Terms of Entry · The Quarry Press

These are the terms you agree to when you buy an entry credit or enter a story. The Rules & FAQ say the same things more briefly. "We" and "The Quarry" mean The Quarry Press, run by Jonathan Fox.

The beta

Until the first contest opens January 1, 2027, weekly beta rounds run on these Terms, with these differences:

Entry credits for the beta are bought in Stripe's test mode, with Stripe's test card. No money changes hands, so there's nothing to refund.
Beta rounds have no prize. Their winners and runners-up are published as in any contest, and section 9 (Rights) applies to them.
Jonathan reads every beta entry and picks the winners. Feedback isn't promised.
Jonathan may enter his own stories in beta rounds, openly and under his own name. They are never placed.
Beta credits can't be used once the beta ends. Each writer who entered at least one beta round gets one free entry credit for the real contest.

1. Each contest's own terms

Every contest is announced with its own terms: how many entry credits it takes, its word limit, accepted file types, prize, the most stories it will take, and its dates, including its deadline in Eastern time. Those terms are part of these Terms for that contest. Once a contest opens, we won't change its terms in a way that hurts writers who have entered it.

2. Who can enter

You must be 18 or older and live in the United States.
Jonathan, the people in his household, and anyone who judges or screens entries can't enter.
Enter under your real name and email address; we need them to pay a prize. If your story is published, the byline can be a pen name.

3. Entry credits and refunds

$15 buys one entry credit, usable in any contest; most contests take one credit, and a contest that takes more says so before you enter. Credits never expire.
An unused credit is refunded if you ask within 30 days of buying it.
The credits you've used on a story are refunded if you ask before that contest closes, and your story is withdrawn. After the contest closes, its entries aren't refunded.
If a contest is full when you try to enter, your credits stay yours for another contest.

4. Your story

It's fiction, written by you, in your own words, and you own it.
It hasn't been published anywhere before, in print or online, including on a blog, a website or social media.
It's within the contest's word limit. The title doesn't count. The official count is the one the upload page shows, which counts anything between spaces as one word.
Your name isn't anywhere in the file. Judging is blind.
It doesn't contain sexual content involving minors, or portray a real private person in a way that defames or harasses them. Public figures in obvious fiction or satire are fine.
It isn't fan fiction: the world and the characters are your own.

Profanity, explicit sex, violence and dark subjects are allowed. We may decline to publish a story that places.

5. AI

The prose of your story must be your own. You may use spelling and grammar tools, talk ideas through, and get feedback on a draft, from a person or an AI. You may not enter prose that an AI wrote or rewrote. You confirm this each time you upload a story.

Every story is read and judged by Jonathan, who picks every winner. Claude, an AI assistant made by Anthropic, also reads each entry to help him write feedback. An AI never decides who wins, and entries are never used to train AI models.

6. Submitting elsewhere

You may send your story to other magazines and contests at the same time. If it's accepted elsewhere before this contest's results, tell us and we'll withdraw your entry. The credit isn't returned.

7. Judging and results

Jonathan reads every entry and chooses a winner and runners-up. His decisions are final. Every writer hears their result privately on the contest's results day, with written feedback on their story. The winner and runners-up are published in an issue, and their placings become public when it comes out.

8. The prize

Each contest states its prize when it's announced: a fixed amount, a share of that contest's entry fees (what writers paid for the credits spent on its entries), or whichever is greater. A prize that depends on entries is worked out from the stories entered when the contest closes. Practice contests have no prize.
The prize goes to the winner only. Runners-up are published but not paid.
Prizes are paid by PayPal, or by Wise if PayPal isn't possible.
We'll ask a winner for a W-9 only if their prizes from us in a year would reach the amount we're required to report to the IRS. Any tax on a prize is the winner's to pay.

9. Rights

You keep the copyright in your story, always.

If your story wins or is a runner-up, you grant The Quarry:

First online publication. The right to be the first to publish the story anywhere, on our website.
Exclusivity for 90 days from the day the issue carrying your story comes out. During those 90 days, please don't publish the story anywhere else.
A non-exclusive archive right. The right to keep the story on our website after those 90 days.
A non-exclusive anthology right. The right to include the story in our yearly print anthology, with no payment beyond the prize. We'll ask you before the anthology goes to print, and you can say no.

Every other right stays with you: reprints, collections, audio, film and everything else. When the story is published elsewhere, please credit it as "first published in The Quarry Press".

After the 90 days, you can ask us to remove your story from the website at any time, and we will. Removing it doesn't recall anthologies already printed, but it's left out of later printings.

If you need your story taken down within the 90 days (a mistake, a safety reason), ask and we'll consider it.

If your story doesn't place, you grant us nothing, and you're free to do anything with it once results are out.

10. When an entry breaks these Terms

Honest mistakes, such as your name left in the file or the wrong file uploaded, disqualify the entry, and the credits it took are returned so you can enter again, in the same contest if it's still open.

Deliberate breaches, such as AI-written prose, plagiarism, a story that was already published, or false information about who you are or where you live, disqualify the entry with no credit returned, and we may refuse your future entries.

When it isn't clear which it is, we treat it as an honest mistake.

11. Your details

How we collect, use and delete your details is set out in our Privacy page.

12. Changes

We may update these Terms. Changes apply to contests that open after the change; a contest you've already entered keeps the Terms it opened under.

13. Contact

Questions about these Terms, refunds, withdrawals or removing a story: email hello@thequarry.press.