HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PUBLETARIAT!

In honor of Publetariat’s one-year anniversary this week we’re running a contest between now and Saturday, March 6 to benefit you, our loyal audience. Top entrants will: 1) get exposure here on Publetariat, 2) be considered for invitation to join Publetariat’s roster of regular contributors, and 3) will also have a shot at winning some prizes. Here are the details:

1. Write an article or blog post on a topic related to self-publishing with a minimum word count of 700 and a maximum of 2000. Use our department headings as your subject matter guide: 

Think – opinion pieces about self-publishing, ebooks, the current or future state of trade publishing, etc.

Choose – reviews of products or services used by self-publishers and small imprints (e.g., software, sites, freelancers, ebook conversion services, etc.)

Write –  pieces on the subject of craft and the writing process: plotting, characterization, revision, editing, workshopping, etc.

Design – any aspect of book design: cover design, interior design and layout, typesetting, fonts, etc.

Publish – types of publishing and the pros and cons of each: minimum-print-run, Print On Demand, ebooks, book "apps" in Apple’s iTunes store, Twitter novels, etc.

Sell – topics related to author platform, book and author promotion

Imprint –  topics related to establishing and running a small, independent imprint

2. Ensure that you mention, and link to, Publetariat somewhere in the article/post. The mention doesn’t have to include any specific language, it’s acceptable to just say something like, "This is my entry for Publetariat‘s one-year anniversary contest."

3. Post your piece online, at your website or blog.

4. Use the Contact Us form to send us a link to your article, no later than midnight PST on 3/6/10. The contest closes to entries at midnight PST on 3/6/10. One entry per person, please.

5. Publetariat Editor in Chief April L. Hamilton will review all submitted links and reprint the articles she judges to be both the best-written and most pertinent to Publetariat’s audience here on Publetariat beginning the week of 3/7/10. At the minimum, three articles/posts will be reprinted here. Authors will be notified of the reprint via email; the email will include a link to the reprinted article, and authors can use this link to publicize the reprint anywhere they’d like online.

As per usual for material posted on Publetariat, posted articles will credit the author (including an embedded link back to the author’s profile or ‘about’ page on his or her site/blog) and include links back to the source article on the author’s blog/site and his or her blog/site’s homepage. Authors will retain all rights to their material. Also as per usual, each post will intially appear with a ‘teaser’ on the front page of the site, to maximize its visibility.

6. Unique page views for each article will be counted for exactly 7 days (7 24-hour periods), beginning when each article is posted, to determine the relative popularity of each article with Publetariat’s audience. "Unique page views" is a count of how many unique visitors click through to the full article; repeat visits will not be included in each article’s page view count. So if your article is reprinted, don’t be shy about spreading the word and sharing the reprint link!

7. PRIZES:

The authors of top three most-viewed articles will receive VIP enrollment in Vault University for one year. VIP enrollment grants access to all posted lessons in both Vault U. curricula: Publishing and Author Platform/Promo. New lessons are posted in each curriculum on the first day of each month, and including lessons already posted, this prize will grant winners access to all 16 lessons in both curricula – a $160 value.

The author of the most-viewed article overall will also receive a signed copy of April L. Hamilton’s upcoming Writer’s Digest Books book, The Indie Author Guide: Self-Publishing Strategies Anyone Can Use, upon its release in November of this year.

Any participating authors will also be considered for addition to our roster of regular Publetariat contributors based on the content of their submitted article and the content of their sites/blogs overall. Per Hubspot’s Websitegrader, as of this writing Publetariat ranks in the top 1.3% of all websites worldwide in terms of traffic and has an SEO grade of 99%. Since self-publishing is on the rise and our audience is comprised of both indie and mainstream pub peeps, the targeted exposure Publetariat can give you is tough to beat. So get those articles written and get those links submitted—we’re excited to see what you can do!

Click here to spread the news about our contest on Twitter!