Ink of Ages Update #3 🔎📊 The stats, while you’re waiting

Welcome to the 3rd issue of the Ink of Ages Update, a monthly email by me, Joanne Taylor, with a focus on writing, reading, and well ... more writing. Thanks for being here! If this email was forwarded to you, you can sign up here.

02 October 2024

Hey, Submitter

Submissions for the Ink of Ages Fiction Prize closed on 15 September, and every entrant will hear from us (probably me) by email about whether their story made the longlist just before the longlist is announced on 18 November. So, what are we doing in the meantime?

The stats for this year’s stories

• Last year we had 148 entries and only ran the adult category.
• There was a 50/50 historical/mythology split.
• This year we had 404 adult entries and 107 teen entries!
• Interestingly, the youth category shows a 50/50 split, whereas the adult category has 64% historical and 36% mythology-inspired fiction. Fascinating 🤓

What's happening to your submission

• Google Forms adds the author’s name to the end of every file submission, so I run some code that deletes that part of the file name. Now we can read entries anonymously. It works like magic and makes me very happy.

• Duplicate entries are removed. Some people accidentally submitted the same story twice. Others submitted two different stories – against the rules – in which case we only accept the first entry.

• Our World History Encyclopedia (WHE) staff and volunteers are reading your short stories. Content director Josh has already read so many that I’m racing to catch up! Everyone is briefed and extra fiction fans from the WHE book reviewing team have been welcomed to help.

• Reminders are sent for missing consent forms for the youth entries. I realized too late I made more admin tasks for myself there 😅

While I’m thinking about Google Forms, several people asked for a separate confirmation email after they submit next year. Is that something you’d appreciate? Hit reply and let me know. We’re looking for alternatives to Google Forms.

Next month I’ll be sharing initial impressions and feedback from the team on this year’s submissions.

Happy hopefully-something-other-than-waiting!

Joanne

Ink of Ages Fiction Prize is run by World History Encyclopedia and generously sponsored by Oxford University Press.

Joanne Taylor

Proofreader & Editor

World History Encyclopedia

https://www.worldhistory.org