More on smories

BULLETIN: Some very itchy poems are beginning to come in. Read what’s posted and add your own versions. And if you know any young poets out there who might like to itch along with the rest of us, TELL THEM!

Again, my thanks to Carol-Ann Hoyte, yesterday’s Guest Reader, for her delightful poem for two voices. Not only that, Carol-Ann spread the word about my summer program to two friends — Wendy Singer and Nancy Gow — who promptly joined the fun by sending me their own poems and pictures. Both poets will be posted this month. Who else is ready? Let me hear from you!

Our friends, Ralph and Lisa are back with more excellent news about their smories project. Watching and hearing the youngsters reading winning stories is such a treat. I hope many of you have already sent something to Ralph and Lisa or are getting ready to. Here’s their update.

Hi ,Lots of news from smories.com:

[1] Competition 2 is now over. The 5 winning smories can be seen here:
http://www.smories.com/comp_02_winners/

[2] Competition 3 is now live, with 50 lovely new smories up on the website. 5 prizes to be won for this competition. http://www.smories.com

[3] We are trying to make the site a better showcase for writers, so we’re adding new bespoke author pages in coming days. Any smory that appears on the site will have an link to a separate author page with its own unique address, which hopefully will help raise your profile (if you wish to do this). If one of your smories already appears on the site, by all means email us a photo and any additional information if you’d like to boost the content on your existing bio.

[4] There are now 100 archived films on the site. They can be seen at http://www.smories.com/archive/

[5] Our SMORY OF THE DAY launches on 01 August and we’re accepting submissions for these now. Although there is no prize money to be won, we expect the daily smory to attract some PR and high traffic from all over the world. As ever, if we accept, film and put up your smory on the site, you retain all rights and you can request to have it removed at any time. More info on this and an explanation of the aim can be seen here: http://www.smories.com/faq/

[6] The format of the site will change on 01 August when we launch our SMORY OF THE DAY. We will have a tool on the homepage which will allow viewers to filter the stories by age/genre etc.

The aim of our site is to create a non-threatening new opportunity for writers, and a great safe destination for kids. We’d love for you to continue submitting your stories, and to keep watching.

Best wishes and keep writing!

– Ralph & Lisa
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http://www.smories.com
More Stories at Smories

Update from Stories at Smories

I’ve received my first volunteer to post a poem and picture: Amy Ludwig VanDerwater. Amy has also agreed to provide an article a little later on. Thanks, Amy! As soon as I can arrange a schedule, we’ll see Amy and her poem. (It’s really good!)

This just in from Ralph and Lisa. Thought you might like to see it.

Lots of news from smories.com:

[1] Competition 1 has ended and we now have a winner. Jo Jacobson collects the $1,500 prize for this smory: http://www.smories.com/watch/chocolate_challenge/
Congratulations Jo! These 50 films now go into the archive on the site and will continue getting watched. Congratulations to everyone on the shortlist and thank you for participating in our inaugural competition! The stories that received the highest views can be seen here: http://www.smories.com/comp_01_winners/

[2] The site is off to a flying start with over 35,000 films watched in the first month and truly fantastic feedback. Not bad for an idea that just popped into our heads a few months ago. 🙂

[3] Competition 2 is now live, with 50 sparkling new smories up on the website. 5 prizes to be won for this competition. Take a look, there are some real gems in there.

[4] Submissions for Competition 3 (smories submitted in the month of May) are now closed. The 50 shortlisted smories will be announced on the site and by email on 05 June. Likewise, if your submission did not make the shortlist, we will inform you by email on 05 June.

[5] We are stopping the competitions for the time being. We want to try something new and so are starting ‘A Smory a Day…’ where we’ll be adding one new smory to the site every day. This will start from 01 August (when Competition 3 ends) but WE ARE ACCEPTING ‘A SMORY A DAY’ SUBMISSIONS FROM NOW. Although there is no prize money to be won, we invite you to submit smories, as we expect the daily to attract high traffic, and hopefully will prove to be a great motivator. As ever, if we accept and film your smory, and then put it up on the site, you retain all rights and you can request to have it removed at any time. More info on this and an explanation of the aim can be seen here: http://www.smories.com/faq

[6] We are trying to make the site a better showcase for writers, hence we are adding new bespoke author pages. Any smory that appears on the site will have an link to a separate author page with its own unique address, which hopefully will help raise your profile (if you wish to do this). See an example here: http://www.smories.com/alex_stedler/ . If one of your smories already appears on the site, by all means email us a photo and any additional information if you’d like to boost the content on your existing bio.

[7] Once competition 3 ends and the dailies go live on 01 August, we’re going to make the site more like a free online TV channel, with better navigation for finding particular smories, age filters, favourites, search functionality etc.

The aim of our site is to create a non-threatening new opportunity for writers, and a great destination for kids. We’d love for you to continue submitting your stories.

Best wishes and keep writing!

– Ralph & Lisa
———————————–
http://www.smories.com
More Stories at Smories