1. Overview
Flash Pot Fiction is a skill-based writing contest built around a recurring challenge: entrants pay an entry fee and submit an original piece of fiction before a fixed deadline for that contest cycle. Contest cycles do not run on a fixed calendar schedule — each cycle's own open and close dates are announced individually and posted at flashpotfiction.com. Each contest cycle has its own word limit and may have its own genre, subject, or prompt restriction (or none at all); the specifics for the current cycle are posted at flashpotfiction.com before that cycle opens and remain fixed for the duration of that cycle. The winner is selected solely on judged merit. This is not a lottery, raffle, sweepstakes, or game of chance.
2. Eligibility
- Entrants must be at least 18 years of age at the time of entry.
- Open to entrants worldwide, except where entry or receipt of a prize would violate the entrant's local law, and except residents of the Province of Quebec, Canada, who are not eligible to enter.
- Entrants are solely responsible for researching and complying with any laws applicable to their participation in their own country, province, state, or other jurisdiction, including but not limited to sweepstakes, contest, gaming, and publicity contest laws, and for confirming their own eligibility to enter and to receive a prize before doing so.
- Limit of one entry per person, per contest cycle, unless otherwise stated. Entrants who wish to submit more than one story in a cycle may do so by paying a separate entry fee for each submission.
- Immediate family members, employees, contractors, and judges of the organizer may enter this contest, but are not eligible to be awarded first place or the prize pool. Such an entrant must disclose their status as an immediate family member, employee, contractor, or judge of the organizer in writing at the time of entry. If an entry excluded from first place under this bullet would otherwise be selected as the winner based on judged merit, that entry is passed over for the prize, the next-highest-scoring eligible entry is declared the winner instead, and the passed-over entry remains eligible to be named an honorable mention (see Section 4). Where a judge is also an entrant in the same contest cycle, see Section 4 for the additional safeguards that apply.
3. How to Enter
- Entry requires payment of the fixed entry fee at the time of registration ($25 CAD, processed via Stripe).
- This is a fiction challenge. Unless a specific genre, subject, or prompt restriction is posted for that contest cycle, the entrant may write a work of fiction about any subject, in any genre, of their choosing.
- Submissions must be written in English. Submissions in any other language will not be accepted or judged.
- The entrant may submit their story at any time after payment, up until the fixed submission deadline for that contest cycle.
- Submissions must not exceed the word limit posted for that contest cycle.
- Late submissions are not accepted or judged. Entry fees for late or non-submitted entries are non-refundable, except as described under Refunds (Section 10).
4. Judging
- The organizer may review entries prior to judging to confirm compliance with entry requirements, including originality and authorship.
- All eligible submissions are reviewed by a panel of judges selected by the organizer.
- This is a blind contest: judges review only the title and text of each submission. Judges are never shown the entrant's name, email address, city, or any other identifying information.
- Submissions must not contain the entrant's name, email address, or any other identifying information anywhere in the story itself (including a byline, dedication, or signature). A submission found to contain identifying information will be disqualified.
- A judge must recuse themselves from any entry they suspect they have a personal connection to, including their own entry if the judge is also an entrant in that contest cycle. Where a judge is also an entrant, the organizer will additionally exclude that judge's own entry from the batch of entries assigned to that judge for scoring, so far as the organizer's pre-screening process allows.
- An entrant who is aware of a personal connection to a judge that could reasonably affect the outcome of their entry must disclose this to the organizer in writing before entries close for that contest cycle. Failure to disclose a known conflict may result in disqualification.
- Judging criteria include, without limitation, craft and originality.
- Judges' decisions are final.
- This is a skill-based competition: prizes are awarded solely on the judged merit of each submission, never by random selection, drawing, or chance of any kind.
- In addition to the winner, the organizer may name a number of "honorable mentions" for a contest cycle, at the organizer's discretion, targeting approximately five to ten honorable mentions depending on the number of entries received in that cycle. Honorable mention recognition does not itself include prize money.
Interested in judging a future contest cycle? If you have a sharp eye for story craft and want to help find the next winner, contact admin@flashpotfiction.com to inquire about becoming a judge.
5. The Prize Pool
- Fifty percent (50%) of every entry fee collected is allocated directly to the prize pool. Payment processing costs are borne by the organizer and are never deducted from the pool — the full 50% reaches the pool.
- Every eligible entrant is eligible to win the full prize pool, regardless of when their entry was submitted during the cycle.
- The prize pool is capped at $25,000 CAD per contest cycle.
- Once the prize pool reaches this cap for a contest cycle, entry fees collected for the remainder of that cycle are retained by the organizer rather than added to the pool.
- If the calculated pool would otherwise fall below a guaranteed floor, the organizer funds the difference so the pool meets a guaranteed minimum of $200 CAD for that cycle.
6. Prize Payment & Winner Obligations
- The winner is notified via the email address provided at entry.
- Before payment, the winner may be required to complete applicable tax documentation (including, if United States-based, IRS Form W-9) and to verify their identity and eligibility.
- Prizes are paid via a method to be determined.
- A winner who does not respond to notification within 30 days, or who fails to provide required documentation, may forfeit the prize.
7. Publicity Release
- Except where prohibited by law, by accepting a prize or honorable mention recognition, the entrant grants the organizer a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide right to use their name, city/province or state of residence, and any statements they provide about their experience with the contest, in connection with announcing results and promoting the contest and future contest cycles, in any medium now known or later developed, without additional compensation.
- This release covers the entrant's name, likeness for these limited promotional purposes, and public statements only. It does not itself grant any right to publish an entrant's submitted story — publication and anthology rights are addressed separately in Section 9 (Entry Content, Originality & Rights).
- An entrant may decline the publicity release in writing at the time of prize notification; doing so does not affect their eligibility to receive the prize itself, but the organizer may still refer to the contest results (for example, cycle number and winning entry) without using the declining entrant's name.
8. Taxes
- The winner is solely responsible for any taxes, duties, or fees owed on their prize under the law of their own country, province, state, or other jurisdiction of residence.
- The organizer issues tax reporting documentation where required by applicable law, including a Form 1099-MISC if the winner is United States-based and their prize meets or exceeds the applicable federal reporting threshold, and any Canadian tax reporting required under Canadian law.
- The organizer does not provide tax advice. The winner is encouraged to consult a qualified tax professional in their own jurisdiction regarding their prize.
9. Entry Content, Originality & Rights
- Each entrant represents and warrants that their submission is their own original work, has not been previously published, has not won or placed in any other contest, does not infringe any third party's rights, and was not generated, in whole or substantial part, by artificial intelligence. Any determination regarding suspected AI-generated content, including whether a submission is disqualified on that basis, is made entirely at the organizer's discretion.
- Entrants may submit more than one original piece, provided a separate entry fee is paid for each. Simultaneous submissions are not accepted — a piece submitted to this contest may not, at the same time, be under consideration by another contest, publication, or similar opportunity. If a submitted piece is accepted elsewhere while still under consideration here, the entrant must withdraw it from this contest immediately.
- Entrants retain copyright ownership of their submitted work.
- By submitting an entry, the entrant grants the organizer a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to reproduce, display, and distribute the submission for purposes of judging, contest administration, and promotion of the contest.
- Entry into the contest does not, by itself, grant the organizer any right to publish a submission in a contest anthology or similar publication. As a condition of accepting the prize, the writer of the winning entry grants the organizer first anthology publication rights to their story; this grant is a term of the prize itself and is not subject to the winner's further approval. A winner may decline to grant these publication rights, but doing so means declining the prize itself — the prize and the rights grant are not separable, and the organizer will not pay a winner who declines the rights grant a reduced or alternative prize. Compensation for these rights is included within, and not in addition to, the prize money awarded, provided that the prize money awarded is equal to or exceeds the amount that would otherwise be payable at a professional rate calculated per word (currently benchmarked to SFWA's minimum professional short-fiction rate of US$0.08 per word); if it does not, the organizer will pay the entrant the difference.
- Being named an honorable mention does not by itself entitle a writer to an anthology rights offer. The organizer may, at the organizer's discretion, separately offer the writer of some, all, or none of a cycle's honorable mentions the opportunity to sell the organizer first anthology publication rights to their story; this discretion exists because the number of honorable mentions named in a cycle may make it impractical or undesirable for the organizer to acquire rights to every one of them. Where such an offer is made and accepted, the writer is paid directly, in full, at a professional rate calculated per word (currently benchmarked to SFWA's minimum professional short-fiction rate of US$0.08 per word), as a stand-alone payment separate from and in addition to any recognition received for being named an honorable mention.
10. Refunds
- Entry fees are non-refundable once payment is confirmed, except where the organizer cancels a contest cycle in its entirety, or where a verified technical error on the organizer's platform prevented a timely submission.
11. Modifications, Cancellation & Force Majeure
- These rules are currently in draft form and under legal review; they have not yet received final legal sign-off. The organizer may revise these rules, including material terms, before or during the current contest cycle. The version of these rules posted on this page at any given time is the version in effect, and by entering the contest, the entrant agrees to be bound by these rules as they may be revised from time to time, and is responsible for checking the posted rules for changes.
- The organizer reserves the right to modify these rules for future contest cycles, and to postpone, modify, or cancel a contest cycle at its discretion, including for reasons beyond the organizer's control.
- Material changes to these rules will be posted before the opening of the affected contest cycle.
- If a contest cycle is disrupted or cannot proceed as planned due to circumstances beyond the organizer's reasonable control — including but not limited to internet or hosting outages, payment processor failures, illness or incapacity of contest personnel, natural disaster, or other force majeure events — the organizer may postpone, modify, extend, or cancel the affected contest cycle, and may take such corrective action as the organizer deems appropriate to preserve the fairness of the contest.
- If a significant error or force majeure event affecting the integrity of a contest cycle is discovered after prizes have already been awarded, the organizer may, at its discretion, require the return of an awarded prize before issuing a corrected result, or take such other corrective action as the organizer deems appropriate.
12. No Responsibility for Technical Failures
- The organizer is not responsible for lost, late, incomplete, corrupted, or misdirected entries, submissions, payments, or communications resulting from technical failures of any kind, including failures of the organizer's website, payment processor, email delivery, or hosting provider, or of the entrant's own device, software, or internet connection.
- It is the entrant's sole responsibility to retain a copy of their submission and their entry confirmation, and to ensure their contact information is accurate and monitored throughout the contest cycle.
13. Security & Prohibited Conduct
- Any attempt to interfere with, disrupt, or gain unauthorized access to the contest, the organizer's website, or the accounts, payments, or submissions of other entrants is strictly prohibited and may violate applicable civil and criminal law.
- The organizer reserves the right to disqualify, without refund, any entrant who engages in such conduct, and to pursue any available legal remedy.
14. Limitation of Liability
- To the maximum extent permitted by law, the organizer's total liability to any entrant arising out of or in connection with the contest, for any cause whatsoever, is limited to the entry fee paid by that entrant.
- The organizer is not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, or consequential damages arising from participation in the contest.
15. Indemnification
By entering the contest, the entrant agrees to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless the organizer from and against any third-party claims, damages, losses, or expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or related to the entrant's submission, the entrant's breach of these rules, or the entrant's violation of any third party's rights.
16. Governing Law & Disputes
These rules and any dispute arising from this contest are governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada applicable therein, without regard to conflict of law principles.
Placeholder — dispute resolution process (litigation vs. arbitration) to be finalized by legal counsel.
17. General Provisions
- Severability. If any provision of these rules is held to be invalid, illegal, or unenforceable by a court or other tribunal of competent jurisdiction, that provision is severed, and the remaining provisions of these rules continue in full force and effect.
- Entire Agreement. These rules, together with the Privacy Policy referenced in Section 18, constitute the entire agreement between the entrant and the organizer regarding the contest, and supersede any prior or contemporaneous understandings, representations, or agreements, whether written or oral, relating to the contest.
- No Waiver. The organizer's failure to enforce any provision of these rules, or to exercise any right or remedy available to it, is not a waiver of that provision, right, or remedy, and does not prevent the organizer from later enforcing that or any other provision.
- Assignment. The organizer may assign or transfer its rights and obligations under these rules, including in connection with a change in ownership or structure of the contest, without the entrant's consent. An entrant may not assign or transfer any right or obligation under these rules without the organizer's prior written consent.
18. Privacy
Personal information collected in connection with entry (including name and email address) is handled in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
19. Contact Us
Questions about these rules or an active contest cycle can be directed to admin@flashpotfiction.com.