Panahon na ulit! Sali na! Sali na!
SALI NA!!! :-)
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1. The 11th
Romeo Forbes Children's Storywriting Competition is open to all Filipinos.
2. Entries
must not have been previously published, and all entrants must warrant the
originality of their submitted entries.
3. Writers
may submit only one entry, in English or Filipino, which shall be of 1,000
words or less. This word limit is a strict and absolute limit. Even just
one word above the limit will be enough to disqualify an entry.
4. There is
no particular theme, other than the use of this year's contest piece, a new
work (shown above) by artist John Paul Antido, as the inspiration or basis for
the entry.
5. JUDGING
PROCESS
A CANVAS
review panel shall read and award points for all stories received based on the
following criteria:
* Originality
and Storyline (35%)
* Imagery
(35%)
* Quality of
Writing (30%)
Based on the
points received, CANVAS shall forward a shortlist of three to five stories with
the highest scores to the Artist. The Artist shall then provide comments on any
or all the stories, for consideration by the panel of judges.
The panel of
judges - taking the contest criteria and Artist comments into non-binding
consideration - shall collectively choose the winner from the shortlist of
stories.
If the
judges cannot come to a consensus on the winner, they shall take a vote and the
entry that gains the most number of votes shall be declared the winner.
None of
CANVAS' review panel, the judges or the Artist shall see any entrant's name
until the winner is chosen.
6. Entries
must be submitted by email, as a Microsoft Word attachment, to
storycontest@canvas.ph with the subject heading 11th ROMEO FORBES CHILDREN'S
STORYWRITING COMPETITION. Entrants must include a cover sheet with their
name, mailing and email address, and telephone number. Only the story
title should appear on all pages of the entry.
7. The
deadline for submission of entries is 5:00 p.m. (Manila time), Friday, 28 March
2014.
Kindly note
that CANVAS acknowledges each and every entry that we receive. If you submitted
a story, and do not receive an acknowledgement from us within 24 hours, please
assume that your story was not received and kindly resend it to us.
Nevertheless,
entries received after the deadline, even if sent earlier, may no longer be
considered for the competition. CANVAS shall not be responsible for entries
which are not received, or which are received after the deadline, due to
technical failure or for any other reason whatsoever.
8. All
entrants hereby agree to authorize CANVAS to post such entries on its website,
as CANVAS deems fit, and free from any payments, royalties or fees
whatsoever.
9. There
shall be only one winner, who shall receive a cash prize of PhP 40,000.00
(less applicable withholding tax) for his/her entry. The winner
shall be responsible for all applicable taxes.
The winning
writer shall also be entitled to five (5) free copies upon publication of the
book.
The winner
shall grant and transfer to CANVAS all intellectual property and publication
rights to the story, including any translations, adaptations or modifications
thereto.
It is hereby
understood that the cash prize to be awarded to the winner shall include
consideration of such intellectual property and publication rights to the
story, and the writer shall not be entitled to any other royalties or fees from
earnings, if any, that may result from future publication of, licensing of, or
other transactions on the same. (Please see our note below on why we have
this rule.)
10. Except
for the right to publish any received entry on its website, CANVAS shall not
retain any other rights to entries that are not selected as the winner, except
where separate agreements are reached with the writers.
11. CANVAS
shall exercise full and exclusive editorial and artistic control over the
publication of the winning entry and resulting book.
While, it is
the full intention of CANVAS to publish the winning entry as a full-color
children's book, CANVAS reserves the right not to publish the same for any
reason whatsoever.
12. The winner
of the CANVAS storywriting competition will be announced on or around the first
half of June 2014. The winner will also be notified via email/text on the
same announcement date.
13. CANVAS
reserves the right not to award the top competition prize in the event that the
judges decide that no entry was received that is deserving of the top prize.
In such unlikely event, however, CANVAS shall have no right whatsoever
over all entries that were received; and shall not publish any entry, in its
website or in any other venue, without the prior written consent or agreement
of the author.
14. The
decision of the competition judges shall be final, and no correspondence or
inquiries into the same - including requests for comments/feedback on received
entries - shall be entertained.
15.
Employees of CANVAS, and members of their immediate family, as well as the
Artist's immediate family, are disqualified from participating in the
competition.
Why We Ask
for the Transfer of Rights
The
competition rules (Rule 9) clearly state that the winning author should agree
to transfer all rights to CANVAS and "...shall not be entitled to any
other royalties or fees from earnings, if any, that may result from future
publication of, derivative works, licensing of, or other transactions on the
same."
This note is just to clarify where it is that CANVAS is coming from.
First of
all, having complete ownership of the story rights makes it easier and less
complicated for us to quickly and liberally share and give our consent to
anyone who may ask for permission to use the winning story (something that we
have always granted in the past).
It is for
this very reason that the stories and illustrations of books we publish are all
available for free viewing and enjoyment on our website (www.canvas.ph),
despite the concern of some that the easy availability of the stories on the
Internet could eat into the sales of our books (which, happily, has not proven
to be the case).
Beyond
this, all our stories are also available and downloadable on our website
FOR FREE, in both English and Filipino. Just as we were fortunate enough to
have been given permission to adapt "The Man Who Planted Trees," into
our maiden publication - "Elias and His Trees," - we hope that the
stories that we work on will inspire similar creativity.
A second
reason why we ask for the transfer of rights is that CANVAS is a small
nonprofit, and is not equipped to document and track royalty shares that
ideally should accrue to authors and artists. It is for this reason that our
prizes (we think), are quite substantial and approximates (if not exceeds) what
writers would normally expect to receive in royalties.
Third, aside
from the possibility for getting some of our books published abroad, we also
sometimes talk with corporations about sponsoring the publication of books that
can be given away to children in public schools and disadvantaged communities
throughout the country.
(You can
read our latest updates on this initiative by clicking here.)
Indeed, our
dream is to give away ONE MILLION BOOKS in the next five to ten years!
Should we
get really lucky and end up on the NY Times Bestseller List or say, get our
book endorsed by Oprah, be assured that we will make things right with the
artist and writer (you'll just have to trust us on this!). But until
then, having demonstrably complete ownership over the rights makes it easier
and less complicated for us to approach and negotiate with corporations eager
to support children's literacy in the Philippines, or would-be publishers
abroad.
Finally, we
are also trying to be financially sustainable. We rely on self-generated
revenues, some corporate support, and a small amount of grant funding to run
CANVAS and conduct our activities, including co-sharing the publication costs
of the books. We can only hope to recoup the expenses so that we can pursue our
visions and dreams for children's literacy and Philippine art consistently and
relentlessly in the years to come.
Please be
assured of our continuing effort to balance our desire to contribute to the
public domain in a manner that is also fair to the writers and artists, on the
one hand; and our need to also be fiscally responsible with the grants and
funds that have been entrusted to us, and to the publishers and corporations
that we partner with, on the other.
Thank you.
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