Topic: Points adjustment and new writing contest

Hi all,

I wanted to let you know that based on feedback from Dirk and others, we have increased the points earned per review to make it easier to accumulate points to post. We hope this especially helps new members get into a reviewing and posting groove.

You may also notice on the homepage that we have launched a new Do-Over contest. If your character could go one thing over in their life, what would it be?

https://www.thenextbigwriter.com/writing-contests

We look forward to reading the entries!

Sol

2 (edited by Dirk B 2025-04-11 23:39:52)

Re: Points adjustment and new writing contest

Sol, thank you very much for the points changes.

For those who haven't already noticed, going forward, when you open someone's short story, chapter, or poem to read, the points you can earn is up by about 67%. So, something that once paid 1 point will now pay 1.67 points.

The points required to post that work has not gone up. Except for poems, we were paying 5 points to post a work that paid 1 point; we'll still pay 5 points to post that same work, but it will now pay 1.67 points (1/3 of what you paid to post it, instead of the 1/5 it used to pay).

If you're like me, who looks at the points a piece will pay to judge roughly how long it is, keep the points changes in mind. The following is for works other than poems:

1650 words - costs 5 to post, paid 1, now pays 1.67
2000 words - costs 6 to post, paid 1.2, now pays 2
2500 words - costs 7.5 to post, paid 1.5, now pays 2.5 -- Works up to 2500 words are fairly common; a reasonable length.
3000 words - costs 9 to post, paid 1.8, now pays 3
3300 words - costs 10 to post, paid 2, now pays 3.33 -- Still acceptable lengthwise, but please consider splitting works this long.
4150 words - costs 12.5 to post, paid 2.5, now pays 4.2 -- Definitely consider splitting works this long.
5000 words - costs 15 to post, paid 3, now pays 5 -- Please don't post stuff this long; it's tiring to review, especially in one sitting. Split it into parts, which is easy enough to do.

Note that if you multiply the number of points now being paid for a given work by 1000, you get the exact wordcount.


New Members: The shorter your posted work is, the easier it is for other members to squeeze it into their existing schedules. Long works require existing members to spend a lot more time reviewing just your work, which usually interferes with the time they have budgeted for writing and reviewing the works of their existing writing partners. As a result, you'll get fewer reviews, or it will take longer for others to review your work, or the reviews you get will be less helpful than they might otherwise be. But don't forget, the best way to get reviews is to give reviews of works from active members (i.e., the stuff scrolling by on your home page.)


I'll update this for poems later this week. The change was made there too, although poetry math was (and remains) different from other works since most poems tend to be quite short compared to other works like short stories and chapters.

Re: Points adjustment and new writing contest

Thank you for this change. smile

Re: Points adjustment and new writing contest

A welcome change. Thanks, Sol.

Bill

Re: Points adjustment and new writing contest

Thumbs up! :}

Re: Points adjustment and new writing contest

Does this change the points received for work that's currently published?

Re: Points adjustment and new writing contest

Yes. I looked at some of my earlier posted works, and they now pay more. My Uniquorn story was a contest entry with an upper limit of 3000 words, and it now pays 3 points, which is consistent with my earlier post about the new points math.

Re: Points adjustment and new writing contest

Dirk B wrote:

Yes. I looked at some of my earlier posted works, and they now pay more. My Uniquorn story was a contest entry with an upper limit of 3000 words, and it now pays 3 points, which is consistent with my earlier post about the new points math.

Sweet. Thanks.

Re: Points adjustment and new writing contest

BTW, Dirk, thanks for doing the points analysis above.

Re: Points adjustment and new writing contest

You bet.