2011 Lampara Books Children's Story Writing Contest

1. The contest aims to find suitable stories for children for publication as illustrated children’s books by Lampara Publishing House, Inc. under its book imprint Lampara Books.

2. Accepted as entries are children’s stories written by Filipino citizens of all ages capable of writing a story, except the current officers and employees of Lampara Publishing House, Inc. and its sister company, Precious Pages Corporation, including their relatives up to the second degree of consanguinity or affinity.

3. The story:

a. must be an original work of the author.

b. can be written in either Filipino/Tagalog or English.

c. should be written in a way that it can be divided into fourteen (14) segments or frames. (Each segment shall be illustrated on a spread of the book, whose actual size is 8 x 9 inches. For guidance, please refer to published children’s stories of Lampara Books).

d. must be within the reading comprehension of children from ages five to 12.

e. must have a significant moral lesson.

4. The word length for the entry is from 800 to 1200.

5. The theme is open and free.

6. The manuscript:

a. must be typewritten or computerized, double-spaced on 8 ½ X 11 inches bond paper, with approximately one-inch margin on all sides. The page number must appear consecutively, that is: 1 of 5, 2 of 5 and so on, at the center of the bottom margin of each page. If computerized, the font should be either Arial, Times New Roman or Book Antiqua, and the font size should be 12pt.

b. must bear on the front/title page only the title of the story and the pen name of the author.

b. must be submitted in triplicate.

c. must be placed in a sealed short brown envelope for submission, on the lower left corner of which is written the title of the entry.

7. Any number of entries can be submitted by an author.

8. The entry:

a. should not have won any award in another contest before November 29, 2011. Neither should have it been published in any form prior to the said date.

b. must be accompanied by an entry form downloadable from www.lamparabooks.com.ph. The entry form must be contained in a sealed business envelope, on the lower left corner of which is written the title of the entry. The envelope must be enclosed with the submission (manuscript) contained in the short brown envelope mentioned in Item 6.c.

c. must also be accompanied by a notarized document (affidavit) attesting to the story as an original personal work of the author submitting it as an entry.

9. The entry should be submitted to:

THE 2011 LAMPARA BOOKS CHILDREN’S STORY WRITING CONTEST

LAMPARA PUBLISHING HOUSE, INC.

#83 SGT. RIVERA ST, BRGY. MANRESA, SFDM

1115 QUEZON CITY

It should be cared of Ms. Dolores Sales of the Administration Department office of Lampara Publishing House, Inc.



10. Submissions can be handcarried or sent via messengerial service to the above address. The author or the messenger shall be issued an acknowledgement document upon receipt of the submission by Ms. Dolores Sales.



11. SUBMISSION BY E-MAIL

a. An entry submitted through electronic mail should be in Word Document file and sent as an attachment to a covering letter to any of these e-mail addresses:

lamparabooks@hotmail.com
lamparabooks@gmail.com

Therefore the entry form must be sent to the mailing address above, contained in a white business envelope, with the title of the entry on the lower left corner of the envelope.

b. An acknowledgement letter upon receipt of the submission shall be sent via e-mail to the author-sender by the designated custodian of all entries.

c. The designated custodian of all entries shall take responsibility in downloading all the entries onto a USB file, in printing them out in triplicate, in placing them in a sealed brown envelope and printing the title of the entries on the envelope.



12. All entries must be received on or before November 29, 2011 (Tuesday) at the close of office hours of Lampara Publishing House, Inc.



13. Entries submitted must comply with government policies on printed matters.



14. All sealed envelopes containing the entries shall be kept in a filing cabinet drawer under lock and key by the designated custodian (Ms. Dolores Sales or Mr. Epi Periña) of all entries, and shall only be brought out on the day commencing the start of the judging date.



15. The date starting the day of judging is December 5, 2011 (Monday), at 10:00 AM at the Conference Room of Lampara Publishing House, Inc., with a DTI representative in attendance.



16. Lampara Publishing House, Inc. has the sole right to designate the persons who shall constitute the Board of Judges. The decision of the judges shall be final with the concurrence from DTI.



17. There are three prizes at stake:

First – Php30, 000.00

Second – Php15, 000.00

Third – Php10, 000.00

The winners will likewise be given plaques of merit.

18. The first and second prizes shall be subjected to the 20% tax for prizes exceeding Php10,000.00 and shall be shouldered by the winners.

19. Manager’s checks with the corresponding amount of prizes and certificates of merit shall be handed to the authors of the winning entries on the date and venue indicated in Item 24—only after verification of their identities against the personal information contained in their respective entry forms. Identification cards issued by the government, with corresponding photographs and signatures, shall be preferred.

20. CRITERIA FOR JUDGING

The following criteria shall be used by the judges in evaluating and judging the entries to determine the winners:

a. CONTENT / 60%

Subject or topic—must be creative, novel or contemporary, fully explored and developed

Plot—must be creative, novel or contemporary, fully explored and developed

b. TREATMENT / 20%

Language—must be within the vocabulary range of readers five to 12 years old

Comprehensibility—writing must be within the understanding of readers from five to 12 years old

Fun and enjoyment must be derived from reading the story

c. MORAL VALUES / 20%

Moral lesson—must be distinct; fully explored, developed and transmitted to the reader

Insight—must be distinct; fully explored, developed and transmitted to the reader

21. Tabulation of scores shall take place at the Conference Room of Lampara Publishing House, Inc. on January 14, 2012 (Saturday) in the presence of a DTI representative.

22. An author who submits more than one entry may emerge a double or multiple winner

23. a. The names of the winners and the members of the Board of Judges shall be announced on the Lampara Books Web site: www.lamparabooks.com.ph on January 16, 2012 (Monday). The news release shall likewise be disseminated on facebook.

b. Notification through telephone call and/or registered mail shall also be made/ sent to the authors of the winning entries on the same day.

24. The awarding ceremonies will be held at the Multipurpose Hall of Lampara Publishing House, Inc. at 300 Biak-na-Bato St., Barangay Manresa, SFDM, Quezon City on January 28, 2012.

25. a. If unable to attend the awarding event, a winner may claim his/her prize within 60 (sixty) days from receipt of notice at the Lampara Publishing House, Inc. main office at 83 Sgt. Rivera St., Brgy. Manresa, San Francisco del Monte, Quezon City.

b. Upon claiming the prize the winner must present 2 (two) valid government IDs.

26. Any unclaimed prize after the redemption period will be forfeited in behalf of Lampara Publishing House, Inc. with the prior approval of DTI.

27. All the winning entries shall become the sole property of Lampara Publishing House, Inc. For purposes of exclusive publication by the company, whether print, electronic or through broadcast media, Lampara Publishing House, Inc. shall own the copyright of the stories, in which case, apart from the cash prize awards, it will purchase from the authors their winning stories, the selling price of each of which shall be determined by the prevailing sale of and tax provisions regarding literary works in the publishing industry.

The sale shall be covered by and accomplished with a Deed of Sale.

28. Therefore, with regards to Item 23, Lampara Publishing House, Inc. shall have the absolute right to publish at its own discretion the winning entries or portions thereof, and to designate or appoint editors to edit the work or any portion thereof to suit the demands of publication.

29. a. Manuscripts of non-winning entries must be claimed by the authors within sixty days after the announcement of winners. Unclaimed manuscripts shall be subjected to recycling and/or shredding.

b. Submissions sent through e-mail shall be deleted from the submission file of Lampara Publishing House, Inc. a day after the announcement of winners. The USB file containing the soft copies of entries sent through e-mail shall be subjected to recycling and their hard copies to recycling and/or shredding.

30. All parties submitting entries are deemed to have accepted the rules of the contest, and agree to abide by them.

Date and Time:
November 1, 2011 - 12:00am - November 29, 2011 - 12:00am