I wish big authors would stop entering all the contests. I’ve seen time and time again the same authors winning contests and not giving smaller authors their time to shine. You’ve already made it sis, stop being stingy. What are you guys thoughts?
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I think there’s nothing wrong with popular/big/famous authors joining the contests, everyone should be able to join. It’s about creativity and joining contests can actually help you improve as a writer!
But it is a problem when popular/big/famous authors don’t acknowledge their privilege. Every contestant has a 50% chance of winning, this could be lowered with bad quality entries vice versa with highering the chance. But popular/big/famous authors have the advantage of a loyal readers that will read anything they publish. Instead of acknowledging this, they always say reads have nothing to do with winning. -Which has been proven false by Episode themselves (; -
To me, this is ignorance. You know this is real, you know what I said for months have been proven by Episode, yet you claim that this isn’t true.
This topic is always avoided in the forums or IG. Anyone who says this even in the nicest way possible gets backlash. Ever heard of the saying “If you’ve got nothing to hide, you’ve got nothing to fear.”? That’s exactly the same in this situation.
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I agree with you, I just wish the same authors that keep winning and keep putting out dumpster fire stories would stop entering. It’s annoying and it discourages smaller authors.
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Yeah, I noticed some patterns in winning the contest. Big/famous/popular authors know about this -since their first story got famous bc of this- but they don’t share it. I’m gonna make a post about this soon, I pretty much figured out the way to win a contest.
We gotta blame Episode as well for not judging every entry. I know it would be hard, but it ain’t impossible.
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There was a thread similar, Why do big authors enter contests? if you’d like to read more- but I really like amberose’s response on that thread—
I personally like to torture myself and write more stories than I have time for 
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I feel like it might be a little bit more “fair” if big, popular authors promoted other smaller authors in these types of contests, but personally, I don’t really mind them entering contests.
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I don’t mind either, but I do mind when it’s the same authors over and over again. About them promoting smaller authors, I’ve only seen a few authors promote the little fish.
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Yeah… This worries me a lot too. Some people only read their friend’s story and never share something else. I know that’s your IG/Social feed, but then you shouldn’t be mad when people say “You helped your friend win” 
Not trying to be disrespectful, if you promote yourself like that, people will see you like that.
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I don’t really read much on Episode, because a lot of it is too inappropriate for me, but when I find that one good story by a smaller author I try to promote it (even though I’m not very popular and don’t draw a lot of attention, but I don’t mind, helping that author is what matters to me most)
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I think that it’s cool that the smaller authors get to compete equally with the bigger authors, but it would be a bit more fun if we all promoted each other, big and little authors alike
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I kind of agree. Big authors keep winning each contest over and over again as if it circulates among a small group of people. And they keep entering because they have the following and circle of friends who promote the same stories over and over again. Like on Instagram I keep seeing them promote the same stories using their over 10k follower link to swipe up repeatedly and I haven’t seen them promote anyone who’s new to the community. Like there is obviously an advantage here and anyone would be daft or ignorant to not acknowledge that. This is why I think there should be separate contests for NEW and SMALL writers just to keep it on the same playing field because it honestly seems like these contests are made and catered to people who are well known in the community.
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