Gamlingay and District Writers

Terms and Conditions

The full terms and conditions of the My Story competition are published below. By entering the competiton you are deemed to comply with the full terms and conditions. The online House Rules must be met for your story to be published online. If your story does not meet the online House Rules, it will still be entered into the competition, but your story will not be published on the website.
1. Who can enter?
1a.

The competition is open to anyone 18 years old or over on the date of submitting the entry and who is a resident of the United Kingdom (including the Channel Isles and the Isle of Man). Entrants must not be employees of the BBC, the Shine Group (the producers of the related TV series), affiliates or anyone connected with the competition or their close relations.
1b.

Your story must be your own original, unpublished and untold work. Untold means that you cannot have told your story before in a book, magazine, newspaper or broadcast (however it may have been reported by someone else). Please note these rules do not apply to brief references within reported news stories, which will be judged on a case by case basis. Anyone with a current publishing contract (in the UK or anywhere else) or whose story/writing is subject to any third party rights or restrictions is not allowed to enter this competition.
1c.

You are not permitted to enter if you are currently serving a term of imprisonment.
2. How to enter
2a.

Entries must be received on or between the dates and in the format specified on the programme website www.bbc.co.uk/mystory ('Website') or in the My Story magazine ('Magazine'). All entries must be accompanied by the application form obtainable on the Website or in the Magazine. All entries must be received no later than midnight on 16th December 2009. No entries received after the given date will be considered. No responsibility can be accepted for any postal or online delays. Proof of posting or sending is not proof of receipt.
3. What to enter
3a.

Each entrant may only submit one story. Stories must be legibly typed (or legibly written if submitted by post) and be between 300 and 1500 words long. The story must be accompanied by a brief summary of your story, which must be between 50 and 300 words. In initial stages recommendations for short listing will be based on a reading of the summary alone. If you do not submit a summary you will not be permitted to enter the competition.
3b.

Entrants should write a short story within the word limit which must be based on a true life event or experience involving the entrant in some way. Events depicted must have actually happened although it does not matter where or when. The entrant must feature in the story. The right is reserved for Shine North or someone acting on their behalf to carry out detailed investigation and research to verify the content of the story. The summary must be a brief description of the story
3c.

It is a condition of entry that entrants warrant that their work contains no defamatory matter (defamatory matter includes statements that are insulting, derogatory and/or gives a false negative image), is not in contempt of court, does not breach privacy or any third party rights or contain any quotation from copyright material without appropriate permission having been obtained. The entries must not be obscene or in any way unsuitable for broadcast on the BBC or publication online.
3d.

It is a condition of entry that if living people or entities other than the entrant are referred to in the story their consent to be included must be obtained wherever possible. If not possible reasons must be given where and when requested.
3e.

The story must be written entirely in English or Welsh.
3f.

If your synopsis and story are submitted in Welsh they will be translated into English for the purposes of the Judging Process (as applicable) and if shortlisted for the second panel you will need to present your story in English and if shortlisted for the TV programme your story will be told in English. All conversations (face to face or on the phone) will take place in English. For the avoidance of doubt, all winning stories will be published in English.
4. Consents
4a.

By submitting stories for the competition entrants are deemed to have consented to their work being published online, on TV or radio or in any media the organisers think fit. This includes (but is not limited to) publishing extracts of your story in all media for publicity and promotion uses and within the context of a book about the competition/TV programme. If published the story may be accompanied by the entrants' first name and the region where the story took place. Neither Shine North nor the BBC offer any guarantee that your story will be published in any manner or media including but not limited to the website. However, entrants acknowledge that all entries will be entered into the competition regardless of whether they appear on the website. Postal entries will not appear on the website, but will be entered into the competition.
4b.

Entrants retain copyright of their story when entering the competition.
4c.

If an entrant's story is selected to be featured in the television programme he or she will be expected to take part in the programme and will be deemed to have consented to do so.
5. The Judging Process
5a.

There will be several stages of judging. Initially all summaries will be read by the judges selected by the organisers. They will select a long list of entrants based on the following criteria (the 'Criteria') which is used throughout the process for both the summary and full story phases: -

* is it remarkable?
* does it have a strong central theme?
* does it or is it likely to engage the reader?
* does it or is it likely to provoke empathy?
* does it have strong characters?
* is it or is it likely to be entertaining and/or informative?
* does it or is it likely to offer support to the reader?
* is it inspiring in some way?

Entrants should be aware that the judges will be basing their opinion on the events described in the stories rather than the quality of the writing. Stories will be judged on their potential for development as an engaging non-fiction book rather than as an assessment of the author's writing or grammatical skills.
5b.

In the next phase of judging all long listed entries will be double read in full and judged again in accordance with the Criteria. The judges will then select a shortlist.
5c.

Entrants may be contacted to confirm their identity, availability and compliance with the key rules at any time.
5d.

Shortlisted entries will then be read by a judging panel ("First Panel") and based on the Criteria they will choose the stories for progression to the next stage. These stories will be thoroughly checked with the entrants and anyone else the organisers think is appropriate to ensure compliance with the rules and truthfulness.
5e.

Each successful entrant from the first panel will then be required to tell their story in person to a judging panel ('Second Panel'). Reasonable travel expenses for attending the panel will be reimbursed. From these entrants the Second Panel will select approximately 15 entrants (and some standby runners up at their discretion) to be featured in the television programme based on the Criteria, the suitability for inclusion in the programmes and the way in which the entrants tell their stories to the panel.
5f.

The competition judges' decisions throughout will be final and no correspondence will be entered into. Shine North and the BBC do not accept any responsibility for late, delayed, damaged, ineligible, fraudulent or lost entries. Proof of sending is not proof of receipt. The right is reserved for the whole story or summary not to be read if it is clear that the subject matter is unsuitable or in breach of these rules.
5g.

Five TV programmes are planned (but not guaranteed) and approximately three of the finalists' stories will be featured in each programme chosen at the discretion of the production team. It is intended that one story from each programme will be selected as the winner and receive the prize. There will be a maximum of 5 winners.
5h.

Entrants acknowledge that publication of their story and/or summary on the website or comments or rating that accompany such publication and nomination of the stories theme/category on the application form has no bearing whatsoever on the potential success of the story in the competition.
5i.

Entries may be split into themed categories during the judging process (at Shine North's discretion) and judged within their category. Categories as listed on the Website are for searching purposes only and will not have any impact on the categories of the TV Programme.
6. The Prize
6a.

The prize for each of the winner/s will be a publishing deal with a prestigious UK publishing house (the 'Book') and will include an advance payment and royalties based on sales.
6b.

The prize(s) must be taken as stated and cannot be deferred or transferred. The winning entrant/s must co-operate fully with the organisers and publishers during the preparation of the Book. If they fail to do so the organisers reserve the right to continue (or not) with publication as they think fit.
6c.

Shine North may require further drafts and revisions of the winning stories and the right is reserved to make cuts, changes and edits to the winners' or finalists' stories.
7. Availability and further commitment
7a.

Progression through the competition is dependent on entrants being available in January and February 2010 for telephone conversations and to present stories in the panel and on dates in February to April 2010 for filming (dates to be confirmed and subject to change).
7b.

Entrants acknowledge that it is a condition of entry that they make themselves available to participate in the competition and if successful in the initial phases agree and sign up to the agreements presented to them by Shine North in connection with the television programme and its production, broadcast and further exploitation ('Further Agreements').
7c.

Finalists and standby finalists may be asked to carry out CRB checks. Having a criminal record will not automatically disqualify you from the competition, but Shine North reserves the right to disqualify any entrant at any stage on the grounds of their criminal record.
7d.

Finalists agree to take part in any competition related publicity as required.
7e.

Should any entrant be selected as a finalist in the Competition it is a condition of further participation that, with the benefit of independent advice (being free of charge to the finalist) the finalist enters into a publishing deal with Shine North's nominated publisher. The Publishing Deal will only become fully effective for the winning finalists and may be optional in respect of the other finalists participating in the competition.
8. General
8a.

Entries are unable to be returned so remember to keep a copy.
8b.

The story entered into the competition must not, at the time it is submitted, have been accepted for future publication, performance or broadcast in any other form or medium to any other person or company. The entrant will be deemed to have entered into an undertaking not to accept offers for their entries from other broadcasters or publishers or speak to any journalist, broadcaster or publisher about their story before the first transmission of the last episode of the programme (or as otherwise agreed in the Further Agreements) without Shine North's prior written approval.
8c.

The right is reserved to withhold prizes, alter the closing date, amend the rules or to cancel the competition in whole or in part if considered necessary and/or if the standard of entries so justifies.
8d.

The organisers reserve the right to exclude any entry from the competition and/or website at any time and in its absolute discretion if there is reason to believe that an entrant has breached these rules.
8e.

Entrants will be deemed to have accepted these rules and to agree to be bound by them when entering this competition.
9. Privacy
9a.

The organisers will only ever use personal details for the purposes of review, and will not publish them or provide them to anyone without permission. However all stories and synopses submitted via the Website will be passed to Shine North for judging purposes only and the personal details of the entrants shortlisted will be provided to Shine North for the purposes of the competition only. Entries submitted by post will be passed to Shine North in their entirety which will include your personal information submitted as part of your postal entry. You can read more about the BBC Privacy Policy at www.bbc.co.uk/privacy/.
10. Code of Conduct
10a.

The BBC Code of Conduct for competitions can be found at www.bbc.co.uk/competitioncode.
11. Governing Law
11a.

These rules are governed by the law of England and Wales.