. You are responsible for the cost (if any) of sending your Competition entry to us. The winner shall be the owner of the email address from which the selected winning entry is sent.
9. The Promoters accept no responsibility for entries that are lost, delayed, misdirected or incomplete or cannot be delivered or entered for any technical or other reason. Proof of delivery of the entry is not proof of receipt by the Promoters.
10. The Competition opens at 13:00 on 30 October 2015 and closes at 23:59 on 18 December 2015. Entries received outside this time period will not be considered. The Promoters reserve the right in their absolute discretion to extend the closing date where the entries received are of insufficient quality.
11. You own the copyright to your Competition entry as its author.
12. By submitting an entry to the Competition, you give the Promoters:

    1. Permission for your entry to be published on the Promoters’ respective websites including but not limited to theguardian.com and any websites owned or controlled by Hodder (“the Promoters’ Websites”) and on any social media account controlled by GNM or Hodder, including but not limited to Facebook and Twitter accounts (“the Promoters’ Social Media Accounts”), and you grant the Promoters a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide licence to use and publish your Competition entry in electronic format (including on the Promoters’ Websites and the Promoters’ Social Media Accounts) and hard copy (including in GNM publications) for purposes connected with the Competition, and to adapt the entry to enable such publication (including to crop or otherwise edit it for such purposes), and you hereby irrevocably waive, for the benefit of the Promoters, all moral rights in the entry to which you are entitled; and

    2. The right to use your name and county of residence for the sole purpose of identifying you as the author of your entry and/or as a winner of the Competition.

13. We may disqualify your Competition entry for the following reasons: your entry does not comply with these Terms and Conditions; you have not obtained the consents detailed in paragraph 5 above; you are not eligible to enter the Competition; or you cannot be contacted. In the event of disqualification, we may select a new winner in accordance with the selection processes outlined below.

Picking the winners

1. A team of readers gathered by Hodder will review all entries received in accordance with these Terms and Conditions and draw up a long-list of 20 stories based on the criteria set out in paragraph 15 below. The long-listed submissions will then be assessed by a panel of judges including Philippa Pride, Stephen King’s British editor, Claire Armistead, Guardian books editor and at least one person independent from the Promoters who will select a shortlist of six entries. The short-listed entrants will be notified that they are on the shortlist on or before 24 January 2016 and these entries will be sent to Stephen King, who will pick the winner. Full details of the judging process and the names of the judges are available on request to bazaar@hodder.co.uk.
2. When choosing the long-listed and short-listed entrants and the winner, the readers and judges will consider which is the most original, gripping and chilling story inspired by the sentence set out in paragraph 4 above:
   1. Original – you must come up with the idea and write the story yourself
   2. Gripping – find interesting ways to tell the story, grab the attention of the reader from the first sentence and hold it all the way through
   3. Chilling – the story should unsettle the reader
3. Stephen King will select the winning entry from the shortlisted entries on or after 30 January 2016. His decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into. Entrants must not contact, or try to contact, the readers or judges in any way in connection with the Competition, or otherwise try to influence the judges’ selection of the winner.

The Prizes

1. The name of the winner, and their winning entry, will be published on the Promoters’ Websites after 30 January 2016 and on or before 15 February 2016. They will also get a place on a Guardian weekend Masterclass with Philippa Pride, Stephen King’s UK editor. The winner can choose which Masterclass he or she attends from the following dates in 2016: Saturday and Sunday 12/13 March or Saturday and Sunday 14/15 May.
2. The Promoters accept no responsibility for any costs associated with the prize that are not expressly included in the prize including, without limitation, travel to and from the Masterclass.
3. The winner will be notified by email on or after 31 January 2016 and given details of how to claim their prize. If a winner does not respond to the Promoters within 14 days of being notified of their win, the winner’s prize will be forfeited and the Promoters shall be entitled to select another winner in accordance with the process described above (and that winner will have to respond to notification of their win within 14 days or else they will also forfeit their prize). If a winner rejects their prize or the entry is invalid or in breach of these terms, the winner’s prize will be forfeited and the Promoters shall be entitled to select another winner.
4. The prize is non-exchangeable, non-transferable and not redeemable for cash or any other prize.
5. The Promoters reserve the right to substitute the prize with an alternative prize of similar value in the event that the original prize offered is not available.

Some other rules

1. The name and county of the winner can be obtained after 15 February 2016 by sending a stamped addressed envelope to the following address: Guardian Books, Guardian News & Media Limited, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU.
2. The winner may be required to take part in promotional activity related to the Competition and the winner shall participate in such activity on the Promoters’ reasonable request. The winner consents to the use by the Promoters and their related companies, both before and after the closing date of the Competition for an unlimited time, of the winner’s voice, image, photograph and name for publicity purposes (in any medium, including still photographs and films, and on the internet, including any websites hosted by the Promoters and their related companies) and in advertising, marketing or promotional material without additional compensation or prior notice and, in entering the Competition, all entrants consent to the same.
3. The Promoters shall use and take care of any personal information you supply to them as described in their privacy policy, copies of which can be seen athttp://www.theguardian.com/help/privacy-policy andhttp://microsites.hodder.co.uk/tescoroguelawyer/HodderandStoughton-PrivacyPolicy-June2015.pdf, and in accordance with data protection legislation. By entering the Competition, you agree to the collection, retention, usage and distribution of your personal information in order to process and contact you about your Competition entry, and for the purposes outlined in paragraph 21 above.
4. The Promoters accept no responsibility for any damage, loss, liabilities, injury or disappointment incurred or suffered by you as a result of entering the Competition or accepting the prize. Nothing in these Terms and Conditions shall exclude the liability of the Promoters under law for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for death or personal injury resulting from its negligence.
5. The Promoters reserve the right at any time and from time to time to modify or discontinue, temporarily or permanently, this Competition with or without prior notice due to reasons outside its reasonable control (including, without limitation, in the case of anticipated, suspected or actual fraud). The decision of the Promoters in all matters relating to the Competition is final and no correspondence will be entered into.
6. The Promoters shall not be liable for any failure to comply with their obligations relating to this Competition where the failure is caused by something outside their reasonable control. Such circumstances shall include, but not be limited to, weather conditions, fire, flood, hurricane, strike, industrial dispute, war, hostilities, political unrest, riots, civil commotion, inevitable accidents, supervening legislation or any other circumstances amounting to force majeure.
7. The Competition and these Terms and Conditions will be governed by English law and entrants to the Competition submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.
8. The Promoters: Guardian News & Media Limited, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London, N1 9GU / Hodder & Stoughton Ltd, Carmelite House, 50 Victoria Embankment, London EC4Y 0DZ.