this post was submitted on 09 Apr 2024
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[–] danwritesbooks@aussie.zone 6 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Hi all,

I want to run an idea by you to see if I am missing something.

My 4th Van Diemen's Valley book is releasing later this month and I was thinking of contacting local schools/ones I've done author talks with, to run a competition for the kids to write a short story for a chance to win signed copies of my books.

I want to get schools involved for exposure and advertising it to the kids but also to give it some sort of authenticity and allay any fears parents might have. I wouldn't need access to their details aside from their name as well. It's really just write a story, put your name on it, give it to the library, I can pick it up (or if they do it on computers, get it sent to me), decide on the winner and deliver the books to the schools.

I don't see anything really worrisome about it but wondering if there are any outsider perspectives on this/if it's a good idea or if I'm missing something that might concern parents/schools? Thanks,

[–] SituationCake@aussie.zone 4 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

The schools should hopefully be able to advise how to go about it. Also set some parameters around the story, like a word limit. And unfortunately, with the prevalence of chat GPT type tools, some kids may be tempted to generated stories and submit as their own work, so you might ask the schools how to identify and deal with that. It would be very unfair to award something to a kid that cheated. But it does sound like a fun Idea to get kids interested in writing.

[–] danwritesbooks@aussie.zone 2 points 8 months ago

Good point about ChatGPT generated content. I'll have to keep that in mind.