A New Kind of Runner-Up

Today, we just want to tell you two things.

First, we sent out our newsletter this morning. If you don't subscribe, you can read it here.

Second, we're going to adopt a tactic seen in some other fiction contests. As you know, we always send ten stories to the prize judges. Only five or six get published, and you folks never get to learn anything about the stories that almost made it.

Unless authors object, we're going to announce the names of those runners-up, too. I think we've reached a point where even the stories we turn down at the last moment are better than many stories I read on other on-line magazines, so I say those authors ought to get some recognition. Plus, this way authors can prove their stories made "finalist" status in our contests, and that might help them sell their stories somewhere else. (Or maybe not, but it can't hurt.)

If your story made the final round of judging but didn't get published, would you want us to congratulate you publicly for coming so close?