Note: This is part one of a two-part article on what authors need to know about contests and how to protect their rights.

Contests can be a great way for authors to get their work published and distributed, win awards, hone their skills, and in some cases get their work critiqued. However, when entering any type of writing contest, authors need to read all the Official Rules carefully, as you may discover you are actually giving away your rights for free. Worse, the fine print in some contest rules state entries become the sole property of the sponsor, even if you don’t win.

The contest that was the impetus for this article involved a piece of less than 1,500 words for a prominent national magazine covering the most important day of an author’s life. It could be anything - getting married, having children, being published, leaving a bad boss and job - the opportunities were endless. But one sentence buried amid the fine print of the Official Rules gave me pause.

The line in question fell under the How To Enter section of the rules and said thus: “Entries become sole property of Sponsor, and none will be acknowledged or returned“. From my point of view these rules stated that while I would be recognized as the author if I won, I was literally giving away my rights. Just to be sure I wasn’t reading more into this contract than I should; I consulted a fellow author who had experience in the publishing industry. Her response caught my attention: “Just so you know, a publications’ keeping of all rights is VERY COMMON for contests of all sorts — even photo contests.  It’s as if you’re agreeing to writing for hire”.

To understand what you’re getting yourself into, it’s best to offer a definition of “Work for Hire” especially if you’ve never done it before. A good definition is this: Writing for hire concerns payment terms. When someone writes for hire, she is paid a flat fee, often in installments for a long work, such as a book. Many educational publishers pay all their authors a flat fee. People who write things like advertising copy, training materials, or government documents write for hire. 

Being the author, by entering some contests you are providing the sponsor, (which could be anything from a company or organization, magazine, newsletter, books - the options are varied and many) with content, which they now own the rights to. You, on the other hand, have very often relinquished all rights for free. You may get recognition as the author of the work but you will not get future royalties or even be able to include the book/article, etc. as part of your author’s biography.

More than 100 college and university presidents across the country signed a statement calling for a public debate on the drinking age. “It’s time to rethink the drinking age. 21 is not working,” the statement begins. College presidents from Ohio State, Dartmouth, Duke, and Gustavus Adophus (St. Peters, MN) want an engage in a serious debate on the drinking age, the reality of college life, and how those two elements align.

Under-age drinking and later problems in life with alcoholism are key plot points in Shades of Darkness, Shades of Grace, mirroring an epidemic currently facing the U.S. The Pierson children begin drinking as teenagers and two of the three face adult struggles with alcohol and chemical dependency. That’s part of what makes the debate surrounding lowering the legal drinking age so controversial. Some facts to consider:

More the 1,700 U.S. college students are killed each year amounting to approximately 4.65 per day as a result of alcohol-related injuries.

Underage drinking spawns the future heavy and addicted drinkers upon which the alcoholic-beverage industry depends for the majority of sales. Persons who begin drinking before age 15 are four times more likely to develop alcohol dependence problems at some point in their life compared with those who are 20 or older when they consumer their first drink.

There are an estimated 10.8 million underage drinkers in the U.S. between the ages of 12 and 20.

There is no data to support or refute lowering the drinking age, but many administrators on college campuses believe such a dialogue would be beneficial. Such a conversation is necessary because of the accepted place drinking continues to hold in American culture. For example, since last fall Minnesota has experienced five deaths on college campuses of young people engaged in binge drinking, and all were under 21. Officials at St. Cloud State believe the deaths clearly point to a serious problem that should be a national concern.

Drinking among American youth is a serious health problem on college campuses and elsewhere. The Amethyst Initiative suggests that lowering the drinking age to 21 has been a dismal failure particularly on campus and is seeking more realistic alternatives. As a recovering alcoholic who began drinking in the girl’s bathroom at 15, I’m one of the statistics that became an alcoholic in adulthood, so the lowered legal drinking age has made perfectt sense. Two colleges in Atlanta also oppose the idea of lowering the drinking age and there are bound to be others.

It’s clear that both sides of the argument have merit, but it’s a debate that involves teaching responsible behavior as well as understanding the consequences. Binge and underage drinking aren’t just a phase or part of growing up. The repercussions are very real.

Last Friday, August 8, that unstoppable juggernaut known as Google, announced it will soon be launching Google Knol. What is Knol? Simply put, Knol is Google’s answer to Wikipedia. Like Wikipedia, Knol is a free, open-source encyclopedia, where people can write about any topic.

Unlike Wikipedia, Knol will also be a revenue-sharing open-source social network where authors of a Knol will be given revenue from the ad proceeds on their particular Knol.

Knol stands for a “unit of knowledge” and is still in development. For now, only a select group of beta testers can access the service, however, it will soon be available on the Internet for free. In the meantime, authors might start thinking about where their expertise lies, as the launch date approaches so they are ready with material. Google will also have easy-to-use tools for writing, editing, etc. while providing free hosting of the content. Authors can also write on any topic they wish, and each topic will be referred to as a Knol.

As an author, I’m starting work on two topics discussed in Shades of Darkness, Shades of Grace such as antiquing and chemical abuse, which should make for excellent Knol content. It’s also another way of promoting the novel, while imparting educational information to readers.   

In approximately three weeks, the 2008 election season kicks off with the Republican Convention held in Minneapolis/St. Paul, and soon after that, the Democrats select their nominee in Denver. The confetti won’t be swept up off the convention center floors before the Presidential Election gets under way in earnest.

The story arc of Shades of Darkness, Shades of Grace covers five years and three elections. Set in Minnesota, home of the nation’s highest voter turn-out, the Pierson family understands that voting is not a right but a privilege, and one they exercise regularly.

Nationally between 1960 and 2004, voter participation in presidential election years declined from 63.1% in 1960 to 55.3% in 2004. There were encouraging blips, as percentages rose between 2000 and 2004, from 51.3% to 55.3%. Still, that pales in comparison to Minnesota where a whooping 76.8% of the population voted in 2004, leading the country in voter participation.

The decline in U.S. voter participation didn’t occur overnight and tangible factors contribute. In the age of YouTube where every politician’s foibles can be looped endlessly on the Internet, voter cynicism is high. Other factors in the nation’s political system also come into play, most notably the weakening of traditional party allegiances. Both the Democratic and Republic parties have been losing clout for years, but with a never-ending war, weak economy, the foreclosure mess, and rising unemployment, this election year stand to be very important.

In the novel, it’s also clear that the Pierson family is active in DFL politics, hosting fundraisers, handing out candidate literature, and answering phones. Because Minnesota has such stellar turnout, it seemed important to include this subplot. Rather than focusing on the family’s political affiliation, I wanted readers to remember why it’s so essential to exercise a privilege too important to ignore.

The presidential election of 2000 was a true cliffhanger, too close to call the morning after. At the time, I was working as a course developer for an international consulting firm. A few days before the election, I asked a co-worker if he was planning to vote. He said no, that his vote didn’t matter. I mentioned in passing that was too bad, because in other parts of the world people are willing to die for the privilege to cast their vote in a democratic election. The day after the 2000 election, as the world waited in anticipation to see who the next President of the United States would be, Chris informed he had decided to vote after all and was glad he did.

The voting sub-plot in Shades of Darkness helps describe the Pierson family’s political activism in a progressive state. But it also serves as an impetus to get readers involved in their community and the world at large by implementing one of the most important privileges we as Americans are lucky to have.

“Land of 10,000 Lakes” (Minnesota’s slogan) and the month of August (National Water Quality Month) is the perfect time to dive into water facts. A few quick facts about Minnesota’s many lakes are:

Voyageurs National Park (located in northern Minnesota) is the largest water-based park in the entire National Park System.

Number of Lakes in Minnesota:
Well over 10,000 with 11,842 lakes (each measuring 10+ acres)

Depths of Six Minnesota Lakes:
Lake Superior:             1,290 feet
Ten Mile Lake                209 feet
Lower LaSalle Lake        204 feet
Loon Lake                     202 feet
Rainy Lake                    161 feet
Leech Lake                   150 feet

Number of Natural Rivers and Streams:
6,564 (69,200 miles)

The lake pictured on the cover of Shades of Darkness, Shades of Grace is Lake Superior. one of the five Great Lakes. This chain of lakes is located in eastern North America on the Canadian/North American border.  Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth.

Minnesota Water Facts 

One year ago today, the I-35W Bridge spanning the Mississippi River in Minneapolis collapsed. Thirteen people lost their lives and over 100 more were injured, some severely.

In many ways this was not simply a tragedy in another state, but one that could happen at anyplace and at anytime. What the accident did was to shine a light on not just Minnesota’s bridge troubles, but the nation’s structurally deficient bridges as a whole. After the Minneapolis collapse, the Associated Press reviewed repairs on every state’s 20 most traveled bridges with structural deficiencies and discovered only 12% of those had been fixed. Generally the most common approach was to plan for bridge repairs in the future rather than fix them now.

Other findings:
Sixty-four percent of bridges received no work beyond regular maintenance, though the majority was scheduled for future repairs.
Twelve percent had their structural defects fixed, usually through a major rehabilitation or outright replacement.
An additional 24% of bridges have seen a partial improvement, either through a short-term to temporary fix addressing the defect, or an ongoing project that is not complete. The worst bridges were located in Indiana, Oklahoma, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. Work in these states was conducted on only one of 20 of the most heavily traveled bridges that were deemed structurally deficient.