Better Sex Erotic Fiction Contest - Why Create?

Better Sex Erotic Fiction Contest
I had an interesting correspondence with Lynn Lake, the writer of Traffic Jammed. Lynn asked me about why I created the Better Sex Erotic Fiction Contest. Lynn, a friendly and intelligent Canadian, just had her story finish out of the money in first round of voting. Don't forget to vote for your favorite Better Sex Erotic Fiction story in our 2nd and last week of semifinals. Traffic Jammed will be featured in our book. It was a pleasure to work with Lynn and I thought sharing our conversation about the contest would help illuminate why we (meaning me) created it.

Lynn's Question to me:

It’s CANADA DAY today!! And a balmy 29 degrees Celsius, to boot!

Thanks for the info, Martin, and I look forward to the cheque (as we call it here in the Dominion). I actually earn my living with cheques received from the US, and haven’t had a one of them go missing over the last six years.

Out of curiosity, how many votes were cast in Week 5? Are the contests doing the job of driving business to your site? If you don’t want to answer, no problem.

Thanks again, and take care, Lynn

Here is my response:

Dear Lynn,

Glad to hear you will be able to help this cheque find you in the Dominion. Last week we had exactly 100 votes in our Fiction Contest. Driving business not so much I am afraid, but I started the contest as a labor of love and it is that. Recently I learned the hard way that life is short and so it should be fun and full of interesting people. On that scale the contest is a clear winner. On the bottom line, well let’s just say that it is a labor of love.

I tend to over react when writers say mean things about greedy capitalist trying to steal their wares. My over reaction comes from how much work we do and why we do it - to support writers. The problem is our wrapper must scream "greedy capitalist" I guess. The Internet may have made us all weary. Protecting intellectual capital can be more than a full time job. The “Greedy Capitalist” is such a ridiculous and small, although often immediate, assumption. When I look around our offices I see hard working people who love helping others. No one is getting rich here that I can see. In fact I think we write big cheques, to use your spelling, to important charities every year maybe just so we don't forget our real mission.

I am a stock holder and recognize that noble poverty (more or less) is where we will end. More importantly, we live for missions and quests. The Fiction Contest is both for me and is always fun and interesting. I cherish meeting people like you. What is the chance I bump into you in Manitoba? Not so good I think (lol).

Have you ever noticed that it is easier to involve people in charity when they are givers already? As a company we have a history of giving. We are proud of keeping our commitments even when there was little free cash to give. That is why my boss allows me to play with the contest (I think). She looks at it like my way to give back to a group I care about – writers. I’ve been kicking around the idea of linking with some popular sites and sponsoring an erotic writing festival, but that may be a bridge too far. You have to make money to afford your charities (in the end). I love the idea of putting faces with names. If this festival idea ever escapes my brain I will make sure you receive an invitation. Thanks again and glad your prediction came true (Lynn predicted Traffic Jammed would win the week and it did),

Martin
Msmith @ BetterSex . com

P.S. Saw David Mamet, a favorite writer of mine, say to an interviewer “in the end everyone has to get paid” the other day and that helped me think of “greedy capitalists” in a new way. I am afraid David’s new excellent movie RedBelt is cutting a quick path to DVD so keep an eye out for it. I highly recommend it and don’t mind helping David make sure everyone gets paid. Your cheque for winning week 5 in our fiction contest is in the mail

The link above to Redbelt is to ScentTrail, my blog, and the review I wrote of Mamet's movie.

Send questions, thoughts, ideas, cool links or anything to

Martin
msmith @ BetterSex . com