The Roy Chapman Ltd BeaconFlash Story Competition

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BeaconFlash is our 500-word short story competition, offering extended critique and web publication to winners. The competition is made possible by the support of Roy Chapman Ltd (https://roychapman.com/). 

We are delighted to announce that the 2024/25 competition will be judged by author, freelance editor and writing tutor Morgen Bailey. Entry is £3 per story or £13 with critique. 

There are eight prizes this year, totalling at least £630. Every penny of profit goes to the Beacon Villages Community Library.

The competition is open for entries from August 2024 to May 2025, with a monthly deadline (see below). The top three stories (from three different authors) for each month will go through to the final shortlist (of 30 entries), from which eight prize winners are selected (see ‘Prizes’ below).

You can enter (via the form below) as often as you like whenever you like. It doesn’t make any difference which month or months you enter because you won’t know who else is submitting that month. The more times you enter, the more chances you have of going through to the shortlist. Even if you are selected in a particular month, do keep entering because it is you might find you have a stronger story in a subsequent month with a better chance of being amongst the prizes. 

Any stories not written to the relevant month’s theme with be disqualified with no money refunded. You can write them whenever you like but if you submit them early or late they will be disqualified.

The top three titles (not authors’ names – see ‘Judging’ below) for each month are announced the following month and, if your story doesn’t make it, you still have it to send elsewhere.

To enter, paste your story into  an email and make the message subjects @BeaconFlash 500 Entry', followed by your title and then send it to beaconflash500@gmail.com . Then pay the fee using the PayPal buttons shown under ‘Fees’ below. We can only accept your entry if payment has been received.

Morgen Bailey is the judge for each round and for the final shortlist judging. Judging is blind, i.e. the judge will not know who wrote which story until the prize winners are announced. 

Please note that no author can be awarded more than one prize so, if an entrant has more than one story ranked in the top eight, then only their best story will be selected. The best story by another author outside the eight will then be a winner. In effect, the best stories by the top eight authors will be awarded the prizes. The judge’s decisions are final. Results are posted on this website. 

• Round 1: First deadline: 31st August 2024  THEME -  Dog Days (PASSED)
• Round 2: Second deadline: 30th September 2024 THEME -  Another Season (PASSED)
• Round 3: Third deadline: 31st October 2024  THEME -  Silver Light (PASSED)
• Round 4: Fourth deadline: 30th November 2024  THEME -  The Plot (PASSED)

• Round 5: Fifth deadline: 31st December 2024  THEME -  Snowflakes (UPCOMING)
• Round 6: Sixth deadline: 31st January 2025  THEME -  Reset
• Round 7: Seventh deadline: 28th February 2025  THEME -  Happy as Larry
• Round 8: Eighth deadline: 31st March  2025  THEME   -  Cream Tea
• Round 9: Ninth deadline: 30th April 2025  THEME  -  A Useful Idiot
• Round 10: Tenth and final deadline: 31st May 2025 THEME  -  Full Circle
• The final judging will then take place in June with the eight winners (see ‘Prizes’ below) announced during July-August on this website, and the top 3 stories published on the site.

A total of eight prizes will be awarded, including eight free passes to the following year’s BeaconLit Festival (worth £35 in 2024). Prizes are as follows:

First prize: £75 plus up to 5,000 words critique* from the competition’s judge Morgen Bailey (worth £100) and free entry to the following year’s BeaconLit festival in July 2025 with publication on the BeaconLit website.

Second prize: £50 plus up to 4,000 words critique* (worth £80) and free entry to the following year’s BeaconLit festival, plus publication on the BeaconLit website.

Third prize: £25 plus up to 3,000 words critique* (worth £60) and free entry to the following year’s BeaconLit festival, plus publication on the BeaconLit website.

Five further prizes of free entry to the following year’s BeaconLit festival.

*the critique offered as prizes can made up of one or more short stories and / or a novel extract. 

• Must be previously unpublished stories.
• No genre restrictions but must be fiction. 
• No age limits. 
• Open worldwide but written in English only. BeaconFlash will not meet any additional costs associated with paying out prize money to overseas entrants. 
• No minimum word count but no more than 500 words excluding the title. Stories over 500 words will be disqualified without being read and no refund will be given.
• The theme for each month can be interpreted however suits but any story not following that theme will be disqualified and no refund will be given.
• Future or past months’ entries received in the incorrect month will be disqualified, with no refund given, and you won’t be able to enter it in the correct month.
• Only the first version of a submitted story will be accepted. Further ‘revisions’ will ignored. 
• Please do not make the theme for the month the title of your story. A good title should be part of the entry and carry some creative weight where the judging is tight. Several anonymised stories with the same title also carry a risk of confusion and administrative error.
• Please read your stories carefully as any spelling or careless mistakes will be marked down.
• No author will win more than one prize (see ‘How it Works’).
• The judge’s decisions are final and no correspondence regarding specific entries will be entered into. 
• The top three prize-winning stories will be published on the BeaconLit website. The other five can be sent elsewhere immediately, and the top three winning stories can be re-used six months after publication here (but note you will need to tell the prospective market that the stories have already been published). 

Morgen Bailey (Morgen with an E) is an author (of novels, short stories, writing and editing guides), freelance editor (for publishers and indie authors), writing tutor (in person and online), blogger, speaker, and former Writers’ Forum magazine ‘Competitive Edge’ columnist. 

The former Chair of three writing groups, she has judged the H.E. Bates Short Story Competition, RONE, as well as the BBC Radio 2, BeaconLit, and Althorp Literary Festival children’s short story competitions. 

Speaking events have included talks and workshops at Troubador’s Self Publishing Conference speakers, Delapre Book Festival, interviewing and workshops at BeaconLit, and NAWG Fest with her Editing your Fiction weekend residential course. Morgen can be found on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and many others. 

If you have any general queries about the competition, please email us at beaconflash500@gmail.com and we’ll get back to you.