• The stories should comply with the standard guidelines for submitting stories to Grometsplaza listed here and in the writers guide below.
• The winning story will be decided by popular vote.
• Only the first entry you send will be admitted to the contest. (No re-edits)
• No entries will be possible after the closing date for submission. No exceptions.
• Stories longer than 6000 words are no longer accepted.
• Grometsplaza/sponsor Winter Fetish, reserves the right in its sole and unfettered discretion to disqualify any entry.
• Grometsplaza & the contest sponsor Winter Fetish, would reserve the right to publish, re-post/link to the stories on either website (authors retaining ownership of course).
• Grometsplaza has no control over the issuing of prizes to contestants, all prizes are the sole reponsibility of the sponsor Winter Fetish.
• Grometsplaza/Winter Fetish reserve the right at their discretion to change, amend or cancel the prizes listed for this contest.
• There may be addition rules or conditions relating to each story contest, please make yourself aware of these before sending any stories, they will be listed here.
• All times mentioned are now in UTC (UTC is Coordinated Universal Time)
• By entering the contest, you certify that you have read these guidelines in their entirety.
• That your entry does not contain any material that would violate or infringe upon the rights of any third party, including copyrights, trademarks or rights or privacy or publicity.
• Grometsplaza/Winter Fetish may prohibit an entrant from participating in a contest if it determines that said entrant is attempting to undermine the legitimate operation of the contest by cheating, hacking, deception or other unfair playing practices or intending to abuse, threaten or harass other entrants.
• Grometsplaza/Winter Fetish reserves the right, in its sole discretion to cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the Contest should (in its sole discretion) virus, bugs, non-authorized human intervention, fraud or other causes beyond its control corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness or proper conduct of the Contest.
• In the event that the operation, security, or administration of the contest is impaired in any way for any reason, including, but not limited to fraud, virus, or other technical problems, or any condition caused by events beyond the reasonable control of Grometsplaza/Winter Fetish that may cause the contest to be disrupted or corrupted, Grometsplaza/Winter Fetish may, in its sole discretion, either: (a) suspend the contest to address the impairment and then resume the contest in a manner that best conforms to the spirit of these Official Rules; or (b) award the prize from among the non-suspect, eligible entries received up to the time of the impairment.
• Decisions of the judges, Grometsplaza/Winter Fetish are final and binding on all matters relating to the Contest.
• Winter Fetish may also choose to do a photo shoot to illustrate one or more of the stories (not necessarily the winning story) if the stories are suitable for posting on the Winter Fetish site. In that case, credit will be given to the authors.
• Grometsplaza or the contest sponsor Winter Fetish, does not endorse the ideas or actions represented in any story, but does respect the author's right to free speech and kinky thoughts. In the real world remember to play safe, sane and consensual.
  

• 1st place will get a Winter Fetish Spandex Sleepsack in black, front zip with attached hood (standard sizes, S-M-L-XL), approximate value US$199 shipped to the winner
• 2nd place will get a Spandex Hood (one size fits most),
• If there are more than 10 entries get in to the contest, we'll award those voted in the top 10 a 10% discount coupon for any standard order they place with the Winter Fetish web store.
• Note: Shipping on both of the items will be free if in the US, international shipping will incur an additional charge.

• Should be in the usual formats, eg: an attachment to an email or contained in an email itself.
• The deadline for submissions is: Midnight 5th April 2010
• Voting will begin as soon as the stories all go online, all entries will be posted together.
• Voting will be done on the Bound Forum.
• Voting deadline is Midnight 25th April 2010.
• Winners announced 26th April 2010.
• Stories should only be emailed to: gromet999@bigpond.com and labelled Winter Fetish Story Contest entry.

• Spell checker:
  First run your story through one, although all stories on this site are checked this end too.
  If English is a second language try to get it proof-read before sending it in.
• Title:
  Choose a title for your story. You'd be surprised at how many stories get sent with no title.
• Author:
  All stories entered into the story contests must be your own work, stories found to be written by another will be removed from the contest.
  
• Name:
  Could you indicate what name you wish to use as author, either your own or something fictional like a nickname.
• Contact Details:
  Could you also indicate whether you wish to use your e-mail address. Please note that by including your e-mail address you can expose yourself to praise or criticism, also be aware that 'spamers' troll the web looking for e-mail address's to use. 
• Storycodes:
  Where possilbe can you include the storycodes for your story, the codes can be found here.
• Sending:
  All stories must be sent as an attachment to an e-mail OR as an email itself. See below for more details. Please don't submit your story early and then continue to make corrections and submit your story again... and again...and again. Do not send your story more than once. We will use the first version of the story you send in.
• Images:
  Unless the contest specifies including images, images will no longer be accepted into story contests.
• Length:
  You need to make sure that the length of your story isn't too long, as a rough guide the average story is about 8-10 word pages long (about 6000 words). Stories longer than this will no longer be accepted into the story contests.
• Plagiarism:
  Please do not send stories that copy text from other stories, unless you acknowledge the story. Plagiarism means "use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work" (source wikipedia).
  
• Submissions:
  All entires submitted to the story contest will be displayed as-is; no editing will be done other than to prepare the story to fit the standard story page format shown here on the plaza.

What Format can I send them in?

• I use Microsoft Word & Dreamweaver to prepare stories for the site so please send in your stories in some format that I can use. (.doc; .docx; .txt; .wpd; .rtf; )
• Or send as an email itself, just copy & paste your story into an email.
• Please don't send stories in PDF format.
• Please don't send me any in DAT or EXE format, due to the many viruses out there I delete these files without opening. This also goes for any unknown formats.
• Don't forget any instructions about your material eg: no email address, forewords etc.

Where do I send my stories?

• All stories should be sent as an attachment to or as an e-mail to: gromet999@bigpond.com only
• Don't forget about story title, author name and e-mail address.

What happens next?

• I usually try to send you an e-mail letting you know I've received your stories.
• Stories will be posted around the time of the closing date for submissions, exceptions would be due to the number of entries recieved.
• No entries will be possible after the closing date for submission.

Can I change my story?

• No, do not send your story more than once. We will only use the first version of the story you send in. So remember to edit before sending.

Voting

• This will commence after the closing date for submissions.
• Voting is usually done via the forum or email.
• Only one vote is permissible per person.
• Voting will cease on the specified date and votes counted.
• Winner will be announced via the website & email.

Complaints

• If you feel that you've had a problem, or see a problem in any story contest, please email me straight away so the matter can be dealt with as soon as possible.