Go to sixfold.org for information on this unique  contest run by writers or read below.

Voting Results!

Thank you!, everyone who wrote, read, and voted to create these first issues of Sixfold. We all worked to make something greater than any one of us. Thank you for it by being a part of it, and I hope going through the process of reading, commenting, and voting on the three sets of six manuscripts, as well as having received votes and comments on your own manuscript, has given you insight into and appreciation of your and others’ writing.

The three highest-voted manuscripts of the final round in each genre win the first-, second-, or third-place prizes of $1000, $200, or $100. The 20 highest-voted short-story manuscripts and the 40 highest-voted poetry manuscripts will be published soon. Issues will be free to read online, downloadable as PDF, and as e-book for iPhone, Android, Kindle, Nook, and others. Paperback book, too, for about $10.

As you can see from the results, the process works. Voting together, hundreds of writers found the best manuscripts to award and publish. An all-inclusive voting process involving hundreds of writers accumulated into a public, equally-voiced, and transparent decision-making. Writers collectively found and endorsed a broad range of the best writing. Everyone, from the beginning writer to the well-known, can put a good manuscript into the mix and know it will be found by a large, discerning group of readers.

Anecdotally, as someone who has read short story and poetry manuscripts as a reader and editor for over fifteen years, I see that these many-opinion votes select the best manuscripts with greater precision than the usual individual editor or small group of editors.

Additional benefits of open-voting versus closed-set editorial:

• Instead of up to $20 or more for entering a writing contest, $6.
• Instead of little or no response to your submitted manuscript, multiple readers give feedback to your manuscript in their votes, comments, and round advancement.
• Instead of a closed-door, select-group editorial process, everyone involved, and results transparent and public.
• Instead of high-cost, low-sale literary print publishing, Sixfold is free for everyone to read online, download as PDF, and as e-book formats for iPhone, Android, Kindle, Nook, and others.

Please enjoy these first issues, consider entering the next, and e-mail in to sixfold@sixfold.org with your comments and suggestions.

Best,
Garrett Doherty
Publisher

How To Read the Results

Click open each row to see each manuscript’s per-round voting results.

Per round, votes are averaged; the top one-third averages from each round advance to the next round. A voting average from a previous round does not factor in to the next round’s voting average.

Voting follows these conditions:

• Manuscripts are distributed randomly for each round. Each voter receives 6 manuscripts per round to rank-order vote, 6 highest to 1 lowest.
• You never receive your own manuscript to read and vote on.
• You never read and vote on the same manuscript twice.
• If you do not cast a vote by any of the three rounds’ deadline, then your own manuscript is withdrawn from voting, does not advance into any following round, and you can not vote in any following round.

Why do some manuscripts receive fewer or more than 6 votes in round 1, 18 in round 2, 54 in round 3?

Per round, the database assigns manuscripts to voters as evenly as possible, so that each manuscript ideally receives 6 votes in round 1, 18 in round 2, 54 in round 3. By chance, a manuscript may receive fewer or more votes because:

• The system may assign a small number of random manuscripts one more or one less voter per round in order to assign as evenly as possible.
• Voter participation: a manuscript will receive one less vote if the voter assigned to that manuscript does not vote. The per-round averaged rank score is calculated only from votes received.

There was excellent, robust voter participation. 94% of round 1 poetry manuscripts and 96% of round 1 short story manuscripts each received 4 or more votes. 9 short story manuscripts and 11 poetry manuscripts in round 1 received 3 or fewer votes and did not advance into the second round for further voting. Though it is impossible to say what a manuscript’s voting average would be had it received more votes, the writers of these manuscripts would seem underserved by the voting process, and will be offered refund on entry fee.

Manuscripts without any voting scores represent entries withdrawn by the entrant or rejected before voting began (because manuscript was entered into the wrong genre, exceeded required length, etc.).