Welcome to the 3rd AniNite 2023 short story contest, hosted by CatMint Publishing! This year’s theme is “Luckily there was a vending machine” This theme may be interpreted freely.

Conditions of participation:

  • You will be a guest at AniNite for at least one day. If you are not present on any of the days, we have to disqualify you.
  • If you cannot be present at the award ceremony, please sign out at the information desk and give us your contact details so that we can inform you or send you your prize. The prizes can only be forwarded within Austria.
  • Award ceremony is on Saturday from 13:45 to 15:00
  • You are at least 16 years old. If you are under 16 years old, please present a permission of your legal guardian.
  • By registering for the competition, you confirm that your work was written explicitly for the competition and will not be published elsewhere, even in part, at the time of submission until the award ceremony.
  • By entering the contest, you grant AniNite and CatMint Publishing permission to display your work(s) or excerpts thereof (including in modified formatting) at the convention itself or its web and social media presence.
  • A maximum of 2 stories per person may be submitted.
  • Prizes will NEVER be sent abroad!
  • The entry form must be filled out COMPLETELY.

Your short stroy

  • Deadline: 13.07.2023
  • Your story has to be between 500 and 3000 words.
  • The theme “Luckily there was a drinks machine there” may be interpreted freely.
  • The genre may be chosen freely.
  • The story has to be written in German.
  • Please send us PDF documents only. The artwork will be printed and displayed at the CatMint booth at the AniNite – to avoid paper waste we ask you to not use oversized fonts (10-12pt is enough), line spacing or indents and to keep the amount of visuals as low and small as possible.
  • Please do not use obviously pornographic, glorifying violence or similar image material.
  • By participating, you acknowledge that any images you use are your property.
  • The layout of your PDF document:
    • Author’s name (a pseudonym is also welcome)
    • Genre
    • If necessary, trigger warnings (e.g. violence, death, sexual content, etc.)
    • Title
    • Short story

Registration Form

To participate, the participation form must be filled out completely.
You can send in your works until 13.07.2023. If your submission is successful,
you will receive a confirmation email.

Competition and evaluation procedure

There are 50 points to be achieved.
There are 5 judges consisting of the founder of CatMint Publishing and 4 beta readers, all with different genre preferences.
There are 5 judges consisting of the founder of CatMint Publishing and 4 beta readers, all of whom have different genre preferences. The judges will each award up to 10 points for a short story, taking into account grammar and spelling skills, red thread, expression, idea, and personal liking. Image material will not be considered!
The three short stories with the highest scores will each receive a prize.
Should two short stories by the same author be among the first three places, the story with the second highest score will not be considered for placement and the next place will move up.
In the event of a tie among the top 3 places, the number of points awarded by the founder of CatMint Publishing will be used to determine the placement. Should that also be the same, from beta reader*in 1, then 2 and so on.

Only the scores for the first 5 places will be announced publicly, because writing should not be about constantly comparing oneself with others or titling something as “good” or “bad”. We do already know: Every story submitted is wonderful simply because the author has the courage to publish it <3

Jury members to be announced.

Prizes

  1. 1st place: Self-publishing consulting worth 1000€.
  2. Place: 80€ voucher for the webshop of the CatMint publishing house
  3. 1st place: 50€ voucher for the webshop of the CatMint publishing house