Potentially with those numbers the people filling out the rubrics could be looking at fewer than 8% of the total entries. It sounds like a really particular bullseye to aim for. Publish too early, and you publish before they start counting retention. Publish too close to the deadline, and you have a smaller chance of getting enough reads for your retention to even matter.
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WOW! Thank you for that. Now I know that I may not enter. As I was planning to enter, not to win or anything, couldn’t care less. I was doing it make a stand because I thought that the Episode team reads all the stories. I love writing, but hate promoting myself and don’t do it because I have the LOWEST confidence in my abilities. But yeah… That’s hardly fair for newbies trying out and for hidden gems.
Yeah, again, hardly fair. Just tagging @Liz, in the hopes that this gets answered!
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I mean, it’s possible. Every contest there’s usually a few new or unknown authors whose stories take off (it does help that a lot of community members are fantastic at promoting contest entries).
My first contest entry I was one of them. It was my second story (my first story had taken over two weeks to gain 100 reads and those were basically all read for reads lol). I hit 1000 reads in just over a week (and I cried hahahaha).
But it’s definitely harder. I won’t deny that it’s much easier for me to get reads now than it was two years ago.
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Yeah, I didn’t expect to win, but I hoped my entry might at least be read by the team. However they choose to score entries, and even if new writers can technically win, I think it’d be nice for them to be as transparent as possible about how the odds are stacked so people can make an informed decision before entering and decide if they wish to take on those odds. Knowing when which numbers are weighed and used to decide who moves onto the rubric round would be a way of doing that.
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I think I’m going to try! Good luck to everyone who is doing it too! 
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Does the story have to be INK or Limelight? Or can we choose?
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Thank you so much! I didn’t see the sentence.
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No problem
Yeah, your safest bet is to make your own Emergency funding company.
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We do answer this in the Episode Explained: Creator’s Contest article:
For the Missed Connections contest, we looked at numbers after 8 days. We also had a higher than average number of winners this time around.
If you read the article, we explain that entries with high retention are the ones reviewed by the team. If you haven’t already, the article is worth taking a look at.
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In terms of entries under 100 reads not having their retention counted, however…
Is that 100 reads after the close of the entry window?
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Yes, retention testing does not start until after the entry deadline closes. This is so that authors who publish early do not have an advantage over authors who need more time to complete their stories.
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Right, but I mean raw read numbers. The linked post says, " Stories must get around 100 reads for the calculations to be statistically valid." Does that mean 100 reads after the deadline? So a story which accrues 200 reads before the deadline is even up, would need 300 total after the deadline?
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Yes, reads / retention do not count before the entry deadline. This is why so many authors wait until right before the end of the entry period to publish.
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That’s actually very good to know, thank you. I thought publishing earlier was an advantage so you could gain more reads beforehand, but that wouldn’t be fair now that I think of it 
I may be entering this contest, because I’m more known for art in the community but writing sound soooo fun! 
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@Liz, does that mean that the stories that passed the retention were then judged against the rubric in the day or two before the winners were announced? Or was this step started earlier for stories that clearly had enough retention?
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Thanks for clarifying!
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After reading the article 3 times, I’m still confused.
@Liz
You are saying that after the deadline passes, any story with less than 100 reads is not read? The stories have to gain 100 reads with the time span after the deadline closes to the time you start grading. When is this this gap? 
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Sounds like it varies. For Missed Connections it was 8 days.
So I think publishing close to the deadline, then trying to get as many reads as possible to get up to 100 within the week after is our best bet to make sure a) our retention counts and b) our retention is counted high enough to move onto the rubric round.
That’s assuming they don’t look at entries until after those numbers are calculated. I’d be curious to see the answer to @EliseC’s question about when the rubric process begins.
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