Chris Morris

Author bio

Disillusioned ex-Reedsy writer and judge. I've deleted every story but two - one that should have at least shortlisted, and one that creatively explains why Reedsy is the worst contest on the internet. Before paying your $5 entry fee, keep in mind: - The judges for the initial rounds are randomly plucked and have varying levels of experience of writing (sometimes none at all). They will take on absolutely anybody as a judge as long as they applied at a time they need random people to do their job for them without having to pay anyone. - The judges can see the names attached to submitted entries, can look at their profile and see how many previous wins/shortlists they have. This is the only contest I've ever come across where the judging isn't done blindly, and that in itself is unacceptable. - The judges are mostly also competitors in the contest. They don't have to give any reason why they're not putting a story forward for the win/shortlist. It could be because they genuinely didn't like the story, or it could be completely malicious or they could be getting ChatGPT to pick for them. Reedsy don't know and don't care. This sort of judging makes up the main bulk of the process. Only one person (maybe two?) is actually in charge of the "official" judging, and I doubt that's done properly. - Two judges have admitted to me personally that they sometimes don't actually read entries before deciding their fates. They pretentiously claimed they can "just tell" when a story isn't going to be a winner from the first paragraph and don't bother finishing it. Reedsy officials are well aware of this and have since even given one of these judges a win. - Stories on this website are constantly stolen and sold in anthologies on Amazon without any permission/royalties for the authors, and both Reedsy and Amazon are very reluctant to take any action to prevent this from happening. Reedsy just want a massive database of stories on their platform in order to get more visits to their website. They don't care about the overall quality of the stories or about what happens to them after they've been posted. - Most winners are new to the website. Reedsy will award them the win to make them feel good and keep them coming back, and paying their $5. That's all they care about. - Reedsy charge you in dollars and pretend they're American for some reason, yet they're headquartered in London, UK. - They are currently trying to charge $1,000+ for a novel writing video course by a writer that doesn't have many big writing credits to his name and actually just works with Reedsy. They promise "step by step feedback" on your novel but fail to mention this is just from other writers taking the course, IF you're lucky to get them. Please do not be conned into taking this ridiculous course. It's daylight robbery. - And so much more. Becoming a Reedsy judge really opened my eyes to how poorly this contest is run. My advice is - don't waste your money. There are plenty of far better contests out there. I can be contacted here : chrismorris1987@yahoo.com