<p>The winner and silver medalists’ blogs say they got an email and or phone call from PUSH. No word yet. I did send in a fee.</p>
<p>I think my heart sunk, or I misunderstood.</p>
<p>The winners for the 2009 novel contest have been notified? How come, after searching Google, I don’t see any recent blogs which say they were informed. Do you mean the winners were notified LAST year?</p>
<p>There wasn’t any fee talked about in the submission sheet, so I highly doubt one is needed. Please reply; I’m about to have an anxiety attack. Just kidding. But still.</p>
<p>I think he means winners from previous years. </p>
<p>[Anna</a> W. Waggener’s Blog](<a href=“Private Site”>http://awwaggener.■■■■■■■■■■■■■/)
This is the gold-medal winner’s blog. It answered a lot of my questions, now the only thing I still need to know are the results! :</p>
<p>Does anyone know if anyone has been notified (I assume no one here has?) if they’ve won any award? Or is it only silver and gold that are notified?</p>
<p>No one gets notified if they didn’t win, right?</p>
<p>^ no idea. scholastic could make this so much easier if they just posted all this info on the site.</p>
<p>Yes, I meant last year’s winner and silver medalists (as listed on PUSH website) say on their blog that they got a call or an email as a notification. The communication came from PUSH which is a branch of scholastic and cosponsor??? I went back to the PUSH website to relook at the novel specs for submission, no fee is mentioned, but I think it was on the original scholastic website cover page and maybe submission form ($5 for each entry), which I couldn’t find anymore on the scholastic webpage. The one on PUSH does say they have to be stapled and to use one at a copier, library etc. for thick pages. Don’t think you’d be disqualified if not stapled though.</p>
<p>Yes, I saw that fee thing as well a few months ago, but that was for regional submissions, not submissions sent in on one’s own accord. What that money you sent in goes to, I think, will most-likely be that Gold Key Society thingamajig.</p>
<p>If any fee were necessary, it would have been mentioned in the section Preparing the manuscript for Submission on the guidelines sheet:</p>
<p>Preparing the Manuscript for Submission
Writing submissions must adhere to the following:
• Length: Must include at least three and no more than five chapters of an original novel (minimum
15 pages, maximum 50 pages).
• Outline: The submission must also include an outline for the entire book, not to exceed two pages
which are not counted in the 50-page limit.
• Printing: All submissions must be typed and printed in black ink; point size no smaller than 10.
• Margins: 1” on top, bottom, left and right (except for poetry).
• Spacing: Double-spaced (except for poetry) and single-sided on 8.5”x11” white paper.
• Titles: Titles of each work should appear at the top of the first page only. Do not use a separate
title page. Poems should be titled individually.
• No Student Name: The student’s name and/or the school name must NOT appear anywhere on
the manuscript itself. Names are only indicated on the submission form.
• No Accompanying Images: Do not include illustrations, photographs or graphics.
• Submission Forms: Attach two copies of the submission form, which must be stapled to the
writing in the upper left corner. Do not bind or enclose in a folder. Longer submissions should be
stapled with an industrial stapler, which can be found in a local or school library, a photocopy
center or office supply store.
• Signatures: Obtain required signatures from a parent/guardian on the submission forms. Students
and parents/guardians should carefully review the Authorship and Plagiarism and Copyright
Release sections. By signing, students and parents/guardians agree to the terms presented in the
Authorship and Plagiarism and Copyright Release sections. Parent signatures are not required if
the student is over 18 years old.</p>
<p>I would agree that there may not be a fee due to the fact that no fee is mentioned on the novel submission guidelines or the submission form that needs to accompany the submission (2 copies).</p>
<p>Although that may be because if the writing is submitted thru a community based organization, the fee is waived. That may be why no mention of a fee is even recorded on the ROL writing submission form for 2009. the checkbox at the top includes community based orgs.</p>
<p>Surfing the web, there are regional sites that state $5 must accompany each individual writing submission and $20 for a writing portfolio for the writing awards in general, but it’s not clear if this includes the novel submission. On the writing submission form 2009, novel is included along with all the other categories which leads me to suspect they want a fee. I think they need to be clearer next year in regard to whether or not there is a fee for a novel submission. In any case, I don’t think they would eliminate an applicant for lack of $5, do you?</p>
<p>Thing is, the novel submissions were due on a date much later than that of other writing submissions. Either the novel category is exempt, or the whole fee thing, like you said, has to do with community-based submissions. The only place I’ve ever seen that necessary fee talk has been in discussing those regional submissions, which I bet isn’t what most of us have been submitting the novel entries through. </p>
<p>But, yea, next year, they need to make this as clear-cut as possible. Scholastic has lent me much anxiety over the past few months!</p>
<p>I emailed Scholastic and they said the winners will be out by May 15th…</p>
<p>Oh, man… Now that there’s an actual date, I somehow feel worse. It’s less of a surprise and more of a quickly approaching judgment day now…</p>
<p>Lots of good info here, though. I feel that my submission at least got on someone’s desk now, which is better than agonizing over whether it was just thrown in the trash.</p>
<p>Less than 9 days then. . . :)</p>
<p>shoot me :[</p>
<p>It’s clear there is one winner. But is it a gold medal, or a gold key? Are there runners up (as suggested by PUSH) and are they silver medals or keys? What about the honorable mentions? Are they going to receive gold keys, or anything? Is the only book deal, an electronic version on their website if and when PUSH decides it wants to publish it? It may not be such a great prize, although maybe the real prize is the internship and a chance to work with an editor???</p>
<p>The winner gets the gold medal and gets invited to Carnegie. I’d assume the silver is a silver medal and the honorable mentions get some kind of key or certificate, but I’m not sure if any of them get invited to the New York thinger. I never saw anything about an electronic publishing contract, but a few of the people who won the award already have their books published normally. I think if you’re agreeable with the editors they’ll probably publish it, since they already like it if you won the top prize. (And really, I’d prefer an internship over a publishing deal at this point in time.)</p>
<p>A little info on the novel category: I won Certificate of Merit last year and received a “certificate” and a letter in the mail like four months after I saw my name on the PUSH website. Second gets invited to NY, and first gets the whole deal with the editors and summer internship. There were five or six second place winners last year and thirty Certificates.</p>
<p>Also: They posted the winners on May 16th, but the first place winner (Anna Waggener) was notified on April 30th. I assume this means that the first and second place winners have already been informed. And that leaves Certificate of Merit for the rest of us… 
</p>
<p>I wish you all good luck this year! (I’m keeping my fingers crossed still).</p>
<p>i hope that’s not true. or that the winners were not yet informed, rather.</p>
<p>I hope so too. God that would be terrible.</p>
<p>Can you imagine if you were the winner? Just sitting in your house, grinning with happiness, clueless that the rest of us are squirming around, waiting for the results? …that person would be/must be lucky.</p>
<p>Let’s just hope that they haven’t informed the winners yet…only five more days…</p>