Flash Fiction Writing Contest Rules

Body Be Gone™
Mopping Up Loose Ends Since 1927

The new owners of Body Be Gone™, the premier body disposal business in the world, are trying to uncover the lost history of the business. We know the business started in 1927, but we don’t know where or how. Was it an accident? How did the original owners find their first customer? How did they dispose of the body? Writers of all kinds are invited to help us solve the mystery.

Do not tell us a murder story – we don’t care!

We want to know how the body was disposed of! Remember we are known for our thorough and creative disposal methods, as well as our discretion. (Hmmm…that discretion part might be why we don’t know how we started.)

Please read these rules carefully before submitting your story.

  1. Your story is to be submitted electronically to the Tesseray Publishing using this form on the website. Entries must be submitted by midnight, central time on October 28, 2020. If you are unsure when that would be in your time zone, we recommend using an online time zone converter, such as thetimezoneconverter.com. We are not responsible for any technical or other issues you may have in submitting your story. We highly recommend that you submit your entry sooner rather than later so that issues can be resolved by you in a timely fashion.
     
  2. Your story must be suitable for ages 12 and over. If you like Scooby Doo, you understand our audience. We will exclude stories with extreme violence, profanity, mature themes, racism or content we deem inappropriate.
     
  3. The contest is open to non-US countries but no matter where you are from your story must be in English. Your story cannot be longer than 2000 words, excluding the title. Your submission must be a Word or pdf document.
     
  4. You must be 15 or older to enter. If you are under 18 your parent or guardian will be required to sign your submission form and any additional rights transfer prior to receiving any prize.
     
  5. The story must be fiction and cannot suggest or implicate any individual or entity.
     
  6. There is no fee to enter this contest.
     
  7. You may only enter one story, so make it your best one.
     
  8. You must be the author of the story you submit.
     
  9. This contest is for original stories that have not been published before. You may not submit a story that is under consideration for publication elsewhere.
     
  10. Please give your story a title. We will use that title to identify the story for our judges and our voters. The contest will have blind judging in the first phase to select the top 20 and top 10. Crowd voting will narrow the top 10 down to the top 3. Tesseray Games will select the winner from the top 3 etnries.
     
  11. We reserve the right to extend the official deadline as needed.
     
  12. Judging – We can’t have a winner without some judges – so here’s what we’re going to do.
    • Stories will be read and scored by judges we have selected. This is a blind contest, no names will be attached to the stories.
    • The top stories will be posted during the virtual launch of the Body Be Gone™ game on November 12, 2020. Only persons attending the virtual launch will be able to vote.
    • The winning entry will be selected by Tesseray Games from one of the top three stories receiving the most votes during the Virtual launch.
  13. Prizes – We know for many this is the most important stuff.
    • Every entry will receive a coupon code for a discounted ticket to attend the virtual launch of Body Be Gone™ on November 12, 2020.
    • We will create an anthology of the top stories. Stories selected to be in the anthology (up to 20, may be fewer) will receive one physical copy of the book when it is published.
    • Stories in the top 10 will receive one physical copy of the anthology when it is published and $25 USD. The $25 will be paid on or about November 30, 2020 via PayPal. If you do not have a PayPal account you will not receive the cash award.
    • The winner will receive one physical copy of the anthology book and one physical copy of the game when they are published plus a cash prize of $150 USD. The $150 will be paid on or about November 30, 2020 via PayPal. If you do not have a PayPal account you will not receive the cash award. The winning story may also become our official story of how the Body Be Gone™ franchise started. We will give attribution credit to the author.
  14. Intellectual Property Rights – By submitting your story you agree to the following:
    • Your story may be published, reproduced, and distributed as part of the Body Be Gone™ Virtual launch in November 2020.
    • Your story may be published, reproduced and distributed as part of a Body Be Gone™ anthology.
    • Your story may be published, reproduced and distributed on the Body Be Gone™, Tesseray Games, Tesseray Publishing websites and social media accounts.
    • Your story and name (as author) may be used in connection with the promotion of the Body Be Gone™ game.
    • Your story may be edited to fit the constraints of the distribution medium being used (e.g. formatting for print or social media).
    • If you are the winner of the Body Be Gone™ contest, you agree to assign and do hereby assign all right, title and interest that you have in your story to Tesseray Publishing LLC dba Tesseray Games.