Million Writers Award was a short story literary award presented annually by storySouth [1] [2] from 2003 to 2016. [3] [4] It honored the best online short stories. The award was structured to be egalitarian allowing for anyone to nominate a story including readers, authors, editors and publishers; prize money was donated by readers and writers; and the winners were selected by public vote from a short-list of entries selected by judges. [5] [6]
The Million Writers Award was founded by author Jason Sanford in 2003 at a time when the literary establishment "didn't believe online magazines were legitimate places to publish fiction," seeing it as a fad. [7] [8] Sanford set out to honor and highlight online only publications and stories with the award. [8]
Stories eligible for the award include those first published in online literary journals, magazines, and e-zines that have an editorial process. [7] The award had a variable cash prize, in 2011 for example it was $600 for the winner, $200 for the runner-up and $100 for third place. [5] Prize money was raised through donations from writers, editors and readers and thus fluctuates each year. [5] Anyone could nominate up to one story, while editors and publishers can nominate three stories. Stories must be at least 1000 words. [5]
The award became one of the premier online literary awards and was named a Hot Site by USA Today . [9] The award was profiled in a six-page feature interview with editor Jason Sanford in the 2005 Novel and Short Story Writer's Market [10] and mentioned in The 100 Best Trends, 2006: Emerging Developments You Can't Afford to Ignore as an example of the emerging online literary movement. [11]
In 2012 Spotlight Publishing released two anthologies of stories from the Million Writers Award, with one focused on literary stories and the other on science fiction and fantasy stories. [12] [13] [1]
Previous winners. [14]
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016