In this free-to-enter contest, we’re looking for interactive romance stories with 5000 words or more. The stories need to be interactive (have choices) and written on Sana’s writing tool. The three best stories receive a cash prize of 500, 200 and 100 EUR (approx. 600, 250 and 125 USD).
Please read about the details below!
Contest theme: Slow burn

You know those stories where the tension and pull between two people just keeps building up? And you feel SO hot and bothered by the knowledge that these two people BELONG together. But it seems that, despite getting very very close, they will actually never GET each other.
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Until they DO.

And it’s so satisfying, because you have been waiting for it for so long. The tension is released, and that tingling excitement the slowly teasing story left within you makes you start the search for the next, delicious treat.

In this new contest we invite you to write an interactive “slow burn” / UST (unresolved sexual tension) story with as many twists and turns and alternative paths as you can think of! The longer your story keeps the reader on their toes the better! Use the choices to make us squirm—if I choose this, will it pull them further apart, or will this path finally lead them together?
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We can’t wait to see what you come up with!

Prizes

We’re giving out cash prizes for the top 3 stories: 500 / 200 / 100 EUR (approx. 600 / 250 / 125 USD). Entering the writing contest is free.

Other benefits


Winners get professional covers for their winning story by a professional artist


Royalties: 25% of Sana’s subscription revenue is distributed among our writers, based on the popularity of your stories. (You can read more about our revenue share model here.)


All contest entries will get highlighted on the homepage of the app



Social media & newsletter promotion by Sana

Timeline
Contest opens
15th February 2021
Submissions deadline
11th April 2021
Winner announcement
10th May 2021
How to enter the contest


Write an original, interactive story with Sana’s writing tool.


Enter the contest by submitting your story with our Submission Form.


You’ll receive a confirmation email once your story has been approved.



Winners will be notified personally on 10th of May by email.


Writing contest rules


The story should be either romance, erotica, or at least have romantic or erotic elements.


The story needs to be an original story written by you. It should have a beginning, a middle and an end (preferably several!). It needs to be at least 5000 words long and written in English, and the submission needs to include a cover image.



All intellectual property rights to the submitted stories remain with you. You can ask for your stories to be taken down at any time.


The story must be interactive: it should have at least one choice between two different scenes.


All stories submitted between 15th February 2021 and 11th April 2021 are eligible for the contest prizes.



You can submit as many stories as you like.


Fanfiction is warmly welcome in our app, but unfortunately for legal reasons in this contest we can only accept original stories.
What our jury will be looking for:


Stories with a strong central romance plot between two or more characters. We live for those delicious character arcs and sizzling chemistry!


Plenty of interesting choices and several different endings! Take advantage of interactive storytelling and make us excited about the different possibilities.


Diverse stories with characters from all kinds of backgrounds. We appreciate both LGBTQ+ and straight romances.


We do have a slight preference for light erotica with an emphasis on emotions over straight-up porn, but both are welcome.


Coherent and complete narratives without continuity errors. Readers should experience a full story no matter which choices they make.


Well-written and clearly formatted text without typos or spelling errors.

What we don't want to see:


Racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, or any other kind of discrimination or abuse aimed at a vulnerable group of people.


Gratuitous sexual abuse, such as depictions of rape or non-consensual sexual acts.


Gratuitous graphic violence without a very good reason strongly rooted in the plot of your story. Please consider carefully if the gory details are really necessary.


Illegal content, such as sexual acts towards minors or bestiality. We cannot publish any illegal content due to platform rules. (As for acts against minors, we follow Finnish law where anyone under the age of 18 is considered a minor.)

What are interactive stories and why are they so great?

In interactive or branching stories, readers are occasionally presented with two choices that will take the next scene—or the whole story!—in two different directions. Getting to make a choice feels like you are in control of what happens in the story.
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As a writer you have to make a lot of choices for your characters and then scrap the “what if” scenarios. But what if you could let several possibilities play out to see what happens? That’s what interactive stories are all about! Have fun with different storylines and give you and your readers something more—the treat of choice.

We know trying new things can be intimidating, so we have our own interactive Writing Tool! We made it easy and intuitive to use so that anyone can get to enjoy interactive writing. Try it out and see what happens! Who knows, maybe you’ll end up writing a script for the next interactive Netflix hit!

What is Sana?

Sana is a mobile reading app for interactive romance stories. It’s a collection of original adult cyoa stories (choose your own adventure stories) mostly in the genres of romance and erotica.
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For anyone interested in writing romance stories, it’s also a self-publishing platform where anyone can publish their own interactive stories and get royalties for them. We think authors should be treated fairly for their work so we distribute 25% of our subscription revenue among the authors, based on how much your stories are read by subscribed readers.